Vampire scribe extraordinaire Anne Rice just agreed to make a video-enhanced book or Vook for the iTunes store.
Her effort may provide a necessary lifeblood to the genre, even though she’s not risking much by giving video treatment to a 1984 story first published in Redbook magazine. Set in 1888, “The Master of Rampling Gate” is a vampire tale of two siblings and a foreboding mansion that has already been published as an audio book.
Rice’s Vook, priced at $6.99, will launch with iPod Touch and iPhone versions on March 1, a strategic move before the iPad hits the scene.
The Alameda, Ca.-based company Vook launched its first video-enhanced tomes for Simon & Schuster and the HarperCollins imprint HarperStudio in October 2009. It also creates video editions for books in the public domain currently offers 13 titles on iTunes, including cookbooks, how-to manuals and classics like the “Velveteen Rabbit.” Prices range from $0.99 to $6.99.
“They (Vook) came in about two months ago and showed us some of their wares. I think it’s very interesting and I think the publishing world needs to really start looking for new ways to find readers,” Lynn Nesbit of Janklow & Nesbit, who represent Rice told the AP.
Nesbit said other writers at the agency expressed strong interest in video books, although she declined to provide names.
Via AP
Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco freelance writer who heads up Cult of Mac Magazine, our weekly publication available on iTunes. You can find her on Twitter and Google+. If you’re doing something new, cool and Apple-related, email her.
