Neil Gaiman to create audio book based on tweets

Twitter may not be making money but at least it's providing a forum for some innovative artistic collaboration.

Take, for instance, science fiction writer and graphic novelist Neil Gaiman. He's going to create an audio book based on tweets provided by Twitter users.

You might remember the game of "Exquisite Corpse" where a group of people create a poem or story together by writing down sentences in succession that no one else can see until everyone has contributed. Read as a whole, the mish-mash can be entertaining, at least to slightly inebriated English literature students bored on a Friday night.

Well, Gaiman is going to start the project off with a first line to be tweeted at midnight EDT Monday at http://twitter.com/BBCAA. Others can tweet their contributions to "#bbcawdio."

"When roughly 1,000 tweets are logged, we'll edit the contributions and compile a script, then head into the studio to record and produce the audiobook. The final audiobook will be downloadable free on our Web site and also available as a digital download at iTunes and other audiobook retailers," the BBC Audiobooks America Blog says.

Given that Gaiman has 1.2 million followers, I suspect it shouldn't take long to get 1,000 contributions.

It's not clear where this idea came from, but Gaiman has a history of using the Internet in interesting ways. He came up with the idea of raising money for causes by auctioning off the names of characters in upcoming books on eBay, and organized such an auction with other writers in 2005.

(Thanks to Galleycat.)

Neil Gaiman is using Twitter to solicit contributions for an audio book project.

(Credit: Twitter)

[SeizeCTRL]

WOW... that will be awesome. I have been a Gaiman fan since the days of Sandman. He's such a great story teller, so this should prove very interesting.

[baisa]

OMG that pic of the guy in his Twit profile says everything about him: "Hi, I'm a Pretentious Artiste with a hot babe slobbering on my shoulder but I don't care about looking at her I'm just going to look all smug and Artistey".

This idea is "innovative"??? It is just lame rehash of the nonsense of the 60's (and on). A bunch of people spouting 140 character messages is not "art".

[ca5ter]

More Twitter...

Jesus H Christ, will you guys ever give it a rest?