October 31, 2010: Starstruck downloads (and more!)

Blogging at 2am is probably not a good idea, but its the best thing for me when I’m working the midnight shift. Just about everything is done, and yet my mind is still going at a hundred miles an hour while I look for something else to do, thinking I’ve forgotten something…nope, nope…we’re all keeping to the deadlines, so barring acts of God…

Anyway, a few people have asked me why Bill Dufris hasn’t blogged yet. Primarily because he’s rarely out of his studio! In addition to finishing the master of Starstruck, Bill is one of the most in-demand audio book narrators in the industry. Proof positive: during the past month he was contracted to produce/narrate six unabridged classics on top of the first AudioComics offering. This weekend he will have the opportunity to collapse before embarking on the next part of the adventure: getting the downloads and review copies ready!

Halloween will be a very busy day: in addition to the premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead (adapted from Robert Kirkman’s brilliant book from Image Comics), FinalRune Productions will debut the pilot of the new 30-part serial The Cleansed (co-produced by The AudioComics Company, thank you very much) as part of the six hour special ”Transcontinental Terror.” Six production companies, five from America and one from the UK will present a six-hour marathon of original horror over Sound Stages Radio, the internet’s first new-time radio station. The other companies are The Willamette Radio Workshop from Portland, Oregon; Icebox Radio Theater from International Falls, Minnesota; Chatterbox Audio Theater from Memphis, Tennessee; Electric Vicuna Productions from Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Wireless Theatre Company of London, England. This is the first ever web-based audio horror marathon, and if its as successful as I think it will be, it won’t be the last. www.transcontinentalterror.com for more information!

But the third event for that day starts even earlier: Starstruck MP3 downloads will be available through the AudioComics website! I know a lot of you have inquired about this, and now here’s the deal: downloads of Act I and Act II will be available for purchase directly from the webstore, $6.45 for each act. Unfortunately, our site host’s online storage restrictions prohibit AudioComics from making the entire play available in one fell swoop, which was our original intention. Hopefully it’s not too big an inconvenience, but we apologize nonetheless in advance (we are working on fixing this problem with future downloads). There is no sales tax on these purchases. Once you have made your purchase, you will be sent an e-mail directing you to a page where you can retrieve your MP3. Right-click on the hyperlink and choose “Save link as” to direct your browser to save the zip file to your local hard drive.

A very important notice about your order: all credit card purchases are processed through Paypal. This allows us to take international payments for downloads. You do not have to have a Paypal account to purchase any items through the webstore; again, we use it solely to process the payments. However, this means that you have to finish your order in Paypal. Otherwise, the order is incomplete; your credit card will not be charged, since, y’know, you didn’t actually finish the order. BUT the problem is the order STAYS incomplete; we cannot go in to finish the order for you, and as a result the order has to be cancelled. Therefore, remember to finish your order in Paypal!

Finally, the original cut-off date for CD pre-orders was October 20. We are extending the date to October 30! This is because we are changing our direct mail fulfillment system, hence we are not using the old date. This does not change the shipping and handling costs, that stays the same. But what it does mean, beyond the extention, is that we can ship some compact discs internationally starting the week after next. More information on that will be available via the website as well. On the 31st, as previously mentioned, we will take the CD’s out of the store until mid-November, so as to focus on the downloads, which we’re pretty sure most of you audio junkies are really waiting for. (If you really need a CD between the 1st and mid-November, you can find them through our friends at ZBS (www.zbs.org), who will be carrying Starstruck compact discs.)

Not too long after, you will be able to buy downloads through iTunes, ZBS, and a whole buncha other places. Moreover, plans are in the works for a few CD release parties and signings in some very popular direct market stores, for which we are understandably holding some compact discs for. So…Halloween: buy a Starstruck download! Listen to The Cleansed! Finish it off with The Walking Dead! Now that’s a Happy Halloween!

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