Last
month I asked for publishers to share their experiences in converting
their titles into audio books. Apparently no one has tried it.
After
some research, the first article in this February's newsletter is
audio books 101, a most elementary look at what they are.
As
it turns out, however, it seems that I asked the wrong question.
Brilliant Audio, Grand
Haven, MI, has announced they will be developing
their titles as ebooks and conventional volumes to become a “full
service” publisher. And earlier in the year Tantor
Media also announced it would be expanding into more
traditional book formats.
Tantor
Audio CEO Kevin Colebank
was interviewed for USA Today and answers some basic questions
about his industry.
I'm
constantly reminded that it's about content, not format, but I
confess to ignoring audio books all these years. I suspect one or two
of you may pursue this a bit more in the next year and I'm eager to
hear your experiences.
Audible
Books
While
I didn't hear from any of you with experience in the audio book
market, I heard from a lot of you that you were as curious as I am
about the process of creating audible books. This
looks like a good place to start. For DIY this
looks like the place to try out your efforts. If you'd like a source
to download free audio books from Aesop to Yeats, try this.
Compared to ebooks, this looks to be a lo-tech alternative to reach a
wider audience with your titles.
B&N
Closing
Barnes
& Noble has been closing
its bookstores as their leases expire, even forgoing holiday
sales by not restocking inventory while shoppers sorted through
nearly empty shelves.
The
linked article posits the counter-intuitive notion that book buyers
who had been “showrooming” (shopping brick and mortar, buying
online) were now less enticed to purchase ebooks, accounting for
slowing ebook demand traced back to Borders' demise.
On
January 28, B&N announced that it plans to close
one-third of its stores in the next decade. It's certainly off
to a fast start.
New
Bookstores Opening
Perhaps
the demise of B&N brick and mortar stores is leaving a vacuum in
the retail marketplace. The American Booksellers Association (ABA)
announced 42
new independent bookstores opened in 24 states last year.
Islamists
Burn Historic Volumes
What
is it about religious zealots that fears other points of view?
Islamist rebels burned two libraries that housed centuries old
texts of different Muslim sects as they evacuated Timbuktu.
Fortunately, most of the irreplaceable tomes had been smuggled
out to safety in the weeks before the Taliban retreated.
Well,
Google, Which Is It?
Google
has joined with other companies in an effort to go Paperless
2013 on the assumption that paper is inherently eco-unfriendly
but data centers are sqeaky clean. But someone forgot to tell their
marketing department and they ended up winning
an award for their (printed on paper) advertising campaign.
Hell
Hath No Fury Like a Disillusioned Librarian
A
library in Sydney, Australia has moved
all of its titles about Lance Armstrong from the non-fiction area
to fiction, whereas in America we show our disappointment by
filing a lawsuit against Armstrong's publisher, Penguin.
Everything
Ebook
Media
Bistro provides
links for small publishers trying to format their titles for
different ebook devices. For a sense of the direction that content
will appear in, here's
the story about some major players who are staking out some new
positions and betting on HTML5.
Zero
Waste Paper Mill
The
UPM Shottom paper mill in Wales has always produced recycled
newsprint, but has developed ways
to recover other recycled materials to make the mill more
self-sufficient and extremely “green”.
Reading
= More Intelligent Children
I
can think of many less utilitarian reasons why children should read
(and enjoy reading) but it's nice to have this suspicion about its
positive
effects confirmed.
Kids
Magazine Advertizes Adult Games
UK
publisher LCD Publishing, whose magazines are distributed by Conde
Nast and Hearst Corporation, defends
advertising for adult rated shoot'em up video games in its
elementary school Cool
Kidz
magazine because the ads themselves aren't gory.
1949
Ereader?
In
the broadest sense, an ereader was
developed by a Spanish woman in 1949, although her patent was
denied and she couldn't afford production costs to bring the reader
to market.
The
Revival of Yiddish
Once
considered a dying language, there is new found interest
in preserving Yiddish via a newspaper and web site.
Final
Thought
The
books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its
own shame. Oscar Wilde
