#SFWApro
There’s a new and interesting way to read books that is currently launching, and I got to be a part of it.
A web software called Booktrack allows authors to publish their e-books with a soundtrack. The soundtrack can be customized with a gazillion options, including music, ambiance, and sound effects. You can change things up from paragraph to paragraph or chapter to chapter. So that, if the scene you’re reading takes place in a haunted house the reader can hear creaking doors and spooky ghost wails. The folks at Booktrack were kind enough to invite a small handful of authors (myself included) to beta-test their site.
As a reader, I enjoyed checking out several of the books. Although I usually read without any music on, such precisely targeted tracks definitely enhance the experience. As a writer, I am excited about a way to add an extra dimension to how a reader is able to interact with the worlds I imagined.
I am not very musically inclined, and yet the software was both sophisticated and simple enough to use that I was able to upload a story and create a soundtrack I both enjoy and feel fits the story with relative ease. The story is Spidersong, originally published in Daily Science Fiction. Click here or on the picture above to check out the end result of my efforts!
The only catch? You must currently use the Google Chrome browser, or it won’t work.
Enjoy the story! I hope to post a few more soon. Particularly, The Epistolary History might be a good candidate, with each entry given its own soundtrack.
Alex Shvartsman's Speculative Fiction 