murder.booklocker.com

When my novel, PARK RIDGE: A Senior Center Murder, was first published, one of my friends said that it was a shame that it wasn’t on CD. She does a lot a driving and likes listening to books to pass the time.

Back in September, I did some preliminary research into converting it using TextAloud. The price was right (it’s since gone up but it’s still a good price), but I didn’t like the idea that I would have to purchase an ATT voice if I really wanted any quality.

I followed up on that and found a blog (Blogging about Books) which mentioned a licensing issue. This is what it said:

“Thanks to Ken Wilson for alerting me to the licensing problem. He has been using TextAloud from years, and says he’s very happy with it. He makes MP3s of public domain books and provides them on CD, free for the blind. He wanted to use the AT&T Voices, because they are so much better than the default (Microsoft Windows) ones. But he was told that to do so he would have to pay about $1000 for a special license. Instead, he stayed with the default voices. You can find out more about his service at a page I’ve created for him at my site.”

I wasn’t happy to hear that since I had visions of making my own CDs, etc. (insert ecstatic vision imagery) So I let the idea simmer.

Now, six or seven months later, the notion has resurrected itself. Randy Richardson’s decision to offer his e-Book free is not one I have the option of making. I am under contract with BookLocker.com and they’re selling it on their site for $8.95.

Imagine that days pass.

I have no idea how I stumbled on to the Blind Bookworm site. But once there, I popped an email off asking if they knew anything about TextAloud. We exchanged emails and — GUESS who’s getting their book reviewed! (By the way, Kestrell says that her screen reader handled my eBook just fine.)

It was that exchange that triggered the notion that there was something I could do that had little to do with marketing or giving my friend a copy for her car ride. I could actually provide a service.

So this morning I went searching yet again. Did you know that “State libraries for the blind in Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, New Hampshire, and Oregon, along with the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), part of the Library of Congress, have partnered to launch a digital audiobook service for visually impaired users”? (here’s the link)

Since Illinois (which is where I am if you didn’t already know) was participating, I sent an email off to Sharon Ruda, the Illinois State Library Talking Book and Braille Service Director. I told her that I would like to make my book available as part of their pilot project.

It turns out that the particular program referenced by the zine article above uses a subscription service to get their books. HOWEVER, she suggested the Lobe Library, which is a digital talking book library which began service July 1, 2003. Residents in Illinois, New Jersey, Mississippi, Montana, Hawaii, and Idaho are eligible for the project.According to the website:

Why are you offering this?

The National Library Service has announced that they are working on offering digital talking books to talking book patrons in 2008.

As talking book centers, we think it is important to stay abreast of new technologies and begin offering books in this format to interested readers. We will continue to look into new technologies and delivery of books in new formats to provide high quality service to our readers.

What Lobe Library does is loan MP3-like players to interested readers loaded with a digital audiobooks with no charge to use the player or for postage.

Right now the plan is for the state to convert the file I’ve given them and make it available through the library. I’ll keep you posted.