Jeremy Kroeker wants you to love the sound of his voice – and the look of his bathtub.
The Canmore author of Motorcycle Therapy, the Canadian best seller about two guys who unexpectedly get dumped by their girlfriends and take off to Panama on motorcycles, is trying to turn the account into an audiobook. He’s using the crowd-sourcing website Indiegogo to raise $3,000 to fund the project and wants to have the recording available by April.
“It was self-published in 2006 and, in kind of a small miracle, it turned into a Canadian best seller and it’s still going strong,” Kroeker said.
Through the website, he’s nearly half way towards his goal and has about a week to raise another $1,500 (but if he gets more, he threatens to record a special falsetto audiobook edition).
“I’ve got a new book out and ahead of that I was doing some marketing and thought an audiobook was a good fit,” Kroeker said.
The new book sees Kroeker take another trip, this time to the Middle East in the midst of the Arab Spring uprisings. That trip became: Through Dust and Darkness and is set for release in October, this time published through Rocky Mountain Books.
“I was looking to do another big motorcycle trip. I got addicted to that style of travel. Iran was in the news a lot and George W. Bush was making noise about military strikes, so I wanted to see it myself,” Kroeker said.
The second book raised more spiritual questions for the biker, who interweaves his upbringing into the story.
“The bulk of the book focuses on Syria and Iran. I was raised in a fundamental home and it’s hard not to think about religion when travelling through the Middle East,” Kroeker said.
This time, he received help from Rocky Mountain Books, who agreed to publish the new story.
“The self-publishing route was out of necessity. I’m not a patient person and to self-publish you have to have a lot of determination and a lot of patience. I wasn’t a proven writer.”
In order to promote his work, he unexpectedly launched a web talk show entitled Tub Time. The spoof began with a segment insulting Canmorite Heath McCroy while sitting in a tub, and has now expanded to include other notable Bow Valley residents.
“Tub Time was created as a joke to make my Indiegogo video more interesting. I got a bunch of emails asking to see the whole show, even though the show didn’t exist. Now people are buying ad space on it.”
Fellow author and motorcycle enthusiast Nevil Stow has also agreed to appear on Tub Time to help raise money, as has globetrekker Jerry Auld.
Kroeker said he’s not concerned interviewing people in his bathtub takes away from his author workings.
“I have an alter ego who interviews people in the bathtub and is also a first-hand travel reporter.”
To see more of Kroeker’s work, visit www.motorcycletherapy.com
