Spokane author Frank Zafiro reads his own stories

Like anyone else working in the arts, authors these days have to adjust to changing market trends. It’s not enough just to be good. You have to be versatile at sales, too.

Spokane crime writer Frank Zafiro knows that. That’s why he’s become his own audiobook publisher. He’s just released his short-story collection “The Cleaner” in audio format.

And he does the reading.

In a letter to his fans, Zafiro explained that “during a bit of a heyday for independent authors getting their books produced in audio,” he was able to get his collections “Dead Even” and “No Good Deed” recorded.

But, he says, “the landscape shifted” before he could do anything with “The Cleaner.” And the book sat there for all of a decade.

Until he decided to go the DIY route. He’d already been podcasting , so he did some research and, he says, “I eventually decided to give it a try.”

“I recorded,” he says. “I edited. I re-recorded. I asked my wife to narrate a pair of stories. She rocked them. I edited some more. I mastered. And then I uploaded to ACX and I waited.”

And the result?

“It’s out there in the world,” he says, “providing you with another way to enjoy fiction and providing me with another way to enjoy that exquisite vulnerability that any artist experiences.”

Not to mention providing other authors a guide for how to help themselves.