Last month we reported that Cory Doctorow (that’s not he at the right) had launched a monthly column in Publishers Weekly dedicated to monitoring his venture into book publishing. “Doctorow, whose brash and sometimes subversive-sounding publishing strategies have made him a folk hero to his fans and generated intense controversy in the mainstream publishing community, has laid siege to the very ramparts of that community by wagering that he’s at least as good a publisher as they are,” we wrote. “Maybe, even, a better one. And he’s thrown down the gauntlet in the industry’s very own trade publication, Publishers Weekly.” You can read about it in What Publishers Can Learn from Cory Doctorow.

In his second essay, he describes the challenge of getting audio versions of his books produced. His only condition is that he has to be satisfied, and that’s a bit of a problem, because Doctorow’s satisfaction quotient does not sit on the same coordinates as those by which the rest of us measure pleasure. Still, in chronicling his adventures in audioland he does not come off as unreasonable. To the contrary, his annoyance with proprietary restrictions, generically known as “DRM” – Digital Rights Management – is something that bothers e-book readers as well as audiophiles.

Doctorow’s quest for an ideal audio experience will benefit all of us and, we hope, enable producers to give customers better products and services.

Check out Can You Hear Me Now? and you’ll see what we mean.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by Publishers Weekly.