before going any further

Before going any further, you should know some of the things that this farmer wants to do that are illegal. I'd strongly encourage everyone to read Omnivore's Dilemma by Pollan, and then Everything I want to do is illegal by Salatin:

On farm processing. He would like to slaughter his own chickens, hogs and pigs on his own farm.

He would like to sell his neighbors jams, jellies, cider, etc, at his on farm store.

On his own property, he would like to build a 900 square foot house.

Those things are illegal.

You'd be surprised at how the other half lives....We thought this was outrageous. Especially consider that we believe that the way most animals are raised is disgusting, and we would like to have the ability to buy direct from a farmer.

What shall I do?

I can burn a cd just as well as the next geek. However, I have NO experience with selling, marketing or creating audio books. Like a good broadcaster, I figure that I'm just the dumb voice (sarcasm is present there).

At this point in the story, I'm not sure what to do! It's true that I feel very passionate about Joel's book, and standing up for food in general. I am a very time poor person though, so I just wrote... well... what I felt:

-- beginning of message --

from Theresa Lyons
date Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 8:20 AM
subject Re: Everything I Want to Do is Illegal
mailed-by gmail.com
Apr 10

Hi Joel,
My husband and I are big fans of audiobooks from the library. This is
because we do mindless work at our jobs, and having something actually
stimulating going on in your head makes the days a lot better!

We found "The omnivore's dilemma" as a book on CD, watched "Food
Inc.", and heard of "Everything I want to do..." , and went to the
library to see if we could get it as an audio book.

We couldn't, so we just got the book, which my husband and I are
reading out loud to each other. We just finished the million mile
chicken chapter while we were waiting at the doctors office.

My proposal is, I can voice the book and it can be turned into an
audio book. This is just a voluntary thing to make the book more
accessible. The question is, do you think that would make your book
more accessible to folks that you wish to reach? I can say that
several folks my age (Hubby and I are 32), who work tech jobs all day
just listen to audio books.

I know absolutely nothing about publishing an audio book, let alone
selling. I assumed the right place to start would be your
distributor/publisher I found on the back cover. I can say that, a
couple of years ago, someone directed me to this site:

http://librivox.org/

There, folks can turn printed work into audio work for those who wish
to listen. It appears that your book doesn't qualify under "public
domain", but what it qualifies as is really something that a
publisher, or someone in that industry would have to analyze. I don't
know anything about whatever "contract" you have with the publisher...
legal rights... etc.

Let me know your thoughts. Even if this doesn't work out that you're
interested in doing the audio thing (I'm surprised no one has
approached you about voicing them yourself), I must say that I have
enjoyed your literary crass, intelligence, and desire to inform people
about what they're actually eating. My husband and I hope to come see
Polyface in action sometime this year.

Sincerely,
Theresa Lyons

Ps. Before I sent this, I sent an email to my public library system,
asking them how a book, or audio book would become available at their
library once generated. They have awesome people working there who are
very helpful, so I'll probably hear back monday or tuesday.

-- end of message --

Hopeful

Well, at this point, I wasn't sure what to expect. As a broadcasting major who worked for commercial radio, I knew it was hard to get a gig where you weren't overworked, underpaid, and unhappy! I figured I'd just wait and see what happened.

The next day, I checked my email before going to work. I found the following in my Inbox (again, certain information has been deleted to protect privacy):

Date Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 1:53 PM
subject Everything I Want to Do is Illegal


Hi Theresa--

Chelsea Green Publishing forwarded me your kind email about doing an audio of my book Everything I Want to Do is Illegal.
No, it has not been done. I don't know much about this.

What is your proposal? Would you want to sell it too?

Best regards,

Joel Salatin
Polyface Farm

-- end of message --

I'm sorry, is this REALLY happening?

surprise!

The response I expected looked something like this:

"Dear Theresa,

Thank you for your email. However, we use 'insert name of large audio book publishing house here' to do all of our audio books. We wish you well!

Chelsea Green publishing"

Instead, I received the following email:

date Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 10:37 AM
subject Regarding your query: audio book
mailed-by chelseagreen.com



Dear Theresa,

Thank you for writing! We will pass your offer along to Joel Salatin.

Best,
Amy


-- end of message --

I'm sorry, did she say I'm passing this information on to the author???? NO WAY! I NEVER thought I'd talk to him!

Moving along

I hadn't really mentioned this to Vince, but found the publisher on the inside cover of the book. I contacted Chelsea Green Publishing via their website. I sent the following email to them, on a "whim"---

(certain details have been omitted to protect my own and others privacy)

From: Theresa
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 07:01:49 -0400
To: chelseagreen.com
Subject: CGP FORM: audio book

Good morning,
I recently picked up "Everything I want to do is illegal" from my local library. I haven't seen an audio book, and wanted to volunteer my time and talent. I have a broadcasting degree and worked in commercial radio for quite some time. If you need a reader to read this book to make this more accessible, please let me know!
Theresa
Columbus Ohio

First light

Well, this takes us then to early April 2010. We still hadn't finished reading the book, until one day I thought "Well, I wonder if 'Everything I want to do is illegal' just needs to be read as an audio book" I do have a broadcasting degree...."