Audible to launch "major work of fiction" as download-only

Death of the paper novel?

12 September 2007 8:57 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

A new thriller novel is being released in the States with an interesting twist already revealed - it will only be released as an audio book.

Jeffrey Deaver's "The Chopin Manuscript" will be the first "major work of fiction" planned for release as an audio download.

Available for $20 via Audible, Jeffery Deaver, famous for "The Bone Collector" has written the new thriller ("The Day of the Jackal meets The Da Vinci Code") in collaboration with the International Thriller Writers group.

Deaver wrote the opening chapter then passed it along to a 15 colleagues in the ITW, including Lee Child, Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline and Jim Fusilli who each wrote a chapter before sending it back to Deaver, who completed the work.

Audible, who offer over 40,000 narrated books, newspapers and magazines and podcasts (available via iTunes) will launch the first chapters on September 25th and then two chapters a week over the next 7 weeks.