Bestselling and critically acclaimed author Neil Gaiman launched his own audiobook label. Known as Neil Gaiman Presents, the label uses the ACX platform from Amazon.com’s Audible.com.
Audiobook Creation Exchange is a marketplace where professional authors, agents, publishers, and other rights holders can post unused audiobook rights, where they will be matched with narrators, engineers, recording studios, and other producers capable of producing a finished audiobook.
Neil Gaiman Presents was announced some time ago, but the first five titles became available Tuesday. Gaiman sourced his selection from rights available on the ACX website, and will work with the company to promote both these titles and to encourage other creators to participate. He also recorded an introduction to each one.
Gaiman already had a relationship with Audible. Besides selling many of his titles narrated by other performers, it also offers audiobooks he has narrated, including: The Graveyard Book (the first to win both the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal); Coraline, which was made into an Oscar-nominated animated movie produced by Henry Selick; and Neverwhere, which Gaiman wrote based on his own script for the BBC hit television series of the same name.
“I 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,” Gaiman said. “ACX seems a brilliant way to change that. In an ideal world you should be able to listen to every book you love being 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.”
Related links:
Neil Gaiman Presents – http://tinyurl.com/3arvryc
Gaiman’s blog post – http://tinyurl.com/64ml7ro
Photo of Neil Gaiman by Kyle Cassidy, used under multi-license with GFDL and Creative Commons CC-BY 3.0.
