Audible Launches "Neil Gaiman Presents” on the Audiobook Creation Exchange

Audible, Inc., today announced the launch of Neil Gaiman Presents, a bespoke line of audiobooks personally selected by the internationally best-selling author and screenwriter, and then produced on the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX.com). Gaiman, an avid reader as well as an award-winning audiobook narrator and connoisseur of spoken-word performance, has chosen some of his favorite works of fiction and nonfiction with their specific attributes for audio in mind, and then personally supervised the casting for each book so that each author’s work is performed by that book’s ideal narrator.

Gaiman explained, "I’ve picked books I loved and wanted more people to find, and worked as closely as I could with each author to find just the right narrator for each audiobook.” Gaiman has written and recorded an introduction to each audiobook produced under his label.

ACX, an online audiobook rights marketplace and audiobook production platform that matches book rights holders with narrators and producers, has facilitated the audiobook production of the books Gaiman has chosen for Neil Gaiman Presents.

The first of these new productions are scheduled for release today. The initial list of Neil Gaiman Presents audiobooks highlights an eclectic group of literary masters whose works ought to have been in audio but for the time in which they were published, including New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Carroll’s The Land of Laughs; Robert Sheckley’s influential Dimension of Miracles, narrated by John Hodgman; Keith Roberts’ landmark work of alternate history, Pavane; Ellen Kushner’s classic Swordspoint, the production of which features multicast dramatizations interspersed with the author’s narration; and The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy, collecting for the first time in any format all of the Dr. Eszterhazy stories by the Hugo- and Edgar Award-winning Avram Davidson. "The books in the Neil Gaiman Presents line aren’t any one thing,” said Gaiman. "They wander from genre to genre. I don’t like just one kind of book, after all.”

Many of Gaiman’s picks already in the pipeline are planned for production via ACX and will be released under the Neil Gaiman Presents aegis throughout 2012 and beyond. The full list of titles comprising the Neil Gaiman Presents label at launch is:

The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill

The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll

You Must Go and Win by Alina Simone

Light by M. John Harrison

Pavane by Keith Roberts

Figures of Earth by James Branch Cabell

The High Place by James Branch Cabell

Jurgen by James Branch Cabell

White Apples by Jonathan Carroll

The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy by Avram Davidson

Viriconium by M. John Harrison

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

Anita by Keith Roberts

Was by Geoff Ryman

Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley

Green Phoenix by Thomas Burnett Swann

"Neil’s passions align perfectly with the goals of ACX, which is why we are so thrilled he’s launching Neil Gaiman Presents through the ACX service,” said Donald Katz, founder and CEO of Audible.com, which has developed the ACX.com marketplace website and underlying technologies. "Neil is a longtime advocate for audio, and his profound respect for the enduring literary tradition of storytelling, and his appreciation for the pleasures of being read to, inspire all of us at Audible.”

"I love audiobooks,” added Gaiman. "I don’t remember a time I didn’t love listening to stories. I think that listening to a book performed well is its own special thing, a unique experience, combining the joy of a dramatic performance with the special relationship a reader has with a book. Sharing books I love, and helping to make them available in audio, is great fun and an enormous privilege.”

ACX, which launched this past May, currently has over 400 audiobooks in production, with almost 100 audiobooks already available for purchase at Audible.com. Offering rights holders unparalleled access to top-flight narrators and producers, and helping empower actors to seek out and audition for exciting projects, ACX is giving an increasing number of books and authors a new life in audio, while introducing these previously unavailable titles to a fervent and ever-growing audiobook audience.

For further information, please contact Matthew Thornton at mthornton@audible.com or 973-820-0402.

http://www.audible.com/

http://www.acx.com/

http://www.audible.com/mt/Neil_Gaiman_Presents

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Audible (www.audible.com) is the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment on the Internet. Content from Audible is downloaded and played back on personal computers, CDs, or AudibleReady computer-based and wireless mobile devices. Audible has over 100,000 audio programs from more than 1,800 content providers that include leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Audible is the preeminent provider of spoken-word audio products for Apple’s iTunes Store. Audible, Audible.com, AudibleListener and AudibleReady are trademarks of Audible, Inc. or its affiliates. Other product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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