My love for audiobooks started with Edgar Alan Poe and my Sony Walkman. My home town library had (what I thought of at the time) a huge collection of cassette books. Some were unabridged and most were not. I loved the plastic bags with the hangers that were on a spindle in the corner of the adult section of the library. I had already discovered Sherlock Holmes and Robert Louis Stevenson, but never directly into my ears.

But it was Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone reading Edgar Alan Poe stories as I walked to school early one fall morning before daylight savings time kicked in that hooked me. The breeze through the trees and the rattle of the drying leaves made me walk so fast, I almost thought I was going to start sprinting.

I listened and re-listened to everything at our small town library and when I finally got a car, the tape deck became my storytelling companion. In a larger city for my undergrad years, I soon found that the Lincoln Public Library was able to supply me with enough books on tape that anytime I wanted to do the 4-hour trip back to my hometown, I easily could.

After getting one of my undergraduate degrees in Theatre, I taught in the public schools for 12 years and, with a good deal of that time focused on technical production, I learned the intricacies of digital audio production.

In 2010, Last Word Audio was formed and began producing unabridged audiobooks.

The road ahead

Our next releases can be seen on the Coming Attractions page. We are very excited about our tabletop RPG books and guides.

Additionally, more works by Last Word voice Colby Elliott. But, beyond that, we are keeping other projects TOP SECRET, so as not to jinx anything!

Last Word Audio

A short history...

For the gear enthusiast:

The microphones I use most often are the MJE 990 Hulk and occasionally the Telefunken CU-29 Copperhead and the CAD e100. All provide a warm sound that complements the voices I work with.

I also love my Furman AC-215A power conditioner and Grace Designs m101 preamp

My digital interface is a Focusrite Scarlet Solo and I do my recording and editing in Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio.

What if I think my book would be a good fit with Last Word Audio?

As Last Word Audio continues to grow it becomes possible to do more books each year. The type of books that we like to focus on are what I call Geek Lit or Nerd Lit.

These include: fiction and non-fiction books on the subjects of: comic books, science fiction and fantasy literature, role-playing and computer games and similar topics.

If your books fall into those categories, we may be a good fit for you.

Please keep in mind where and how we are publishing: mostly in digital download format on Audible and iTunes. We currently don’t have a MP3/CD publisher, but it we are looking into it.

Also, as a small publisher we can only take on so many projects in a given year, so it may be a bit of a wait to get your audiobook published.

How do you choose the books you produce?

The first books produced by Last Word Audio were Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace and Pest Control by Bill Fitzhugh. I had found two books, one fiction one non-fiction that truly moved me.

I read Masters of Deception when it came out in hardback and immediately saw the main characters as peers, all of them graduated high school around the same year I did. At the time I remember being immersed in early computing, games, writing simple programs, even finding a chat board. I tucked the book on my shelf among my favorites and when I decided to make my first audio book, I knew that had to be it.

Pest Control was a wonderful discovery. A friend of mine put the book in my hand and said, “This is your book. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that is MORE you!” and he was absolutely correct. Pest Control referenced music like crazy and rewarded the careful reader. At the same time, the action was hilarious and I couldn’t remember laughing so hard since The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Onto the Precious Shelf it went and, no, my friend never got his book back!