Imagine being able to hear your favourite authors talk about their life and books in the privacy and comfort of your own home. Thanks to the modern age of technology and the Internet you can. Some of you may be familiar with audio broadcasts over the Internet and some of you may not. These Internet audio broadcasts are termed podcasts for short. And with the accessibility of equipment like iPods they are becoming all the rage.

Written Voices Podcast is an online marketing campaign helping authors promote their books on the Internet by offering access to interested readers to book excerpts and podcast interviews. You can subscribe to the podcasts for automatic downloading whenever there is an updated podcast if you download their specialized podcast software or you can browse and listen selectively with your computer's media player.

The selection isn't huge fiction wise, but it's enough to keep you interested and busy for a while. I recommend clicking on the "interviews and books" at the top to browse by category as it is the easiest. Their book offerings are divided into 24 categories like: biography, career, fiction, chicklit, mystery, fitness, history, memoir, science and more. It is also important to note that not every listing has a podcast but you will find a book excerpt, mini author bio and author links at the very least.

The podcasts are hosted by Alan Hunkin, a self improvement expert and podcast consultant. His voice is calm, friendly and encouraging to listen to. I listened to a 34 minute interview on my computer's media player (I don't have an Mp3 player) with actor and now author Alan Alda. It started with an intro by Hunkin about Alda's career and family life. It was interesting and clear.

Other features the site offers include a raffle for free books. I was disappointed though; I entered my name for a particular book listed and when I received my confirmation I was told my name was entered for another book I wasn't interested in. There is a mailing list to get updates via email and they ensure via their privacy policy that they will not sell or share info to anyone. Other links include their most popular, recently added and classics, which show the latest three entries if you hover your mouse arrow over them. If you're a regular visitor you can refer to these and the latest interviews listed by book title, again only three, but I would go the category way I mentioned earlier to start.

Visit Written Voices Podcasts.

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M. E. Wood lives in Eastern Ontario, Canada. If you are going to find this eclectic reader and writer anywhere it is probably at her computer. For more information visit her official website.