Making Book...

[thewrittenwyrd.livejournal.com]

Something I saw at the library that holds promise as a new distribution outlet for authors: a new company called Playaway is offering small self contained audio book players the size of a Walkman to public libraries for checkout.   I understand they already have hundreds of titles available.   The works are performed by professional actors, so the quality should be better than some self made audio books.   Interesting!

Comments

Cool!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

That does sound useful. Thanks for sharing!

[eseme]

Well, they're not new. They've been in business for at least four years now. It's just that most people outside of the library field haven't heard of them (it seems bookstores don't sell Playaways, just audio CDs).

They are not in every library - the problem with the product is that it is hard to change the contents of the device, many audiobook listeners are older patrons who have trouble seeing and they don't want to learn how to use a new thing, and there is the problem of how to handle things like the batteries (Send it out with new batteries? What if they die during the three weeks the person has it out? Use rechargeable batteries? What if *they* die while the person has it out? Have people provide their own batteries?).

This part of the site http://playaway.com/custom-made/ implies that any book can be put on the devices. I am not sure whether those "customs" make it into the general catalog for ordering. I'm relatively confident that Playaway will not hire a professional actor for a book that has not already shown promise to sell well in print. They need to make back that investment.

The libraries I have worked at purchase audiobooks the same way they purchase print books - they look for reviews of the title.

Which is an issue for self-published or crowdfunded works. Library budgets are not getting bigger these days. Indeed, double-digit percentage cuts are all too common. When book budgets go down, libraries (who can't buy everything in the best of times) tend to stick with what they know their patrons want. Which is generally anything mentioned on a TV or radio program, or the New York Times or USA Today lists. Or by James Patterson, which at this point is something like 12 books a year... Librarians don't get paid to read and can't read everything themselves, so we turn to trusted review sources (or titles by authors who have proved popular in the past).

The custom Playaways might work for a crowdfunded author looking to sell them him or herself, or for some sort of promotion. But in low volumes (not selling thousands of units) you would probably be back to making the sound recording yourself, as hiring actors is expensive.