Would you pay $5.00 for a podiobook?

[evo]

We're helping three authors release their books in podiobook format on the Dragon Page website (http://dragonpage.com). All are in the SF/F (that's Science Fiction/Fantasy, for you neophytes) genre and are recored with great (for podcasts) quality.

I'm aware of at least one other book being released as a podiobook, but the quality is much lower. Hey, that's the great thing about this medium. Invest the tim and energy you think is necessary to get your point across.

My question goes out to those who would like to listen to a podiobook. I know you'll do it for free... but would you be willing to pay money to the author to do it? If so, how much? Consider that audiobooks (on CD) usually cost twice what you'd pay for the book in hardback edition. Completely insane as the hard costs are a fraction of what they are for a hardback. But I digress.

So again, would you pay to listen to a podiobook, where you got one chapter per week until the book was finished?

DISCLAIMER: No, we have no intentions of charging for the books we're distributing. Just thinking of the future...

Oh lookie! A survey feature, sheep dip. Why don't you just use that?

[allthewhile]

This is a great idea, it's just that it'd have to be the right genre and book for me to consider paying. So yeah, I'd pay, and I'm sure a lot of people would pay for something like this, as long as there's a book out there they'd like to hear.

[Craig]

For me it would also depend on the content, just as it would if I were buying an actual book. Rather than books on CD, however,, you'd be competing with audible.com which already has iPod support unless you offered a serialized version of something that wasn't otherwise available.

Craig

[allthewhile]

those darn audio books on audible are sooo expensive. and the selection isn't that great either. well, i guess my taste in books, particularly non-fiction dealing with early jesuit missions to the americas, the shroud of turin, eucharistic miracles, and the protestant reformation aren't in such a high demand. Give me some good chesterton or belloc as audio and I'm all about paying for it

:D

[yaz]

what the f is a podiobook? it sounds like a disease...

[kbachelder]

I have listened to audiobooks on tapes/CD for years and since getting an MP3 player last year I also tried Audible for a while which, as someone else commented, was expensive and the selection was limited. For a title I was really interested in I would probably pay $10-$15. You can find several books in MP3 version on eBay but I don't want to start the whole discussion about copyrights on those.


Kevin

P.S. Love the podcasts available from dragonpage.com!

[jeffoest]

As long as you can beat the audible's price. I did buy an audio book but never did get through it. I like the concept but still seem to go back to plain old reading.... Now if audible got their books to the $5.00-$10.00 range they would start to really have something - but at the $15 range, I would just assume buy the book.

[theFerf]

I cant read. It is a skill I have never been able to get down pat. I can read a line in a book of text 5 times and not realize it. Magzines and websites i can muster up the strength to get through, but books are usually a no-go.

So, to get on topic, i would pay for audio anything depending of course on content.

[owlet]

Because it's only a download without physical media I would pay less than a dead tree version.
And it absolutely needs to be plain mp3's without DRM so I can archive it.

Making payments from Finland is occasionally too difficult, so paying should not be too difficult from abroad. (Eg paypal isn't used here but Visa is popular.)

With podcasting becoming popular I can certainly see a renewed market in audiobooks.

BTW, I'm quite enjoying Morevi, EarthCore and Pocket&Pendant.

[iampetesmith]

I'd pay for it. It'd need to be good quality and unabridged, but I'd pay $1/chapter probably...assuming a chapter is at least 30 minutes long. I'd happily pay $5 for the whole thing. I too did the Audible thing for a while but it was too expensive.

I spent a couple hours a day commuting and I'd much rather listen to a book than cruddy radio. I think I spent $25 for my last audio book (on DVD) so $5 is a bargain.

[evo]

BTW, I'm quite enjoying Morevi, EarthCore and Pocket&Pendant.

Very cool! I'll be sure and let the guys know! And thanks to everyone who has voted and offered up their opinions. We shall see what the future brings...

E.