【聯合報╱By ALEXANDRA ALTER╱王麗娟譯】
The Book, a Mystery Without a Page
Print has been good to Jeffery Deaver. Over the last 26 years, Mr. Deaver, a lawyer- turned-thriller writer, has published 35 novels and sold 40 million copies of them globally.
But his latest work, “The Starling Project,” a globe-spanning mystery about a war crimes investigator, isn’t available in bookstores. It won’t be printed at all. The story was conceived, written and produced as an original audio drama for Audible, the audiobook producer and retailer. If Mr. Deaver’s readers want the story, they’ll have to listen to it.
“My fans are quite loyal,” Mr. Deaver said. “If they hear I’ve done this and that it’s a thriller, I think they’ll come to it.”
對傑佛里．狄佛來說，印刷一直是不錯的選擇。26年來，從律師改行當驚悚作家的狄佛，已出版35本小說，全球銷售4千萬冊。
但他的最新力作《斯塔林計畫》，並無法從書店購買。內容是有關一名戰爭罪行調查員的全球性神祕故事。這本書根本沒有印刷本。它的構思、寫作和製作，從一開始即是為有聲讀物生產商兼零售商「聽書」所做的一部有聲戲劇。狄佛的讀者想要知道這個故事，就得聽書才行。
狄佛說：「我的粉絲相當死忠。如果他們聽說我做了一本有聲書，還是個驚悚劇，我認為他們還是會來買。」
“The Starling Project,” which came out in mid-November, will test the appetite for an emerging art form that blends the immersive charm of old-time radio drama with digital technology. It’s also the latest sign that audiobooks are coming into their own as a creative medium.
Audible has produced around 30 original works, as varied as a serialized thriller about a conspiracy that drives India and Pakistan to the brink of nuclear war, and original short stories set in the world of Charlaine Harris’s vampire novels.
11月中旬面世的《斯塔林計畫》，將測試一種新興藝術形式的市場胃納，它將舊時代廣播劇身歷其境的魅力與數位技術融為一體。這也是有聲書正自成一種創作媒體的最新跡象。
「聽書」已推出約30本原創作品，且種類繁多，有內容為陰謀將印度和巴基斯坦推向核戰邊緣的一部連載驚悚故事，也有背景為莎蓮．哈里斯吸血鬼小說世界的原創短篇小說集。
“You have this massive opportunity when you don’t have to fight for people’s eyes,” said Donald Katz, chief executive of Audible. “It’s time for us to move from sourcing content that can produce fantastic audio, on to imagining what the aesthetic of this new medium should be from the ground up.”
“The Starling Project” runs to a little over four hours and has 29 actors performing in 80 parts .
「聽書」執行長唐納德．卡茲說：「你有這個不必爭奪讀者眼光的大好機會。該是我們有所改變的時候了，從採購可以產生很棒聲音的內容，轉換成從起點開始想像這個新媒體的美學應該是什麼樣貌。」
《斯塔林計畫》長度約4小時多一點，由29名演員演出80個角色。
It’s no surprise that authors are eager to make their mark in the medium. In the first eight months of this year, sales of digital audiobooks were up 28 percent over the same period last year, far outstripping the growth of e-books, which rose 6 percent, according to the Association of American Publishers. Meanwhile, hardcover print sales for adult fiction and nonfiction fell by nearly 2 percent.
Audiobook publishers released nearly 36,000 titles in 2013, up from 6,200 in 2010, according to the Audio Publishers Association. Audible dominates the market, with more than 170,000 works, including 18,000 produced this year .
一些作者正亟於在這種媒體留下自己的印記，這點並不令人意外。根據「美國出版商協會」的統計，今年頭8個月，數位有聲讀物的銷售額比去年同期成長28％，遠大於電子書的6％，同時，成人小說和非小說類精裝書的銷售額下跌近2％。
「有聲出版商協會」表示，2013年，有聲讀物出版商出版近3萬6000部有聲書，遠多於2010年的6200本。「聽書」主宰整個市場，產品逾17萬部，包括今年出版的1萬8000部。
Mr. Deaver said that when Audible approached him about writing an original story for them, he was a bit daunted. “It was like a nonvisual play,” he said. He had collaborated on two other original audio works for Audible, with more than a dozen other thriller writers. But he had never written one start to finish .
First, he charted a plot about a retired army intelligence officer, Harold Middleton, who is recruited to stop a shadowy mass-murder plot called “The Starling Project.” The action takes place in Mexico, Washington, London, Marseille and central Africa. Mr. Deaver quickly ran into problems, though, finding it was tricky to establish geographic locations through dialogue (he opted for a flight attendant’s announcement in one scene, welcoming travelers to France).
狄佛說，「聽書」公司找上他，洽商替他們寫原創故事時，他有點嚇到了。他說：「它類似一本非視覺的戲劇。」他曾和12位以上驚悚小說作家合作，為「聽書」出過兩本原創有聲作品。但他從未從頭到尾寫過一本。
首先，他構思出一個退役陸軍情報軍官哈洛德．密道頓的計畫。他奉召去阻止稱為《斯塔林計畫》的暗中大規模謀殺陰謀。故事發生於墨西哥、華盛頓、倫敦、馬賽和非洲中部。不過，狄佛很快即遇到問題，他發現透過對話建立地理位置十分棘手（在一個場景中，他選擇使用空姐的廣播，歡迎旅客來到法國）。
Mr. Deaver said he was hoping the project would help him build a new audience of listeners.
“There are so many time-wasting alternatives to reading out there, and authors are up against formidable competition with things like Assassin’s Creed, Minecraft, Angry Birds,” he said. “This is an easier way for people to get access to good storytelling.”
狄佛說，他一直希望這項計畫能幫他建立一群新的聽眾。
他說：「市場上有太多可以代替閱讀，卻很浪費時間的選擇，作者同時面對電玩「刺客教條」、「當個創世神」、「憤怒鳥」的強大競爭。這是讓人們享受聽故事的一個較為簡單的方法。」
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