The New York Times has an article (see it here) about authors who have found a new way to distribute their novels: via podcasts. For example, sci-fi novelist Scott Siglar recorded his first book, "EarthCore" in 22 episodes, each 45 minutes long. He posted it online for free downloads. The book was downloaded 30,000 times, which was enough to attract a small publisher to put out the book.
The Times identifies Podiobooks.com as a pioneering site for this kind of effort (it was founded by Evo Terra, the author of "Podcasting for Dummies"). On the site you'll find guidelines for recording a book and other useful information if this is a path you may want to consider. The site suggests a donation of $9.99 per downloaded title, with 3/4 of that going to the author, the rest to the site to cover expenses. You can listen to a sample of each book to hear whether the style of the book appeals to you and how you like the author's voice--after all, for a full-length book you'll be spending a lot of time with that voice in your ears.
Of course this approach still leaves the writer with the challenge of getting people to go to the site and to download his or her book, but it's an interesting option. I'm going to explore it further, so watch this space!
