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Okay, I’m sure you all never thought you’d see the day. That’s okay, sometimes I wondered myself.

 

Fact is, we’re down to the final 25 contestants. As I’ve been tabulating the results, it’s given me an opportunity to listen to a great many of the entries; since I’m not one of the judges, I wasn’t entirely sure when I’d have the chance to, but given that this has taken much longer than expected, I’ve been working my way through all 408 of them, and have really enjoyed myself. So many of you have a great deal of storytelling ability, and it really shows.

 

Before we announce the finalists I thought I’d take a moment to thank some folks.

 

First off, I’d like to thank everybody who entered, not merely for taking the time to craft such great demo tracks, but also for your patience. I know this has taken far longer than anticipated, and you’ve got my sincere apology for that, but I hope you know how much I appreciate the patience you’ve shown. Even though you may not have heard from me as often as you’d have liked, I hope you know that I’ve been working this entire time to try and make the contest an even better experience for all of you. And in that, I’m happy to announce that I’ve been successful! But more on that later, after I thank…

 

Our judges. These are a wonderful group of folks who have all volunteered their time and expertise. As the people who cast audiobooks for the nation’s top publishers, they’re always on the lookout for new talent, but unfortunately their busy schedules usually prevent them from listening to as many demos as they’d like. After all, these are also the people responsible for publishing several hundred audiobooks a year, so it’s not like they’ve got tons of free time. Nevertheless, what little they have, they’ve donated to us, and it’s very much appreciated.

 

Lastly, I’d like to thank the folks here at Scott Brick Presents who’ve also put in more than their share of hours: my webmaster Den Shewman, my attorney Jessica Kaye, and my manager Gina Smith, who volunteered to serve as the event’s coordinator and judge wrangler. Their service has been terrific, and their help invaluable. And to further toot their horns, much of their time has been donated as well, which is just so cool that I can’t even describe it.

 

Okay, you’re probably chomping at the bit to hear the last bit of news, so here you go. As I said, since it’s taken so long to get even this far, I’ve been working with some people in the industry to add more value to the experience, and thus far we’ve come up with two ways of doing so. First off, we’ve given our finalists the option of having their demos posted online. The benefit here being, of course, that publishers who aren’t even participating in the contest will be able to hear their work, and hopefully get in touch. (And just so you know, I’ve had a number of publishers already check in with me to find out how soon they can start listening, which is a really good thing.)

 

Okay, our next big addition to the prizes: as you know, several of the participating publishers have offered to give the winner work. For the most part these were going to be short stories or spots in multi-voice narrations. (These are a great way to start out in the industry. It is, in fact, the way I started out.) The great news here is that one of our publishers, the good folks at Audible.com, recently told me they’re planning on offering an entire novel to our winner. This is more than I asked for, and very welcome news for our finalists, I’m sure. Personally, I was overwhelmed with gratitude when I heard.

 

Lastly, our grand prize winner will receive one more thing: a ticket to the Audie Awards, compliments of yours truly, where I will personally introduce them to the Audiobook industry at large. With as long as this has taken, figure that’s the least I can do.

 

Now, just a little bit of business. Everyone who entered the contest will be getting an email from us, which is separate from the newsletter you may have signed up for. Please don’t discard it, thinking it’s an announcement that this blog has been updated and you can read it online or anything, it in fact contains quite a bit of advice for people who want to continue pursuing audiobooks as a career, whatever the results of this contest. I hope it helps. Lastly, what you’ve been patiently reading all the preceding for:

 

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to introduce you to the finalists for the Share the Experience contest! Take a bow, kids, you deserve it!

 

Stephen Bowlby

 

Wendy Carter

 

Tony Craine

 

Jennifer Dixon

 

Joyce Feurring

 

Anthony Flacco

 

Kori Graves

 

Heather Hathaway

 

Janet Henke

 

Tish Hicks

 

Don Luce

 

David Marantz

 

Mozhan Marno

 

Shannon McManus

 

Donna McNeely

 

Debbie Munro

 

Janet Robbins

 

Amy Rubinate

 

Austen Sandifer-Williams

 

Robin Scali

 

Tyler Seiple

 

Summer Still

 

Bob Thomley

 

Patti White

 

Elizabeth Wiley

 

A huge congratulations to all the finalists, listed here in alphabetical order. Give them a hand, everyone!

 

Even better, you can take a listen to their entries by clicking right here.

 

Okay, enough for now. In the coming weeks I’ll have a few more entries to make here. My next blog is going to be about two series I recently completed work on, two of my favorite series in fact. After that, hopefully, will be the announcement of our winners.

 

It’s been a long time coming, and I’m glad to say we’re almost there, it’s the final step along the way! Thanks again, everybody, and we’ll talk to you soon.

 

Thanks for listening,

 

 

Scott Brick