Wednesday, May 31, 2006

I heard it on the grapevine

A couple of yesterday's papers (e.g. the Financial Times) carried small reports, based on an Audible.co.uk press release, to the effect that:

The world's first audio-only novel will be launched this week in a sign that the surge in demand for downloadable books is set to provide a new medium for budding authors and performers.

Sex on Legs, a 75,000-word novel written and read by Brian Luff, will be available for download on audible.co.uk despite Mr Luff, a London-based comedian, having no contract with a traditional book publisher. Audible, the US company that dominates the audiobook market, is the company behind the popular Ricky Gervais podcasts.

You can read more about it on Audible itself. You have to pay for Sex on Legs, of course. This ain't no freebie.

1 comment:

ivan said...

Never mind Brian Luff, I am a "comedian" from Ontario who has gone the whole gamut from self-publishing to overground publishing to serialization, to an identity crisis that has me re publishing my old university short stories.
Gerard Jones did run his audio book, GINNY GOOD past me and though I loved that narrative in print, there is a medium shift that somehow takes the magic right off GINNY GOOD.
Cold, hard copy on the printed page, I say.
A beter way to go, it seems is to have other literary sites link to your novel.
This leads to notoriety as one Aaron Braaten, of http://www.grandinite.com has recently touted me as "the coolest old codger on the interweb" and not for nothing is my site dubbed
http://www.creativewriting.ca.He then linked my book to his site.
What the hell. Keeps the pot boiling. Who wants to be "lectured" to for three or four hours. Cast thy web upon the web waters. I have certainly been told to go forth and multiply by many a Canadian publisher.