Reviews of new audio book titles, author interviews, and award winners.
Gaiman to Launch Crowd-Sourced Story on Twitter By Lynn Andriani - 10/12/2009
Fantasy writer Neil Gaiman is writing a new crowd-sourced short story on Twitter. Starting tomorrow at noon EDT, the author—and well-known Twitter fan (@neilhimself)—will Tweet the first line of a new story, and fans can continue it with their own 140-character contributions. BBC Audiobooks America will then compile the contributions—they expect about 1,000—into a short story that will be recorded by a professional narrator.
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iMinds Launches Eight-Minute Audiobooks By Lynn Andriani - 09/29/2009
In an attempt to capitalize on people’s short attention spans and ever-increasing dependence on iPods and other MP3 players, a new company, iMinds, has launched a series of eight-minute audiobooks that offer compact overviews of general knowledge subjects ranging from the history of whale hunting to creationism. There are currently 72 iMinds MindTracks available for download at Audible and the iTunes store, and iMinds plans to roll out hundreds more by the end of 2010.
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BBC Audiobooks for Sale By Jim Milliot - 08/28/2009
BBC is looking to sell a majority stake in BBC Audiobooks with a sale hoped to be completed by early 2010.
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Haights Cross Struggles With Debt, Completes Recorded Books Reorg By Jim Milliot - 08/19/2009
Haights Cross is still working on a deal to repay loans with bankruptcy a possibilty. Meanwhile the company's Recorded Books subsidiary completed a restructuring in the second quarter that eliminated a total of 19 jobs.
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Spoken-Word Audio List Has Familiar Look 07/20/2009
The top sellers in spoken-word audio for the first six months of 2009 are a lot like the bestsellers in books (PW, July 13). The Shack, which led the fiction print bestsellers list, also topped the spoken-word audio list, providing a big hit for the independent audio publisher Oasis. With the exception of Oasis, the top 10 bestsellers were dominated by the major book publishers, led by Random H...
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Spoken-Word Audio Market Holds On by Jim Milliot - 06/29/2009
Much as book publishers are looking for ways to cope with the slow but steady move from print to digital products, publishers of spoken-word audio are dealing with the transition from a CD-driven market to one led by digital downloads. Statistics released last week by the Audio Publishers Association showed that CDs' share of the market fell from 78% in 2007 to 72% last year, while sales of dig...
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Audio Sales Slipped 6% in 2008 By Jim Milliot - 06/24/2009
Sales from the 30 companies that reported revenue to the Audio Publishers Association for its 2008 survey fell 6.7%, to $331 million. Digital downloads continued to increase its market share while CD sales fell back.
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