If you’re not sure what ePub is, don’t worry. It will soon be history.

This digital format, which has done as much in its own way as the Kindle to hyperdrive the e-book business, has been the industry’s workhorse ever since ePub 2.0 was officially adopted in 2007 as the standard for production of reflowable digital books. It is the building block for Sony, Apple, Google and other e-book formats.  Even Amazon, which has its own proprietary format, accepts submission of ePub files, which can then be converted to Kindle’s unique language. (See What is ePub and Why Is It Important to You?)

EPub is still a superb tool if all you want to do is read – or publish -  an e-book in English or another western tongue. But what if your native language is Chinese or Japanese or Arabic or Hebrew?  EPub is not up to the task of handling symbols and pictograms or languages written up and down or right to left.

Or what if you want to “read” a vook or an app replete with videos, music and other enhancements? The ePub format is simply inadequate to the challenge of creating these complex multimedia works.

Enter ePub3, a more global, complex, interactive, media-rich format perfectly suited for the demands of the next generation of book (if after it is completely enhanced it will be recognizable as a book). EPub3 is currently being reviewed and tested by publishers, developers and other interested parties with an eye to rollout in 2012.

In an interview in O’Reilly Radar, Book Master executive Bob Kasher highlights three significant features of the new format: language support, greater accessibility, and increased multimedia functionality.

1) Language Support. “Language support, Kasher explains, “will allow ePub3 to save and search non-Roman scripts — such as Japanese, Chinese and Arabic — as font characters rather than jpegs… It will truly internationalize ePub.”

2. Greater Accessibility. By “greater accessibility” Kasher means that the new format will be far friendlier to the visually impaired, employing so-called “DAISY” (Digital Accessible Information System) standards for digital talking books, according to the DAISY Consortium, the official international organization.

3. Support for Multimedia Applications. Finally, and foremost, “ePub3 will be much more adept at supporting multimedia capabilities for both HTML5-based devices and the coming generation of tablets supporting both Flash and HTML5. It is hoped that in doing so, ePub3 will help develop an enhanced ebook standard that can be used across a variety of media and content.”

HTML by the way is the language that governs most Internet websites, and HTML5 is being designed to accommodate the same demands of multimedia and interactivity for the Internet that ePub3 is designed for text. (See What is HTML5, and Why Should You Care?)

For those of us who are perfectly happy settling down with a plain old conventional bells-less and whistles-less e-book, don’t worry: ePub version 3.0 will be “backward compatible” with 2.0, the current standard, even though it will one day be looked at by our grandchildren as primitive and one-dimensional – just like us.

Read What to expect in EPUB3

Richard Curtis

This exciting announcement from Audible.
********************

NEWARK, NJ – May 12, 2011 – Audible, Inc., today announced the launch of ACX (ACX.com), a dynamic online audiobook rights marketplace, audiobook production platform and online sales system. The Audiobook Creation Exchange is a groundbreaking innovation that will allow any professionally published book, new or old, to become a professionally produced audiobook.

By directly connecting professional authors and other book rights holders with actors, studios, and publishers, ACX serves the tremendous demand for audiobooks created by the growth of the digital audiobook sector. ACX’s audiobook production platform allows authors and publishers access to the thousands of talented actors and studio professionals who bring books to life in audio.

To read the complete press release click here.

FOR RELEASE MAY 12, 2011

AUDIBLE LAUNCHES THE AUDIOBOOK CREATION EXCHANGE (ACX)

ACX is the first online platform that connects rights holders with established producers to enable any professionally published book to become an audiobook

NEWARK, NJ – May 12, 2011 – Audible, Inc., today announced the launch of ACX (ACX.com), a dynamic online audiobook rights marketplace, audiobook production platform and online sales system. The Audiobook Creation Exchange is a groundbreaking innovation that will allow any professionally published book, new or old, to become a professionally produced audiobook.

By directly connecting professional authors and other book rights holders with actors, studios, and publishers, ACX serves the tremendous demand for audiobooks created by the growth of the digital audiobook sector. ACX’s audiobook production platform allows authors and publishers access to the thousands of talented actors and studio professionals who bring books to life in audio. ACX enables online auditions and project management systems, and features programs to help authors learn how to narrate their own books. When an audiobook is created, ACX includes instant access to Audible.com’s digital distribution platform, and rewards authors and producers with a graduated royalty structure that can top out at 90%. ACX also provides sales acceleration tools that publishers, authors and narrators can use to earn special bonus royalties for sales they help generate.

“The brilliant performances of well-composed words that are packaged as audiobooks have emerged as a profound form of entertainment and a very fast-growing media category,” said Donald Katz, founder and CEO of Audible.com, which has developed the ACX.com marketplace website and underlying technologies. “But despite the efforts of many valued publishing partners, the creation of new audiobooks has not kept up with our progress. The Audible.com member base has experienced intensive and accelerating global growth, and our average member listens to close to 17 audiobooks per year. And yet the stunning fact is that close to 95% of new, professionally published books do not become audiobooks. Most authors and millions of avid listeners are disenfranchised from this important market. ACX was created to change this. Secondary rights to books are held in moral trust, and they are designed to be exploited instead of buried in file cabinets.”

Publishers and authors who own unused audiobook rights can post them on ACX, along with narration preferences (e.g., narrator’s gender, accents, voice types). Audio publishers and audio studios—as well as individual narrators with home studios—can search for titles that interest them and then audition to turn those rights into audiobooks. Rights holders can hire a narrator or producer, or create entrepreneurial partnerships with shared royalty structures that allow audiobooks to be produced without upfront costs. Alternatively, existing audio publishers can simply use ACX to discover audio rights to produce on their own.

Internationally best-selling author and screenwriter Neil Gaiman will use ACX to curate and produce his own line of handpicked titles, never before available in unabridged audio, to be called Neil Gaiman Presents and launching later in 2011. “When I first heard about ACX, I started to get excited,” said Gaiman. “I’ve loved narrating audiobooks—winning the Audiobook of the Year Audie Award for The Graveyard Book was one of my proudest moments—and am lucky in that almost all my books are now available in audiobook form. But I’m constantly astonished at how many great books, beloved books and books that have a special place in my heart are not and mostly never have been available as audiobooks. ACX seems a brilliant way to change that. In an ideal world, you should be able to listen to every book you love read by someone who’s perfect for it. Getting involved in ACX, and curating my own label within it, is my way of trying to help us get to that ideal world.”

About ACX, Chairman and CEO of Random House Markus Dohle said, “The leaders at Audible are great advocates for the audiobook consumer experience, and Random House is pleased to be a contributor to their newest initiative to broaden the list of available audio titles for everyone to enjoy.”

“For the many authors whose books haven’t been made in audio before, ACX marks not just a paradigm shift, but a major revenue and marketing opportunity,” said James Levine, Principal at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. “ACX gives authors and actors the chance to more directly nurture audiobooks, and gives authors control of the creative process. Authors are increasingly involved in promoting their work, and ACX offers strong financial incentives—and useful tools—to help them to do this even more.”

ACX is launching with over 1,000 titles, including works by multiple New York Times best-selling authors and by celebrated writers whose awards include the Pulitzer prize, the MacArthur Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Costa Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Nobel Prize. Participating rights holders include Random House, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., and Pearson Education; participating rights holders’ representatives include Janklow & Nesbit Associates, Writers House, and Levine Greenberg Literary Agency, Inc. ACX is seeking more titles from professional authors and book publishers.

The ACX stable of 100 professional audiobook narrators and audio producers includes three-time Audie Award winner Dick Hill, seven-time Audie nominee and recipient of 21 Earphones Awards Bill Dufris, noted producer-director and two-time Audie nominee Tavia Gilbert, and Audie winner Paul Boehmer, also known for appearances on Lost, House, and Nip/Tuck.

ACX has signed an agreement with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), enabling AFTRA audiobook professionals to work through the ACX platform. “We are pleased to have been involved in the early stages of development of ACX,” said Kim Roberts Hedgpeth, AFTRA’s National Executive Director. “ACX presents exciting possibilities for our members: it allows them to exercise control over their careers and empowers narrators to pursue specific books they want to bring to life.”

For further information, please contact Matthew Thornton at mthornton@audible.com or 973-820-0402.

http://www.audible.com/

About Audible.com

Audible (www.audible.com) is the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment on the Internet. Content from Audible is downloaded and played back on personal computers, CDs, or AudibleReady computer-based and wireless mobile devices. Audible has over 90,000 audio programs from more than 1,600 content providers that include leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Audible is the preeminent provider of spoken-word audio products for Apple’s iTunes Store. Audible, Audible.com, AudibleListener and AudibleReady are trademarks of Audible, Inc. or its affiliates. Other product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle with Special Offers and Kindle DX are the revolutionary portable readers that wirelessly download books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and personal documents to a crisp, high-resolution electronic ink display that looks and reads like real paper. Kindle 3G and Kindle DX utilize the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones, so users never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Kindle is the #1 bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, and www.amazon.it. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management’s expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

John Norman’s Tarnsman of Gor, the novel that launched one of the great science fiction sagas of all time, has just been released as an audio by Brilliance. It’s narrated by the astonishingly versatile Ralph Lister, who may well become the Voice of Gor.

According to Chronicles of Gor website, the place for all things Gorean, the second audio (Outlaw of Gor) is scheduled for August 15, 2010, Priest-Kings of Gor for October 15, 2010, and Nomads of Gor for December 15, 2010. Next year, on February 15th, 2011, Assassin of Gor will follow and on April 15, 2011, Raiders of Gor will be released.

Each book will be available in four different formats. Tarsnman for instance will be in a seven CD audio version, a single CD MP3 version, an online download, and two special Library editions with Brilliance’s unprecedented lifetime replacement guarantee. Prices vary depending on the chosen format. The total duration of the audio production is 8 hours. Subsequent books may vary in production time.

The 28 volume (and counting) Gorean Saga is E-Reads’ bestselling science fiction series. Visit the John Norman page to see a complete list of all titles in the series plus the wonderful Telnarian Trilogy, Imaginative Sex, and other classic Norman works.

Richard Curtis

Fans of John Norman’s Gorean saga (we’re up to Volume 28 and counting) will be happy to learn of the forthcoming debut of Gor on Audio.  Brilliance Audio will release Tarnsman of Gor, the first volume, on June 15th 2010.

According to Chronicles of Gor website, the place for all things Gorean, the second novel (Outlaw of Gor) is scheduled for August 15, 2010, Priest-Kings of Gor for October 15, 2010, and Nomads of Gor for December 15, 2010. Next year, on February 15th, 2011, Assassin of Gor will follow and on April 15, 2011, Raiders of Gor will be released. Each book will be available in four different formats. Tarsnman for instance will be in a seven CD audio version, a single CD MP3 version, an online download, and two special Library editions with Brilliance’s unprecedented lifetime replacement guarantee. Prices vary depending on the chosen format. The total duration of the audio production is 8 hours. Subsequent books may vary in production time.

The saga will be narrated by the astonishingly versatile Ralph Lister, and if you’ll click here you can hear some samples of his voice.  (Quicktime 6 or higher may be required)

Which voice – or voices – will he use for Gor?  We can’t wait to learn!

The Gorean Saga is E-Reads’ bestselling science fiction series. Visit the John Norman page to see a complete list of all titles in the series plus the wonderful Telnarian Trilogy, Imaginative Sex, and other classic Norman works.

Richard Curtis

In our posting about Cory Doctorow’s second article in Publishers Weekly (about his Lovers Quarrel with Audio) we found an appropriate illustration, a baby clapping hands over ears (below).

Doctorow has gone one better and sent us a photo of himself (r.) in the same pose.

Thanks, Cory!

Just to summarize, in his second PW piece Doctorow 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.

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.

Lynn Andriani of Publishers Weekly reports that “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. The audiobook will be available for free download at BBCAudiobooksAmerica.com/trade and at iTunes and other audiobook retailers before the end of the year. There are no plans to release the story in print.”

I have a capacious 10 gallon hat that I am prepared to eat if no more than 1,000 fans contribute. I won’t be surprised if the number goes deep into the tens of thousands or even exceeds 100k. This is Neil Gaiman, people!

To participate, fans should follow @BBCAA and Tweet with the hashtag #bbcawdio. Official participation rules and a legal waiver are posted on the BBCAA blog. We suggest you read the legal waiver.

Logical next step – a vook? (Would-be vookster Gaiman pictured at left).

RC

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

Publishers Weekly reports that his year’s Book Expo America looked and felt smaller than any in recent memory. Was it a predictable dip caused by the economy? Or the first shovelful of soil dug in the graveyard, as book industry prophet Mike Shatzkin recently speculated?

Notable in their scarcity were advance reading copies of forthcoming books being pushed by exhibiting publishers. Traditionally, experienced convention-crawlers line up at the gates early in the morning and, like Black Friday shoppers, the moment the green light is flashed they charge to booths with swagbags agape, scooping up any and every bound galley they can get their hands on whether they’re seriously interested in the titles or not. This year, however, there were far fewer ARCs on display, as PW’s Lynn Andriani reported, and trophy-hunters had to be satisfied with downloadable simulacra. But one of these has seized our attention and given it a good shake. “Traffic moved freely at the HarperCollins booth,” writes Andriani, “where the publisher was giving out Symtio cards carrying digital versions of its galleys.”

You might want to commit the word “Symtio” to your memory, as I suspect you will be hearing a lot about it in the near future. Craig Morgan Teicher, another PW reporter, explains it:

The concept: stores stock and sell Symtio cards, which are good for downloads of particular e-books or audiobooks from the Symtio site. Consumers can access the site only by entering the code from the card bought at a store, but once they’re logged on, they can buy more books, and the purchases are credited back to the store where the card was bought, meaning retailers can make more sales following the sale of a single Symtio card.

Symtio was created by Verne Kenny for Zondervan, a religious imprint of HarperCollins. More than two dozen publishers and hundreds of retail locations signed up after market tests indicated strong support for the concept. We support it too: in theory it provides a critically important bridge between brick and mortar bookstores and the digital sphere.

The company’s website details the operation:

Symtio is the easiest way to buy digital media in a retail store. Digital books, both eBook and audiobook, are released the same day as print books and available for immediate download. That means you’ll always be able to get the latest releases no matter how you choose to read them. Plus, we keep track of your purchases in a media footlocker. If your computer crashes or you accidentally delete your downloads, we’ve got backups that you can re-download at no extra cost.

Among the benefits users get when they create an account:

• A “Media footlocker” where you can store your Symtio purchases.”Think of it as backup protection—your purchases are safe if your computer crashes or your hard drive fails.”
• Re-download—”You can come back to symtio.com at any time and re-download your digital purchases.
• Order history—The service keeps track of your purchases and provides you with historical data such as date, time, cost and number of times you’ve downloaded your purchases.
• Product Gift Cards – “Giving a Symtio digital product card says you’ve thought about your gift, much as when you used to give bound books or music. While Symtio products have the feel and convenience of a gift card, the difference is that you’ve hand picked and purchased a specific product with the recipient in mind.”
• DRM-free – To download an e-book, you select your device from a drop-down menu, then choose the appropriate file format. For audio you can use any MP3 player or supported media program to download digital products.

Of particular interest was the procedure for downloading e-books. Though not wireless, it is largely device-agnostic, and that includes (choirs of angels raise their voices) Macs.

Once a Symtio eBook is downloaded to your computer, transfer it to your digital media reader such as a Sony Personal Reader, PDA or personal computer as you would any other file. Or, if you prefer, you can read Symtio eBooks right on your Windows or Macintosh computer as long as you have a program that reads the format you purchased.

Supported hardware includes:

* Windows computer
* Macintosh computer
* Sony Reader Digital Book (PRS-505 and PRS-700)
* Amazon Kindle
* Palm based PDA or Smart Phone
* Windows Mobile based PDA or Smart Phone
* Symbian Smart Phone (Nokia and others)

Supported software includes:

* Adobe Digital Editions (.epub)
* Adobe Reader (.pdf)
* Mobipocket (.prc)
* Microsoft Reader (.lit)

Will consumers go for it? According to PW, they have done so in spades: Symtio sold “thousands of products in the first 10 weeks,” Kenny told PW. “Not only were people finding the bestsellers but they were browsing to find the backlist.”

“Retailers are obviously concerned about the loss of traffic to online stores,” Kenny, noted in the grandest understatement to come out of this year’s BEA. “I thought, what could the consumer do inside a retail setting to buy digital content. Out of that grew the idea of Symtio.”

You can visit the firm’s website and read up on the Symtio cards FAQ. The site also has a store locator. We entered our zip code a few others at random and for now the bookstores are pretty much all dedicated to Christian literature. But it’s hard to believe the product will expand not just to other HarperCollins imprints but to other publishers as well.

And why limit the products to books and the stores to bookstores? Let your imagination soar. Mine is working overtime.

Richard Curtis

Which is Better, Jump Off Bridge or Stick Head in Oven?

That may be one of the panel discussion topics when audio publishers convene, as they do every year, a day or two before the commencement of Book Expo America, the publishing industry’s annual celebration of itself. According to Associated Press’s Hillel Italie, “The Association of American Publishers has seen a 47 percent drop in audio revenue this year: Just 14 publishers reported, but they include Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and virtually all the major New York companies.”

Since many people have been under the impression that audiobooks were flying high, this tailspin is bewildering until you hear Anthony Goff, president of the APA, explain that it has to do with CD sales. Like other tangible products such as printed books, physical audiobooks are giving way to their digital successors. But – again, like books – the e-versions don’t generate a fraction of the profit that their material counterparts do. At least not yet. At least not enough to reverse a 20% plunge in CD sales this year over the same period in 2008. Nielsen BookScan projects a total drop in the audio business for this year of almost 5%.

Though CDs are expensive to manufacture, package and distribute, their high prices can bring handsome profits if the volume of sales is high. But volume has been hobbled. “The shrinking economy has had a very direct impact,” says Italie. “The fewer people who work, the fewer people who drive to work. And many audio customers listen in their cars, more than half, according to Chris Lynch, executive vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Audio.”

RC