For hot author's latest, get out your headphones
NEW YORK -- Audible says the novel— which Deaver describes as "The Day of the Jackal meets The Da Vinci Code" — will be the first major work of fiction created to be introduced only as an audio download.
In addition, it's the first project in which Audible also owns a piece of the ancillary rights, which could pay off if it becomes a printed book or film.
"This was a case where it didn't exist, and we felt it ought to exist," says Audible CEO Donald Katz, 55.
His company is the leading spoken-word audio-download service, with more than 40,000 narrated books, newspapers and magazines — many of which it records — as well as paid podcasts, lectures and performances.
Narrated by actor Alfred Molina, Chopin's first three chapters will be available on Audible.com on Sept. 25. It will add two chapters a week over the subsequent seven weeks.
The price: $19.95, with 20% off for pre-orders.
Katz, a former business journalist, hopes that the splashy release will reinforce an image for Audible as "the HBO of audio." The company he co-founded now is finding its footing following several unexpected turns in its 15-year history.
Chopin began as a fundraising project for a group called the International Thriller Writers (ITW).
Deaver agreed to write an opening chapter establishing the characters and the premise of the story. He passed it along to a "Murderers' Row" of 15 colleagues, including Lee Child (Bad Luck and Trouble), Joseph Finder (Power Play), Lisa Scottoline (Daddy's Girl) and Jim Fusilli (Hard Hard City).
Each wrote a successive chapter before sending it back to Deaver, who tied things up in the last two chapters.
Knowing this work would begin life as an audiobook affected the writing, Deaver says. Best for listeners, he says, "is pithy dialogue and descriptive passages, so when they're driving down I-95, they'll be able to picture this and it will stay with them. I found it a lot easier than writing a traditional, written novel. I'd definitely like to do a project again."
