Comments on: The benefits of serializing audiobooks http://www.podiobooks.com/blog/2007/02/20/284/ News from the Staff of Podiobooks.com Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:24:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3 By: Evo http://www.podiobooks.com/blog/2007/02/20/284/#comment-19369 Evo Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:11:47 +0000 http://www.podiobooks.com/blog/2007/02/20/284/#comment-19369 Bert - While there is no doubt that subscription numbers on books can and do raise when the book is finished, I feel the need to put your perceived risks in perspective. The vast majority of our in-progress books do in fact complete. In fact, of the 95 titles we currently have live on the system, only three of them appear to be in some sort of extended limbo. That's a pretty small percentage. Also, we have a system that notifies us when a book is "slow". We contact the author and see how we can help. The biggest motivator for an author is to know that folks are listening, waiting on new chapters. Bert -

While there is no doubt that subscription numbers on books can and do raise when the book is finished, I feel the need to put your perceived risks in perspective. The vast majority of our in-progress books do in fact complete. In fact, of the 95 titles we currently have live on the system, only three of them appear to be in some sort of extended limbo. That’s a pretty small percentage.

Also, we have a system that notifies us when a book is “slow”. We contact the author and see how we can help. The biggest motivator for an author is to know that folks are listening, waiting on new chapters.

]]> By: Bert http://www.podiobooks.com/blog/2007/02/20/284/#comment-19366 Bert Mon, 26 Feb 2007 14:44:11 +0000 http://www.podiobooks.com/blog/2007/02/20/284/#comment-19366 Listening to a book before it is completed is risky. What if it is never finished and you're left hanging in the middle of the story? Some books have been incomplete for several months (such as the ex-wifes). Is a new installment forthcoming? Or did the author get bored and simply quit? Each to his own, but I personally won't start listening to an audio book anymore until it's completely finished and on my harddrive. Have fun, Bert Listening to a book before it is completed is risky. What if it is never finished and you’re left hanging in the middle of the story?

Some books have been incomplete for several months (such as the ex-wifes). Is a new installment forthcoming? Or did the author get bored and simply quit?

Each to his own, but I personally won’t start listening to an audio book anymore until it’s completely finished and on my harddrive.

Have fun,
Bert

]]> By: erik http://www.podiobooks.com/blog/2007/02/20/284/#comment-19280 erik Sun, 25 Feb 2007 17:24:27 +0000 http://www.podiobooks.com/blog/2007/02/20/284/#comment-19280 "I don’t like going there and seeing lots of completed podiobooks; one of the things I find so compelling about podcasting is following along with things that are brand new." Thank god for the flexibility of the system! I can't stand the preverbial ...to be continued... If I am really in to a book the last thing I want to do is wait a week for the next 30-45 mins of reading. To each his own even I suppose. "There are too many books, and just finding stuff that interests me by chance requires a lot of time or extremely good luck." Oy? Maybe it's just me, and my partiality on the part of being totally blind and getting most of my information audibly anyway, but how can one have too many audiobooks? I can easily read 3 unabridged audiobooks a week, especially when I am working or in the summer when I walk all around town with an earphone on one ear. It's always nice to see podiobooks.com growing, but honestly. 100 titles isn't an overwelming prospect, especially when you consider that a large preportion are in the scifi and fantacy genras. How does he choose his 2 audible titles a month or whatever I wonder. I'm sure this guy is in a very small demographic of users who think too much choice is a good thing. For myself, I plan to listen to a very large per sentage of the podiobooks.com catalog, and the order in which I do that depends purely on whim of the moment. “I don’t like going there and seeing lots of completed
podiobooks; one of the things I find so compelling about podcasting is following
along with things that are brand new.”
Thank god for the flexibility of the system! I can’t stand the preverbial …to be continued… If I am really in to a book the last thing I want to do is wait a week for the next 30-45 mins of reading. To each his own even I suppose.
“There are too many books, and just finding stuff that
interests me by chance requires a lot of time or extremely good luck.”
Oy? Maybe it’s just me, and my partiality on the part of being totally blind and getting most of my information audibly anyway, but how can one have too many audiobooks? I can easily read 3 unabridged audiobooks a week, especially when I am working or in the summer when I walk all around town with an earphone on one ear.
It’s always nice to see podiobooks.com growing, but honestly. 100 titles isn’t an overwelming prospect, especially when you consider that a large preportion are in the scifi and fantacy genras. How does he choose his 2 audible titles a month or whatever I wonder.

I’m sure this guy is in a very small demographic of users who think too much choice is a good thing. For myself, I plan to listen to a very large per sentage of the podiobooks.com catalog, and the order in which I do that depends purely on whim of the moment.

]]> By: paul http://www.podiobooks.com/blog/2007/02/20/284/#comment-18953 paul Wed, 21 Feb 2007 15:09:46 +0000 http://www.podiobooks.com/blog/2007/02/20/284/#comment-18953 I really like Duane's idea of using a "people who subscribed to this book also subscribed to..."system . As a listener/consumer/reader I find this a really useful tool on sites like Amazon, for example, and as the podcast novel format grows I would imagine that it would be a little less controversial and much fairer than the dreaded "five star" rating system that so many websites use, which really tells you nothing useful. Its also much kinder to those podcasters who, at the end of the day, actually go to the trouble of writing, reading and uploading their books for FREE for us punters to enjoy. I really like Duane’s idea of using a “people who subscribed to this book also subscribed to…”system . As a listener/consumer/reader I find this a really useful tool on sites like Amazon, for example, and as the podcast novel format grows I would imagine that it would be a little less controversial and much fairer than the dreaded “five star” rating system that so many websites use, which really tells you nothing useful.

Its also much kinder to those podcasters who, at the end of the day, actually go to the trouble of writing, reading and uploading their books for FREE for us punters to enjoy.

]]> By: TString http://www.podiobooks.com/blog/2007/02/20/284/#comment-18874 TString Tue, 20 Feb 2007 22:16:25 +0000 http://www.podiobooks.com/blog/2007/02/20/284/#comment-18874 Well I'm here from Falcon Twin, so you can thank Bman for at least one new listener (and from the forums, quite a few more than 1). Anyway, for the rating system. Possibilities: Develop a ratio of "Episode 1:Episode X" downloads that could be used to track people's interest. I.E. track people who download Episode 1, and develop a rating based on whether or not they come back for more. Problems: Vulnerable to 'subscribe and forget,' doesn't track ongoing books very well. "People who subscribe to X also subscribe to Y" Solid, if unexciting. I'd throw in a bias towards new content in there which should correct for things like one great book showing up everywhere. Maybe ratchet the bias up for long-term subscribers (i.e. the longer you've been a member, the newer the content that you see is). Bias is hard to program, in my humble experience - at least properly. "We Recommend..." The user fills out a short questionarre, and gets feedback based on what other people with similar responses subscribe to. Obviously, the more people fill it out, the more people will WANT to fill it out. That's a flaw of the system, though (the first person will get zero benefit, at least initially - actually, more like the first hundred). Well I’m here from Falcon Twin, so you can thank Bman for at least one new listener (and from the forums, quite a few more than 1).

Anyway, for the rating system.
Possibilities:

Develop a ratio of “Episode 1:Episode X” downloads that could be used to track people’s interest. I.E. track people who download Episode 1, and develop a rating based on whether or not they come back for more.

Problems: Vulnerable to ’subscribe and forget,’ doesn’t track ongoing books very well.

“People who subscribe to X also subscribe to Y” Solid, if unexciting. I’d throw in a bias towards new content in there which should correct for things like one great book showing up everywhere. Maybe ratchet the bias up for long-term subscribers (i.e. the longer you’ve been a member, the newer the content that you see is). Bias is hard to program, in my humble experience - at least properly.

“We Recommend…” The user fills out a short questionarre, and gets feedback based on what other people with similar responses subscribe to. Obviously, the more people fill it out, the more people will WANT to fill it out. That’s a flaw of the system, though (the first person will get zero benefit, at least initially - actually, more like the first hundred).

]]> By: Duane http://www.podiobooks.com/blog/2007/02/20/284/#comment-18847 Duane Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:19:44 +0000 http://www.podiobooks.com/blog/2007/02/20/284/#comment-18847 If this (recommendation engine) is true, Evo, then I hope you're going in a different direction than the typical "rate it 1-5 and leave a comment" system that so many directories do. Those just don't provide a meaningful amount of information for finding new podcasts. If anything they make it worse for us listeners because it encourages the authors to nag "Go vote for me!" every episode. And then all you end up getting anyway is people either voting 1 and saying they hated it, or 5 and saying they loved it, and very rarely anything useful in the middle. Ironically the people that do write a small treatise on the subject end up getting ignored because nobody has that kind of attention span anymore. You can't win. :) What I'd like to see is something more along the lines of "People who subscribed to this book also subscribed to..." because it's harder to stuff the ballot box that way. You could measure people who are actively subscribed, not just people who subscribed and then cancelled. Subscribing and then cancelling could even be seen as a different sort of information, since it's a different behavior than never subscribing at all. I'm willing to give lots of books a try, but I have no problem bailing out on them if I find myself hitting that skip button and never coming back to it. Duane If this (recommendation engine) is true, Evo, then I hope you’re going in a different direction than the typical “rate it 1-5 and leave a comment” system that so many directories do. Those just don’t provide a meaningful amount of information for finding new podcasts. If anything they make it worse for us listeners because it encourages the authors to nag “Go vote for me!” every episode. And then all you end up getting anyway is people either voting 1 and saying they hated it, or 5 and saying they loved it, and very rarely anything useful in the middle. Ironically the people that do write a small treatise on the subject end up getting ignored because nobody has that kind of attention span anymore. You can’t win. :)

What I’d like to see is something more along the lines of “People who subscribed to this book also subscribed to…” because it’s harder to stuff the ballot box that way. You could measure people who are actively subscribed, not just people who subscribed and then cancelled. Subscribing and then cancelling could even be seen as a different sort of information, since it’s a different behavior than never subscribing at all. I’m willing to give lots of books a try, but I have no problem bailing out on them if I find myself hitting that skip button and never coming back to it.

Duane

]]>