San Diego Veteran and College English Teacher Publishes Audio Story 2 Go "What Were You When You Were Alive?" is a Story About a Homeless Vet's Fight for Justice on the Streets of San Diego.

    /24-7PressRelease/ - BATAVIA, IL, May 09, 2008 - Anyone with a digital music player, smart phone or laptop understands the hunger for new content. Now, with the launch of Sniplits.com, there's a new source for entertainment on the Internet. Sniplits is publishing audio short stories, packaged as DRM-free* MP3 files and playable on virtually any device capable of playing digital music.

Sniplits launched its website with 85 audio shorts, ranging from about one minutes in length to nearly an hour. The stories represent the work of approximately 50 authors, including "What Were You When You Were Alive?" by Jim Musgrave (a.k.a. Efraim Z. Graves).

Although a work of fiction, this story uses Musgrave's military experience of eight years in the Naval Reserves (also, his father was a Pearl Harbor Survivor who worked for the Navy for 30 years), and his own battle and recovery from alcohol addiction, to add a lot of realistic details to the story. At a little over 30 minutes long, this audio story also includes a lot of humor.

"I wrote the story because I wanted people to recognize the plight of homeless veterans and how difficult it is to cope after experiencing combat. If just one person looks at a homeless person differently after listening to my story, then I will have succeeded," said Musgrave.

The author, who also teaches English classes at Grossmont Community College to students online and in the classroom, wants his students to understand the problems of modern veterans returning from war, and this story was his attempt to get them active politically. "The writer must be active in political causes," added Musgrave, "because our society is already alienated as it is, and only through dramatic communications will we be able to get the true message out to those who care."

To market his story, Musgrave adds a signature to his emails and cell phone text messages:

What Were You When You Were Alive?
Audio Story By Efraim Zimbalist Graves (Jim Musgrave)
A Gulf War veteran wins a different kind of "Survivor Game" in San Diego, fighting prejudice against the homeless....

Time: 30:12 / $0.88
Sample Add to Cart

My Sniplits Author Fan Club Page

Sniplits will add additional stories and Fan Club pages to the site during its beta test period, and beyond. The stories sell for $0.48 or $0.88 each, depending on length. In addition to mainstream and literary short stories, Sniplits offers mystery and suspense, speculative, fantasy, romance, horror, adventure, sports, western, historical fiction and young adult stories.
"While they may be brief, there's really nothing small about a short story," says company founder, Anne Stuessy. "The best short stories are packed with compelling characters and storylines, with suspense, romance, heartbreak, humor, shivers and surprises. The need to make every word count means that they can pack an astounding punch."

"Our goal is to provide listeners with audio stories that are perfectly sized for any pause in their day," says Stuessy. She suggests that a ten-minute story might be perfect while waiting for an oil change, while a 30-minute story might be just the thing for a dentist appointment or lunch break.

Sniplits publishes new as well as established authors and, unlike many markets, pays them for their work. Sniplits pays an advance of between $15 and $150 for stories between 100 and 8,000 words, and authors have the potential to receive royalty payments on net sales of their stories of between 30 to 50%.

"Unfortunately, the economics of print publishing today make it difficult for most short story publishers to offer much of anything in the way of compensation. Still," Stuessy says, "many of those literary, university and genre-specific publishers play a - perhaps the - critical role in developing writers. We'd like to support their work, and grow the audience for short stories in all formats. Therefore, we enable authors to link from Sniplits' Fan Club pages to their work with print publishers. We also decided that Sniplits will not necessarily require first publication rights, but will only ask for audio rights and the right to distribute stories electronically. That might enable an author to have his story published in a literary magazine, for example, and still have an audio version published by Sniplits."

In addition to offering audio short stories, Sniplits plans to build out what it calls its "Open Mic" community, where members can connect with authors and each other. It includes Fan Club pages for authors and discussion forums. While anyone can visit and shop Sniplits, only Sniplits Members are allowed access to Fan Clubs where they can ask authors questions. Membership is also required to participate in community discussion forums. Membership is free and members are not required to purchase stories. Membership benefits include a free story each week.

About Sniplits:
Sniplits publishes DRM-free audio short stories that are playable on virtually any device capable of playing MP3 audio files, and an on-line community for those who write and those who love short stories. Sniplits is a division of privately held Stussi, Inc.

Contact: Anne Stuessy
[email protected]
630-777-5507
*DRM - Digital Rights Management

"Sniplits.com Audio Shorts 2 Go"

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