Ryan MacMillan

When I were but a wee nipper (which isn’t actually all that long ago) I used to listen to books on tape. They were brilliant. Bernard Cribbins read most of the ones I liked such as Treasure Island, Wind in the Willows, Famous Five et al. Whimsical journeys down memory lane aside what you’ll notice is that all of these books on tape (or, as they later became, CD and even more recently digital download) are of pre-existing works of fiction. I’m sure the odd pedant might point out that Radio 4 does a good line in radio plays but, dear pedant, they are plays, not novels.

So, where is this waffle going? Well, Audible.com, in patrnership with (who else) iTunes, are releasing the worlds very first novel that exists only as a digital audiobook. Written by no less than 15 sepearte authors and read by Alfred Molina (you know, Doc Ock from Spiderman 2!) The Chopin Manuscript offers a “dickensian publishing experience“. It will be released in chapterly instalments once a week for the very reasonable (?) price of $22 a month.

Passing fad? Paradigm shift? Best Seller? Most likely this will develop its only little niche in the web 2.0-verse and only gain mainstream recognition when J.K.Successful-author dips a toe in.