Digital Eloquence

When we wrote the Brave New World report, we expected the digital audio market to take off. After all, the devices were already there, the download mechanisms existed, the bandwidth was there and MP3 was going DRM free with music. All we had to do was to plug in the earphones. But it didn’t happen and instead the ebook lurched forward, took off and we forgot the audiobook. The reasons for the lost audio opportunity were many; Amazon’s acquisition of Audible and their retention of the old book club model, the lack of digital content, the cost of production and subsequent high ticket price of audiobooks, rights etc.

We were stimulated with launch of Silksoundbooks.com in June 2007. It appeared to have all the boxes ticked being backed by top tier actors such as Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Richard E Grant and Jane Horrocks and it was also selling titles at a reasonably low price of £7.95. It was as if the classics were going to get a lift and digital audiobooks were to happen. Sadly the 60 initial titles remain and the expected ‘1,000 within three years’ didn’t happen.

Last night we were a panel guest on Litopia After Dark and met a fellow panellist BJ Harrison. BJ has started his own classic digital audiobook venture based in Utah. He again has chosen the classic public domain route and now has some 150 titles all recorded by himself and available via thebestaudiobooks.com and his iTunes ‘The Classic Tales Podcast’ , which in its first award-winning season registered 3rd in their overall iTunes podcast charts. B.J. Harrison mixes the world of classic short fiction from Poe, Dickens, Hardy, Stevenson, Fitzgerald and many others, with the longer classics of Twain, Dumas, Stevenson. The list of authors reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of classic literature and he has not restricted it to North American. His prices are very very keen and should appeal to a wide audience seeking a listening read at a bargin price. Its approach is very similar to the successful action Wordsworth Editions took to bring down the price of printed classics.

We were stimulated by what BJ has achieved and although some may say its only on a small scale, it again raises the opportunity and a way to do things differently. He mauy have taken a similar route to Silksoundbooks in adopting the classics but there is no reason why the approach and model can’t be used by authors under a collective umbrella.

Does the audiobook stand in its own space, or will it become just a text to speech device feature, or an additional file element to an enhanced ebook?

We think that the audio format has a place and is not just for the visually impaired. Again we are drawn to Dickens and the short instalment or episodic release. The enthusiasm with which he captivated hie audiences and drove his sales of the books. What a fantastic way to release a story in the digital age and even a different way to sell and market a story..

To listen to the 'Litopia After Dark' podcast 'Million Dollar Voice'

Via Radio Litopia

To visit BJ Harrison’s web emporium of digital eloquence

Litopia After Dark: £1 Books – Fleecing The Writer Or Flogging A Dead Sheep?

Last Friday we were once again on that stimulating and provocative Litopia After Dark Pod broadcast. We even missed the beginning of the repeat of my father in law’s award winning film ‘Lost for Words’!

However the discussion panel was extremely thought provoking and made us think about the issues facing the market today a bit differently. They directly promoted us to write ‘Publishing’s Napster Moment Is Now’ article and we would recommended you to listen to the show.

Why are authors so angry with publishers? Why is Asda – the UK’s arm of Walmart – killing bookselling? Why don’t we learn from the newspaper business? And… why don’t we shoot armadillos?

The panels were Nic Alderton , Donna Ballman , Dave Bartram and myself under the stewardship of Peter Cox with Eve Harvey managing the chatroom.

To download the MP3 file

Latest Litopia After Dark

Another Litopia After Dark session worth a listen. last Friday I joined New Zealand author Philippa Ballantine,Donna Ballman from Florida, Dave Bartram and Litopia's Peter Cox.
Its fun to do and worth a listen as usual.

http://www.litopia.com/podcast/who-blew-my-cover/

litopia After Dark: The Longest Digital Day

litopia After Dark last week ran to one of its longest podcasts and cover book ownership, self publishing and much more certainly worth a listen

click here to go to podcast

Radio Litopia Arrives

Litopia is a pioneer publishing online community run by author, agent and literary agent, Peter Cox. Its focus is publishing and writers and aims to help both the emerging and established writer. We have long supported Peter and his team and have contributed to the stimulating and often highly amusing ‘Litopia after Dark’ podcast. In fact last Friday we were on the panel discussing the Digital Economy Bill and with US lawyer and panellist Donna Ballman the emotive subject of agency pricing.

Litopia’s podcast is now being extended and creating Radio Litopia, offering exclusive online broadcasts for writers. Radio Litopia will cover continue to coverl a wide and diverse set of issues related to writing and the publishing industry. It can be listened to on your iPhone, smartphone. Laptop, netbook – on the move and is truly breaking ground that many others fail to see or understand.

Litopia’s community service to writers now supports Litopia Daily and online communication, Litopia After Dark and now Litopia Radio. It is different,it is topical and it is not afraid to discuss what writers want to discuss. The interesting approach is that Peter continues to push the boundaries and redefine community communication in a way many in publishing fail to grasp. Litopia is building a community that is more than a social network and one that escapes from that self publishing, vanity approach adopted by others. He isn’t after the slush pile and that is what confuses many. He isn’t trying to create a cosy book club or a book review show. He is just connecting writers.

Click to read about last Friday’s Litopia After Dark show and download the podcast

A Story in a Sound Bite

Last night we participated in the most global broadcast of Litpoia After Dark. Its 98th show and one which brought together panellist from Cathy Murphy in Norway, Donna Ballman in Florida, Dave Bartram in the west country of England, Peter Cox in London and ourselves in Pune, India.

There was an interesting discussion prompted by Dave Bartram who on watching this clip of a car being hit by a wrecking ball in the Daily Telegraph, questioned whether we were being de-sensitized and losing our ability to empathize with others. Whether we start to get comfortable with real suffering, pain, and even death as a part of the entertainment spectrum we are beginning to lose some essential part of our humanity.

He questioned whether writing has been going the same way and whether authors are forced to push the same boundaries to find ways to stay ahead of their competitors.

The boundaries have always been pushed by artists, writers, movie makers, musicians. It is part of the evolution of expression. The challenge today is whether we are now living in the 140 character, 2 minute world of the snippet, the sound bite world of politics, the spectre of instant gratification and the power of channel hopping choice? Do we now lack the understanding of the contextual wrap that gives us the background and greater understanding? Do we jump from the narrative to the one liner?

It is interesting that technology is giving the increased capacity to store and retrieve but at the same time the greater power to sample and skip the detail. It’s like a multiple choice world where we know the question and just want to skip to choose ‘a’, ‘b’, or ‘c’.

Will writing shrink back from the economically defined 250 pages to the 10 page short story, or will it go further and live in the 140 character world of tweets. Extremes give us a wake up call and this is certainly one to watch as the YouTube world tries to now accommodate longer film and TV footage. Will their audience change and absorb, or will they click and go for the instant gratification?

Litopia New Site

Now and again a fresh perspective on publishing comes along and engages with the audience on the matters that count to them. Peter Cox has worked hard with a small team of enthusiasts to create such a community - Litopia.

Litopia is about writing, writers, creation and of course publishing and not only has a very active site and user community but has long pioneered the podcast with its publishing and writers 'Litopia After Dark' on Friday nights.

They have now launched their new site www.litopia.com and also we have been asked and are pleased to continue our association with this great adventure not only still participating frequently in their podcast show but now contributing as a columnist on the sight.

Vook: Sounds Like?

When we heard of the release by Simon & Schuster of their Vook we were intrested to see it and understand how it linked multi media. The same night we were on Litopia After Dark and were asked to rebrand the 'book'.

The jury is still out on the Vook as far as the content is concerned but the name is a mess and certainly one to drop. What we can see from the clip above is interested but somehow lacks that cutting edge found in other multi media stories such as 'Inanimate Alice'.

It certainly isn't a video book trailer and all media is contained within the Vook which can also be downloaded directly onto an iPhone and viewed/read there. Today there are four titles available , two fiction and two nonfiction priced at $4.99. These are available a dedicated section of S&S's web site and Vook's site.

We wish them well and respect that they are thinking outside of the jacket.

Scribd Trips Out of Litopia

Litopia After Dark started as usual last night and had a special guest – Trip Adler, CEO of Scribd. Having identified and highlighted the issue of copyright infringement in the UK media, Peter Cox had invited Adler to come on the show and discuss the issue of digital piracy on his site. Adler who had agreed, didn’t show and his direct line went straight to his answering machine and record.

Did he get the time wrong? Was he called to an urgent meeting? Did he feel that there was little to answer and little point to the exercise? We will not know what his motives were only the sound of his answering machine.

Whether we like it or not, we all have to face our critics, but more importantly some would say that we must face them when we are found to be in a questionable position. Whatever the rights or wrongs, Scribd had been found displaying copyrighted materials, which could be copied and further infringed. Scribd had an opportunity to support and been seen to support copyright protection.

Book publishing is at a digital turning point where the door of opportunity is opening, but it is also opening the door of infringement. We have seen the damage done by the pirates to other media sectors and should be taking steps to minimise the risk to book publishing. Is the threat new – no. Can we stop books being scanned – no. Can we stop infringement – no, but we can make it difficult.

So we need to ensure digital copies of books are not pirated. We will never stop the hardened copier be they malicious or professional and stopping ordinary consumers has posed a challenge to other media sectors. In these days when it costs relatively small amounts to scan and digitise books its not the digital renditions that are the threat but the physical ones. Watermarking physical copies may help but we would suggest it is inappropriate and ineffective – if they want to scan it they will.

Some would suggest that publishers such as Random House and Simon and Schuster should reconsider their new arrangements with Scribd and others until such time that they have taken proactive actions to clean up their site?

Today we operate a take down notice approach covered by laws such as the DMCA. Yes it works and often the offending material is taken down promptly, but it may be only one manifestation or instance and more importantly, its reactive not proactive. Once the cat is out the bag for a minute its likely to have many digital kittens.

We believe that unlike physical copies of books it is impossible under copyright to resell a digital rendition or make a copy of it to share with others. Obviously public domain works have different issues. So if that is correct, or we would suggest half correct, why not establish a seller licence or approved seller policy. Scribd, eBay, Wattpad whoever can block all digital renditions of books being sold, posted, linked, uploaded unless from an authorised licensed body. In a digital world this is not difficult to achieve if the will is there. Ok there will be ways around it and it may cost money, but its better than expecting thousands of copyright owners to check thousands of sites everyday and issue potentially hundreds or thousands of take down notices after the cat is out of the bag.

Amazon Back Off or Redrawing the Lines?

Last night we were once again on the Litopia After Dark panel and one of the interesting debates was on the subject of Amazon’s Kindle 2 text to speech feature. The authors Guild of America had taken a stand stating that this was a violation of copyright and Amazon disputed it.

This morning we woke to read Amazon had a agreed to make the Text to Speech feature optional on a per book basis. The company statement states: r

Kindle 2's experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given. Furthermore, we ourselves are a major participant in the professionally narrated audiobooks business through our subsidiaries Audible and Brilliance. We believe text-to-speech will introduce new customers to the convenience of listening to books and thereby grow the professionally narrated audiobooks business.

Nevertheless, we strongly believe many rights-holders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver's seat.

Therefore, we are modifying our systems so that rightsholders can decide on a title by title basis whether they want text-to-speech enabled or disabled for any particular title.

So we enter yet again into the murky waters of opt out and unproven case. Mind you having gone through the exercise with it on the Google settlement the Authors Guild must be getting used to treading these boards and once again the only winners are the lawyers

Happy Birthday Litopia After Dark!!

We are pleased to celebrate the first birthday of Litopia After Dark.

It seem an age since we were first asked to contribute to this extraordinary fusion of literary debate and author insights. We didn’t exactly know what to expect, or how it was going to develop, but are proud to have play a minute part in its growth. Today Litopia boasts just over 21,000 listeners and its popularity grows as other book orientated shows struggle. Peter Cox has with his team shown great entrepreneurial flair, pushed the boundaries and bought a common touch and accessibility to a wide range of subjects that many struggle to communicate today. Most importantly he has created what many talk about - a social community on creativity and reading.

We are now a regular monthly contributor to the Friday night show and are scheduled to be back on the panel this Friday. We have no idea what the astute Peter will choose as the subjects to be discussed, but know we will enjoy every minute of the friendly banter.

If can’t make the live show you can download it and others.