Books are loud!
Posted: Friday, 4th November 2011
WHAT could be more entertaining than listening to crime, comedy or romance on your ipod?
That’s the business idea behind a new publisher set up by MMU graduates and supported by colleagues in the Departments of English and Contemporary Arts.
Books Are Loud, set up by five women who met at while studying Creative Writing, was launched this week by Carol Ann Duffy, director of the Manchester Writing School at MMU.
Publishing novels, poetry, children’s stories and non-fiction in audio format , they launched their first five books at a University sponsored event.
The Only Living Boy
Among the five are two creative writing students from MMU Cheshire and senior lecturer and author Robert Graham, whose the Only Living Boy was first published in print by Salt.
Book Are Loud spokeswoman Julia Franklin said: “You can see joggers, commuters and shoppers all totally absorbed by what they can hear on their ipods. We want to bring them a really good read and I think that with our first five titles, we’ve done that.’
"I don’t think anyone else in the UK is doing quite the same thing as us. We record new work of real quality and get them turned into digital downloads, though Amazon company Audible.
"We were thrilled to bits that Carol Ann was able to come and support our event’, she’s a lecturer, Poet Laureate, and helps with countless writing and reading initiatives and she still made time for us and our launch. It made a huge difference to the turn out on the night. Literally hundreds of her fans were there to meet her."
Debut collection
Recording the work of friends on the MA course was a natural next step, they say. The debut Collection includes: Flesh and Bronze by Alison Leonard, Cappuccinos by Diana Bradley, Tar – The Wandering, by Helen Sea, Turn Up for the book by Julia Franklin and The Only Living Boy by Robert Graham.
All of these titles are available now from Books Are Loud which plans to record another 35 titles this year, giving good new writing an airing it might not otherwise have.