Gentle Readers: I welcome today Elizabeth Rodgers, one of the creators of the “Audiobooks –Austen” app for the iPhone, a veritable Jane Austen anthology just a tap away, as she explains how the app works and what is included, all for a mere 99c!

I have my Jane Austen in every format available to man – multiple hard copies of each novel [remember those space-taking, dust-collecting things?], audiobooks [originally on cassette tapes!, then CDs, then iPod, now iPhone], now on my kindle [I confess shamefaced], and of course the movies, most adaptations to re-view annually… there is no end! 

It has been interesting to see the various apps for the iPhone – the books, the games, the audiobooks – all slightly different, just to confuse the user and turn the selection process into a nightmare of choices… audiobooks especially – the narrator being the selling point.  I mean who can compare to Patrick Tull reading Patrick O’Brian, or Frank Muller his Great Expectations? – or Jenny Sterlin reading Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell mysteries, and Richard Armitage Georgette Heyer [and though his readings of Sylvester and Venetia, are alas! abridged, they are still worth the price of admission…].  As for Austen, there are any number of options to choose from – some are free, some quite costly – so how to decide??  Well, here is an option that takes some of the confusion and decision-making out of the equation, as you shall see – I highly recommend it!  And Ms. Rodgers has graciously offered Jane Austen in Vermont readers a chance for a free giveaway of the new app! – so any questions or comments will make you eligible for the random drawing – see below for details!

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Audiobooks – Austen is a Jane Austen audiobook anthology. For the Jane Austen enthusiast, this is an easy purchase. Not only do you get Emma, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey, but you also get lesser known stories like Lady Susan, The History of England as well as a biography of Jane Austen by her nephew. Once you buy the app for $0.99 in iTunes, the audiobooks are free. No more CDs, no more paying for each new audiobook download. The narrators in the app are great and you can stream or download audiobooks on the go. And Android users: we’re so close to the Android version — it will be available Fall 2012. The audiobooks included in the app are: –

• Pride and Prejudice
• Emma
• Sense and Sensibility
• Mansfield Park
• Northanger Abbey
• Persuasion
• Jane Austen’s Juvenilia
• Lady Susan
• Love and Friendship
• The History of England
• The Watsons
• Plan of a Novel, According to Hints from Various Quarters
• Memoir of Jane Austen (by her nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh)

About Audiobook Pop! Audiobook Pop! was founded in 2010 to provide a solution to the following three points of pain:

1. buying audiobooks is expensive,
2. owning, renting and borrowing CDs can be a hassle,
3. being offered thousands of books by other apps is overwhelming.

Audiobook Pop! curates its content and carefully selects only the best narrators so that there is minimal decision-making, ease of use and affordability. Too much choice is not a good thing. I first had the vision for an audiobook app when I took a road trip with my family, including my two young children. There’s nothing wrong with watching DVDs on the road, but I’m determined to raise them as readers. A non-technical person, I partnered with Boisean designer and developer, Mazal Simantov. Together we architected the simplicity and intuitiveness of the app and Simantov created the elegantly simple design. The keys to success were threefold: ease of use, great content, efficient user choice. In February 2011, the first app, Audiobooks For Your Kids, was launched.

Once the original app had been established, we received feedback from users that similar apps with different themes would be well received. To meet that demand, in Spring 2012, we released Audiobooks – Sci-Fi, Summer 2012, Audiobooks – Austen, and up next is an app with global fairy tales and folk tales and then, a Bronte Sisters anthology — Anne, Emily and Charlotte.  Users can learn more about Audiobook Pop! and Audiobooks – Austen by following the company on Twitter @audiobookpop and on Facebook for news on current releases and to suggest themes for new apps.  We donate a portion of our sales to Librivox.org.

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Thank you Elizabeth for sharing this with us and offering the free giveaway! – I can add that the app is very easy to use and it is quite delightful to have all these works at one’s fingertips!

Please leave a question or comment for Elizabeth by next Sunday September 16, 2012, 11:59 PM – the winner will be announced on Monday September 17th … 

Everyone is eligible, or at least all of you with an iPhone, iPad or iTouch,  and the Android, the app for which will be available shortly.

c2012, Jane Austen in Vermont