Content in container – carry your story as you wish!
Posted by: Mary
Publishing company Thomas Nelson wins my Audiobooker “Publisher-with-the-Right-Idea” award. Today’s Publisher Weekly carried a story by Lynn Andriani on NelsonFree, where we learn:
Once readers purchase a book with the NelsonFree logo, they are directed to a Web site where they register and answer a security question. They then can download an audio MP3 file and several types of e-book files, including EPub, MobiPocket and PDF.
Thomas Nelson realizes that we want to buy the story – the content – and we want to carry that story with us in whatever contain fits the moment in time: audio MP3 in the car, Mobipocket on our eBook reader, print title in the bathtub. Are you listening, Amazon?
This reminds me of a post I wrote on my old Audiobooker blog about toggling, a term I encountered in this story by Catherine Mallette in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram where she describes listening to Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass:
And so I kept reading and kept reading, in between vital pre-holiday tasks like making Christmas lists and checking them twice, going to Target, decorating our tree and the front porch, baking cookies, going to Target, laying in supplies for end-of-the-semester projects, helping my middle-schooler study for exams, attending parties, stressing about college applications with my senior and, did I mention, going to Target? I toggled back and forth from real books (at night) to audio books (on the trips to Target and to work), and in about two more weeks, I made it through Pullman’s next two dense volumes.
Isn’t this exactly how readers want devour a story – by carrying the content in whatever container fits the time & place? And being able to toggle between formats? When I read about the Kindle 2’s WhisperSync in ComputerWorld, I immediately thought of the ultimate toggle – Amazon sending the text to the Kindle, then syncing the professionally-produced audiobook (from a human audiobook narrator, please) to my phone’s MP3 player so that I can transfer seamlessly from print to audio never having to bookmark or find my spot. And toss in the hardcover print title as part of the bundle as an option. Ah, if only I ruled the world…
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:40 pm
I love your vision of the world. I’d be glad to “join the dark side and rule the universe as…”
March 4th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
The ultimate toggle… and toss in the print title as part of the bundle…I WISH TOO. Hope they are listening out there.
March 5th, 2009 at 10:27 am
I always thought if one listened to an audiobook then one did not also read the book in tandem but I just heard of someone who was so immersed in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle that she listened to it while driving to work and picked up the book to read when she wasn’t in her car. This person definitely needs your ultimate toggle, Mary.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
[...] This is smart, smart, smart. Proof that some publisher’s do get it. [...]
March 27th, 2009 at 11:25 am
[...] The Telegraph, a daily newspaper in London, serialized McCall’s The Corduroy Mansions by posting a chapter a day on their website, along with clickable brief character sketches. This project was Smith’s second serialization effort – read his introduction to the novel here. Readers were able to leave comments, which Smith incorporated into the plot as he wrote. Along with the print segments, available online as a daily email or feed, all 100 chapters were also available as a daily podcast. Audiobook narrator extraordinaire Andrew Sachs (yes, Manuel from Faulty Towers) recorded each chapter, which appeared online simultaneously with the print chapter on the Telegraph site and as an iTunes podcast. These recordings will be later released as an audiobook by Little, Brown with minimal editing or changes. Combine the Telegraph’s Corduroy Mansion Facebook page, widgets, feeds, online videos, podcasts, and a challenge to readers to create their own online work (even a Google Maps layout!) – this event has all the attributes of the ultimate toggle experience! [...]
April 21st, 2009 at 7:11 pm
[...] the beginning of each chapter! And there are plenty of other bestsellers available. What a perfect toggle experience!! Not available in the U.S. right now, but I am keeping my fingers [...]