Audio Book News | Amazing Audiobook Project on Twitter: Will You Contribute?

Do you tweet? Twitter is a free social networking site that allows users to “tweet” their ideas, thoughts, or anything they like… as long as it is 140 characters or less.

This is not always as easy as it sounds. Condensing what you wish to communicate in a very limited way can be quite a challenge, but creating an audiobook sounds like a huge undertaking.

It has been projected that by the end of this year, 18 million people will be using Twitter. Not bad for a site that is only 3 years old. Twitter is used by people for personal communication, as well as business advertising and moneymaking schemes. I joined Twitter this year, just to find out what was so appealing. Now I’m hooked.

You can follow actors, authors, musicians (be sure to see if the person you are looking at has been verified – there are a lot of impersonators out there), and companies. Following someone means that you will be able to view their tweets in your stream of Twitter information.

Now that you have a very brief Twitter background, let’s talk about this project. At 12:00pm EST on Tuesday, October 13, bestselling author Neil Gaiman will initiate the first entry in the world’s first audiobook generated by Twitter. After Gaiman tweets the first line, anyone can reply and add to the story.

The first 1000 tweets, after Gaiman’s, will be taken, edited, and arranged into a narrative. When the story is complete, it will be recorded (no mention as to who will be providing narration as yet) and available for free download from BBC America’s website, iTunes, and other online audiobook sites.

Are you curious? Interested in becoming involved? Here are the particulars: Get yourself a Twitter account if you don’t have one. Just go to twitter.com and sign up. Follow @BBCAA so you can see the first tweet. If you have an idea to contribute, make sure to begin with @BBCAA so that it appears as a reply to BBC Audiobooks America and includes the hashtag #bbcawdio, which identifies it as an entry for the book. That’s it! Just enter your idea and send it off.

By the way, while you’re on Twitter, be sure to follow @audioforbooks for tweets from this website. @audible.com has some interesting tweets with links to current audiobook news as well!

I am very excited to watch this play out and to hear the finished product. BBCAA will be updating their blog as the project move along, so be sure to check it out… What do you think of this project? Let me know!

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