Got my gear!

My Podcast Starter Kit gear arrived on Wednesday!

It consists of:

• An Audio-Technica AT2020 condenser mic
• An Alesis MultiMix8 USB mixer
• An Atlas DS7 desk mic stand, ProCo 5 ft. mic cable, and a USB cable
• Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Podcasting
• I also picked up a pop filter and a disk of broadcast sound effects.

Now I need to test this stuff to make sure it's working...

There was a good article about authors who are podcasting their work in the NY Times on March 1. I like Scott Sigler's work. Lots of amusing profanity and over the top characters. I'm currently listening to The Rookie and I enjoyed Earthcore, Ancestor and Infection.

Several times a week Mr. Sigler, 37, steps into a walk-in closet in his San Francisco home. He reads into a microphone that connects to his computer via a sound mixer. Hanging shirts envelop him, masking ambient sound.

After being snubbed by publishers for years, Mr. Sigler began recording his first book, “EarthCore,” in 2005. He offered it as a podcast in 22 episodes (roughly 45 minutes each) that he posted online and sent free to subscribers for downloading. Before long, Mr. Sigler had 5,000 listeners; by the time he finished releasing his second novel, “Ancestor,” last January, he had 30,000, as he does for “The Rookie,” which is playing now.

With initial printings of novelists’ first books running as low as 2,000 copies, Mr. Sigler has a substantial audience, enough finally to attract a small Canadian publisher, Dragon Moon Press, which published “EarthCore” in 2005 and will release “Ancestor” on April 1.

Mr. Sigler also recently signed with a New York agent, Byrd Leavell of the Waxman Agency, who expects to park his latest, “Infection,” with a major publisher.

Others have turned to the Internet to build their audience, including Cory Doctorow, who offered the text of “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” as a free download in 2003. But Mr. Sigler is among the vanguard of authors stapling their literary aspirations to the iPod.

“A lot of no-name authors like me are getting massive grass-roots exposure, and some of us are going to percolate to the top and get on the best-seller list,” Mr. Sigler said.

His site has links to his podcasts.