Feb 3 2009
Video Book Poll
[poll id="149"]HarperCollins debuted its first video book. For $10.00 you can watch a 23 min video of the author of What Would Google Do? Author gets a 25% royalty for these babies. I’m only paying if the authors do dramatic reenactments ala Gena Showalter’s interpretive dance of Kresley Cole books.
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Feb 04, 2009 @ 00:04:20
I answered maybe. I didn’t watch the preview of that book, because it looked SO boring: A man sitting in front of a white wall, probably just talking. If that’s all it is, just do an audiobook so we can listen while biking, jogging, walking, or driving/commuting.
But what I WOULD pay to view is rendered animations done by the “real authors”, or if they had complete control of the movie done by an animator. I watched a few Machinima movies, which were dreadful to me, because I’m not into gaming and war stuff. Later I watched a few animations made by MovieStorm (a free animated movie rendering software), and they were MUCH better than the machinima, except the stories were pretty lame compared to books by popular authors (I haven’t watched MovieStorm movies in a while, they might have improved since that time).
Unless an author thinks their book might be made into an actual “Hollywood” movie, I think it would be great fun to see their books rendered as an animation, using voice actors, even if they’re not ‘professional’ voice actors — as long as they weren’t too awful, and were understandable. How many popular books have been made into movies that disappointed the book fans because the director’s version was so different than what was in the book? If authors learned to render their own movies, then the movie would be much more true to the story IMO.
I think they’d make a great promo too, much more exciting than the “slideshow” moving photos types of promos that came out fairly recently.
Feb 04, 2009 @ 00:08:58
I already watch video books. They’re called movies. Harry Potter, anyone?
Way to advance literacy, first by buying a tape of someone reading a book for you, and now by producing videos of people reading books to you. What happened to reading books yourself?
Feb 04, 2009 @ 07:29:27
I’m not quite sure what they mean by ‘ultra-abridged’ but I assume it’s shorter then ‘abridged’ which is incredibly stupid.
I liked the response of Bad Beaver @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:51PM
With just video books, how will kids ever learn to spell C-R-A-P?
LMAO!!
I probably would buy one to see if I liked it but only if it was read by the author and only if it was done before the book was released in print or ebook.
Feb 04, 2009 @ 08:24:40
I don’t get it, I guess. Pay $10 to watch someone read you a book? Am I understanding that right?
Um…no. Maybe if they got the 30 Second Bunnies to do it in 23 minutes…then again, they’re funny because they tell the story in 30 seconds.
No, just…no.
Feb 04, 2009 @ 08:31:02
I object to the $10.00 cost.
Feb 04, 2009 @ 08:53:12
Word.
Feb 04, 2009 @ 09:08:19
OMG! I so want to see my books done by 30 Second Bunnies!!!
Feb 04, 2009 @ 09:24:57
ROFL!!!!
Feb 04, 2009 @ 14:16:35
VIDEO books??? Um, yeah, that’s a movie. Or a play. If it’s acted out, that’s what it is. If it’s not acted out, why WATCH?? Half the time, I don’t watch TV shows, just listen, anyway. Audiobook is, I think, plenty. And for me, would only be for long drives in the car. I work maybe 10 min. from home. I avoid leaving the island if at all possible. We just sold our house 650 miles away, so that long drive is gone, and when I drive to my parents, more than half the distance (or it feels like it anyway) is through Houston’s hideous traffic. You kind of have to concentrate to listen to an audio book. So I don’t even do that.
I did, on the other hand, just get my very own Sony reader… But I have to read all my Rita entries first…
Feb 04, 2009 @ 14:34:47
Of course I think 25 seconds of that would be bunnies doing what bunnies do . . . EEK!
Feb 04, 2009 @ 15:09:01
I don’t know Kalen but with what they did with Brokeback Mountain you may want to re-think that wish…. (but I want to see too if they do!)
Feb 04, 2009 @ 22:58:45
Uh . . . haven’t we had video books for nearly a hundred years? Aren’t they called “movies”?
Feb 04, 2009 @ 23:53:43
I keep thinking about the “Potter Puppet Pals.” Oh dear.