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Tag: Adam Bender

Utopia PR Audiobook Coming July 1! ARC Out Now

I am excited to announce that the Utopia PR audiobook will be released July 1, 2022, on most popular retail sites, including Audible and Barnes & Noble (click to pre-order).

Want to read the book early? If you’re happy to write a review, you can listen to the Utopia PR audiobook from now until June 12 on NetGalley! Thank you in advance for your help creating buzz and spreading the word. I’m an indie author so this is really the biggest way you can help me, even more than paying for my books (though that is also appreciated, of course)!

Utopia PR audiobook
Narrated by Tristan Wright

I recently had to approve the audio recordings of each chapter to make sure they were just right. Let me tell you, it was an absoltue blast listening to narrator Tristan Wright bring my book to life. I know I might be biased, but I daresay the book is even funnier read aloud. Wright brings out all the individual wackiness of Blake “The Hammer” Hamner (the is silent), Our Leader and the rest of the cast. Sitting alone in my home office, I seriously LOLed at his reading of the speech in which Our Leader ticks off every crazy idea in Blake’s Grand List of Distractions.

This was my second time working with Findaway Voices to create an audiobook (The Wanderer and the New West audiobook is also now available and 50% off until April 30 on B&N!). As before, it was a seamless process. Based on my requirements, they provided a list of suggested narrators, and then I asked a few of them to send audition tapes. It was a tough choice, but I’m really happy with what Tristan Wright has done with the book. I can’t wait for you to hear it!

Of course, if you’re not keen on audiobooks, you can get the book in eBook and paperback formats from major online retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org (or ask your indie book store to order it!). Check out the official website for Utopia PR for more information on the book and where you can buy it.

Just in case you haven’t heard my elevator pitch before, Utopia PR is a sci-fi satire about a public relations rep seeking work-life balance while managing crisis after crisis for a dystopian president. PR extraordinaire Blake Hamner (the n is silent) put off his honeymoon for his big break: joining a major political campaign for president. Now, the “Hammer” struggles to make time for his marriage as Crisis Communications Manager for Our Leader, who since taking power has become increasingly mad and totalitarian.

So yeah, mark July 1 on your calendars for the audiobook’s release date. Or better yet, pre-order it. Or better yet, get the free advance review copy (ARC) on NetGalley and write a review! I’m looking forward to hearing what you think of it!

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Utopia PR Audiobook Coming Soon!

Maybe you hate the droning sound of your own voice in your head. Maybe the part of storytelling you like the most is the telling. Maybe you don’t like the look of the printed word on paper (gross). Maybe you want to keep your eyes on the road when you’re driving.

Whatever the reason you love audiobooks, you’ll be excited to know I have started production on an aural version of my dystopian satire Utopia PR.

Audiobook cover for Utopia PR

I for one cannot wait to hear the voices of Blake “The Hammer” Hamner and his presidential PR comrades come to life in glorious stereo sound. I wrote the novel in a style that I think is a great match for the spoken word. Narrator Tristan Wright has signed on for the project through Findaway Voices. Utopia PR designer Bailey McGinn will square-ify the cover per audiobook convention.

I had a great experience with Findaway on The Wanderer and the New West and am looking forward to hearing Utopia PR. I’m not yet ready to announce a release date, but please keep your eye on my blog–and subscribe to my newsletter–for updates on this exciting project.

In the meantime, if you do like printed words (delicious!), you can buy Utopia PR in eBook or paperback today!

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Utopia PR declared best humor book in 2021 IndieReader Discovery Awards

Read IndieReader’s verdict

No need to spin this news… My dystopian satire novel Utopia PR just won best humor book in the 2021 IndieReader Discovery Awards!

Watch my extremely humorous acceptance video:

Thank you very much to IndieReader for declaring Utopia PR this year’s best humor book, and for thinking that I’m funny — something that I will be sure to bandy about to all my friends and family. I’m so happy to bring a little laughter into our dark times.

Please check out my IndieReader Q&A about the win and this recent interview on podcast Car Con Carne for more about the writing of the award-winning novel. Utopia PR recently joined Biblioboard’s Indie Pennsylvania library eBook collection. And it just received these glowing words from Foreword Reviews: “Sharp and witty, the novel Utopia PR is a free range political send-up set in a chaotic, perplexing, and familiar future world.”

Read the award-winning Utopia PR today!

About IndieReader 

IndieReader launched the IRDAs in 2011 to help notable indie authors receive the attention of top publishing professionals, with the goal of reaching more readers. Noted Amy Edelman, author and founder of IR, “The books that won the IRDAs this year are not simply great indie books; they are great books, period. We hope that our efforts via the IRDAs ensure that they receive attention from the people who matter most. Potential readers.” 

Past and present sponsors for the IRDAs include Amazon, Reedsy, Smith Publicity and NY-based literary agents Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. Judges have included publishers (from Penguin Group USA and Simon & Schuster), agents (from ICM, Dystel), publicists (from Smith Publicity), and bloggers (from GoodeReader).

Best Humor Book

Utopia PR, which received a glowing verdict by IndieReader’s reviewers, is a sci-fi satire about a public relations rep seeking work-life balance while managing crisis after crisis for a dystopian president.

Public-relations extraordinaire Blake Hamner (the n is silent) put off his honeymoon for his big break: joining a major political campaign for president. Now, the “Hammer” struggles to make time for his marriage as Crisis Communications Manager for Our Leader, who since taking power has become increasingly mad and totalitarian. 

The Hammer starts to reconsider his career choices when one of Our Leader’s savage steel hounds attacks the Comms team at a press conference. He’d love to talk about his erratic job with his wife, Triple-N news anchor Maria Worthington, but they have a rule: the broadcast journalist doesn’t ask Blake for inside information about his work, and the spin doctor doesn’t use their relationship as leverage on what Maria reports. They say you shouldn’t keep things from each other in a marriage, but it’s OK—the only secrets between Blake and Maria are professional.

When a revolutionary levels grave allegations against Our Leader—and accuses Blake of distributing disinformation and propaganda to cover it up—the PR rep who thought he could talk his way out of any crisis finds himself utterly trapped in a dystopian job.

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The Wanderer and the New West is on sale for Audiobook Month

June is Audiobook Month! I’m thrilled to announce that you can lasso the sound version of my Dystopian Western novel The Wanderer and the New West on sale for just $4.99!

That’s a 60% savings from the following audiobook stores:

Actor James Sasser provides the stellar narration for the audiobook edition. See below and here for a synopsis and more information about my third novel.

Audiobook cover for The Wanderer and the New West by Adam Bender

A rogue vigilante known only as the Wanderer seeks redemption in a lawless, near-future America that fully protects the rights of armed citizens to stand their groundagainst mass shooters and motorcycle gangs.

When the Wanderer opens war against injustice in the state of Arizona, his violent yet principled actions attract the attention of journalist Rosa Veras, writer of a subversive blog about America’s return to the Wild West. Rosa’s investigation into gun corporation Breck Ammunition awakens the ire of CEO Gerard Breck … and brings the Wanderer to her door.

Meanwhile in Liberty, ex-Sheriff Ben Martin attempts to return lawless to Rosa’s hometown by forming a ragtag militia of ex-cops. Things start to unravel as Martin loses track of the difference between criminals and anyone who gets in his way.

Named to Kirkus Reviews‘ Best Books of 2018The Wanderer and the New West won gold for Dystopia in the 2018 Readers’ Favorite Awards and best Western Fiction in the 2018 National Indie Excellence Awards.

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Utopia PR laughs its way into the Indie Pennsylvania library collection

Indie Pennsylvania logo

I’ve lived in Pennsylvania for a large portion of my life. I grew up in Bucks County, going to school at the Council Rock district. I left for college in Washington, DC, where I later got a journalism job. Then, my wife and I moved to Australia for a few years. Pennsylvania pulled me back to Philadelphia. It’s a great commonwealth.

This is a long way to explain how delighted I was to learn that my new dystopian satire novel Utopia PR is now part of the Indie Pennsylvania library collection curated by Biblioboard through its Indie Author Project! My other novels are also part of the collection previously known as SELF-e. Here’s a brief description of IAP:

The Indie Author Project (IAP) is a publishing community that includes public libraries, authors, curators, and readers working together to connect library patrons with great indie-published books. IAP has helped hundreds of libraries engage their local creative community and assisted in getting more than 12,000 indie authors into their local libraries. Most importantly, the project has worked with top curation partners and librarians to identify hundreds of these as the best indie eBooks available to readers—so they can be sustainably circulated to library patrons with confidence.

indieauthorproject.com
Utopia PR in paperback
Find my book at Barnes & Noble in Philadelphia!

In other exciting news, I found out just yesterday that Barnes & Noble will soon be stocking the Utopia PR paperback at its Rittenhouse Square location in Philadelphia, plus a couple other stores in the region! This is thanks to a new B&N policy allowing its stores to locally curate what’s in the store.

As a self-published author who spent many hours in B&N stores growing up, this is a big deal for me! You can also of course order my humorous sci-fi novel on the Barnes and Noble website from anywhere in the country. You should also be able to ask your local store to order a copy for you if you’d prefer to pick it up.

More of an independent bookstore person? I recently opened a storefront for all of my books on Bookshop.org, which shares part of its revenue with local indie stores. My bookshop also includes lists of novels that influenced me and other books that I recommend. Be sure to check it out!

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