Today we received an email from Hugh McGuire, the guy who started the fantastic LibriVox public domain audiobook community (with many of their source eBooks coming from Project Gutenberg), announcing the launch of his new audiobook company called Iambik Audio. In his email he says;
We are thrilled to announce the launch a new audiobook company – Iambik Audiobooks – based loosely on the LibriVox model, but working in tandem with publishers. We’ve got some great audiobooks from Lydia Millet, Gordon Lish, Felicia Luna Lemus, and Andrew Kaufman among others.
This looks a really interesting project and the fact that they use a revenue-share model with both the authors and narrators, this could be a really interesting way to boost both their salaries and reputations. Congrats go out to Hugh, I’m sure he will make Iambik a massive success.
You can access the website here; http://iambik.com
Here is the full Iambik Audio Press Release;
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Montreal – October 20, 2010
Hugh McGuire
hugh@iambik.com
We are pleased to announce Iambik Audio, a new kind of audiobook company, launching today with 11 literary fiction audiobooks from independent presses in the US and Canada. In the collection, Iambik is launching audiobooks of one giant of American letters, Gordon Lish (including a selection of stories read by Mr. Lish himself); one Pulitzer Prize finalist, Lydia Millet; and a number of newer and upcoming writers including Felicia Luna Lemus and J. Robert Lennon.
Iambik Audio was started by Hugh McGuire, founder of LibiriVox, the free public domain audiobook community, once called “the most interesting cultural collaborative project this side of Wikipedia.”
But whereas LibriVox helps anyone make free audiobooks of older public domain texts, Iambik connects talented voice actors with contemporary books from great publishers, and sells the audiobooks from iambik.com and distribution partners including Audible, Overdrive, and eMusic.
“When we were approached by Iambik to participate in their new venture, I was thrilled, since their aspirations and ways of thinking about books in the context of new and expanding media is very much in tune with our plans for the future,” says Chris Fischbach, Associate Publisher of Coffee House Press.
Iambik aims to change the way commercial audiobooks are made. For audiobook listeners, Iambik will offer hand-picked collections of audiobooks, a little off the beaten path, at reasonable prices (between $5 and $10) with no digital rights management—meaning they can be played on any computer or mobile device.
For publishers and authors, Iambik approaches everything as a partnership, by promoting print and ebooks, as well as selling audiobooks, and by giving healthy royalties on all sales.
For audiobook narrators and voice actors, Iambik is more of a partner than an employer, sharing revenues on all sales, and helping to secure audio rights for books narrators wish to record.
“We’re very happy to be involved in this innovative and timely initiative—audiobooks are back! And Iambik is the perfect forum for proving it, especially for a smaller press insistent on quality and literariness,” says Alana Wilcox of Coach House Books.
Iambik launches today, with 11 audiobooks for sale:
- All My Friends Are Superheroes, by Andrew Kaufman (Coach House Books), narrated by Gord Mackenzie
- Castle, by J. Robert Lennon (Graywolf Press), narrated by Mark Nelson
- Century, by Ray Smith (Biblioasis), narrated by Gord Mackenzie
- Collected Fictions (Vol 1 & Vol 2), by Gordon Lish (OR Books), narrated by Gregg Margarite and Gordon Lish
- Edge of Eden, by Helen Benedict (Soho Press), narrated by Ruth Golding
- The Hour, by Bernard de Voto (Tin House Books), narrated by John Greenman
- Icelander, by Dustin Long, (McSweeny’s and Movable Type Literary Group, agents), narrated by Miette
- The Impossibly, by Laird Hunt (Coffee House Press), narrated by Peter Yearsley
- Like Son, by Felicia Luna Lemus (Akashic Books), narrated by Kristin Hughes
- No Lease on Life, by Lynne Tillman (Cursor/Red Lemonade), narrated by Karen Savage
- Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, (Softskull/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Lippincott, Massie, McQuilkin, agents), narrated by Cori Samuel
About Iambik
Iambik Audio Inc. is a new audiobook company, started by Hugh McGuire, the founder of LibriVox.org, the free public domain audiobook community. Iambik partners with publishers and a global network of independent audiobook narrators to bring new audiobooks to the world.
Find out more at iambik.com.
For media requests, please contact:
Hugh McGuire
hugh@iambik.com
+1.514.464.2047