Publicizing Legamus

[Viktor]

Thank you, Cori. Links on book pages are certainly worth a try - and one does not invest too much time. Your link on "A Room of One's Own" will certainly stay, because it is very hidden: some problem with the markup before? I don't dare to touch it

Edited to add: for years there was a Catch-22 with LV links too. Wikip wouldn't let anyone associated with the project add links! But, it takes a while for other people to notice a new book and add them in. So my edit above might not survive simply on those grounds. It's all a bit

I understand Wikipedia's policy on original research, but something as factual as a link to a recording... my goodness I try to refrain from any comment about blindly following orders...

[Piotrek]

ARE the Legamus links in Wikipedia OK? I assume that Wikipedia servers are at least partly in the US and the foundation probably follows US regulations and we give a link to the recording of a book that is not PD in US. On the other hand there's an explicit notice on our website that says "books not PD in US".

Also, Cori you wrote that my idea was good but then you immediately started writing about Wikipedia which makes me wonder if I expressed myself clearly My plan was to contact those webzines, websites, etc. that have spoken favourably of LV in the past and tell them about Legamus. Do you think LV admins track those references to LV that appear on the web or maybe stay in contact with some such websites for the purpose of ... I don't know... sending updates or whatever? I know that from time to time someone posts something in the forum that contains meantion of LV, but that's once in blue moon...

[Viktor]

ARE the Legamus links in Wikipedia OK? I assume that Wikipedia servers are at least partly in the US and the foundation probably follows US regulations and we give a link to the recording of a book that is not PD in US. On the other hand there's an explicit notice on our website that says "books not PD in US".

I always thought that links are OK. Let's have a look how it's done in similar cases: like The Prophet. They have links to the Canadian and Australian versions, adding that it's PD there; they also have a CC audiobook reading. (They do not have Ruth's version yet ).

If you think about the French or German Wikipedia articles, the vast majority of speakers of these languages lives in a life+70 country. As for English articles, there are still the British, the Irish, Canadians, Australians, and some Indians. (In the case of India, even a small percentage of the population gives a high number of people ) So one cannot say that a link would inevitably "trick" an American into the reading. However, it is a delicate subject and it's good that you raised the matter. More opinions welcome!

Also, Cori you wrote that my idea was good but then you immediately started writing about Wikipedia which makes me wonder if I expressed myself clearly My plan was to contact those webzines, websites, etc. that have spoken favourably of LV in the past and tell them about Legamus. Do you think LV admins track those references to LV that appear on the web or maybe stay in contact with some such websites for the purpose of ... I don't know... sending updates or whatever? I know that from time to time someone posts something in the forum that contains meantion of LV, but that's once in blue moon...

If such contacts exist, I'm not sure it would make a good impression if we'd asked for them... we can easily try to find and contact the largest sites ourselves. Except the commercial ones, which like to sell stuff and get provisions, they should be more interested in us than Wikipedia is at the moment.

And actually, I don't even know whether we really need this. We fill a very particular gap, which broadens every year a little bit. I do think that there should be more communication, especially in non-English languages, to blogs, fanzines and particular mass media, which tends to ignore non-commercial projects, about LV - because that is where 90% of the interesting stuff for listeners of German, French, Spanish etc. is (or would be!). And then they'll discover that there is another bit of interesting stuff for them on Legamus. That's what I'd call "the natural way". Of course, they can also land first on our page and then learn about LV. But given the current distribution of recordings, I'd like to see the message spread: "Before you buy your next DRM'ed copy, have a look at the vast number of recordings on LV (and for some later things in life+70, there's also Legamus.)"

[Cori]

Also, Cori you wrote that my idea was good but then you immediately started writing about Wikipedia which makes me wonder if I expressed myself clearly My plan was to contact those webzines, websites, etc. that have spoken favourably of LV in the past and tell them about Legamus. Do you think LV admins track those references to LV that appear on the web or maybe stay in contact with some such websites for the purpose of ... I don't know... sending updates or whatever?

Yes, you expressed yourself clearly, but I couldn't think of anything else to add at the time.

No, LV admins don't track mentions or stay in contact with websites unless they have an existing personal connection. Usually, people just write articles off their own bat, they don't get in touch with LV first, and we don't have any contact details for them-- which is why Viktor's 'natural way' also makes sense. As we pop up in searches, our fame will slowly spread, just like it did for LV. It took a couple of years to get much attention at all.

The LV mentions that are linked from Wikipedia are mostly newspaper articles. Journalists may find a special interest story in the project, in individuals recording for it, or in the books (perhaps ones that feature local authors or have a significant anniversary.) I'm all for contacting people if it seems appropriate to 'flag ourselves up' but there's no existing list of contacts or anything like that at LV. I wouldn't do it solely on the basis that they once wrote a story about LibriVox, though. There needs to be a relevant 'angle' for them and their audience if anyone from here wants to get in touch.

[Piotrek]

As to the "natural way" mentioned, here's another idea. Once the LV layout is overhauled, admins could slap a small notice somewhere in the catalogue or somewhere saying "If you're outside US, you can also check out legamus.eu which records books that are PD in (territories)".

[Cori]

No, I think that would be overdoing it. LV has always tried to be friendly to ALL other audio projects, so promoting one over all others wouldn't be fair.


(Also, for reference, our books are not public domain in Mexico, Colombia and some other places. It's not just the US.)

[scout]

If someone would care to write a 'marketing' article on Legamus, I'd be happy to put it on my blog. Of course, others may care to follow suit...

Daniel

[MEDIAMATIKA&KD]

Hello,

I am a new member from Slovakia and I work on my diploma thesis about audiobooks where I use some new way how to publish audiobooks.
One of the idea is the social network SoundCloud, where are lot of audiobooks, and you can share it with this community of people.
I mention YouTube too same way as SoundCloud.

I try to publish our Slovak folk tales here in Legamus. I can wrote some article in our local journal about Legamus for presentation (maybe can help).

All the best
Andrej

[Viktor]

Just a note - have a good look at the licenses of books and audiobooks. "Available on Youtube" is very different from being in the public domain or under a Creative Commons license, and between the Creative Commons licenses are big differences. It depends what you want to do with it.

For communities like LibriVox or Legamus, the copyright status of books are crucial. Communities, particularly open ones, can only do work when they are 100% sure that they are allowed to.

[J_N]

Just a few ideas:

Putting Legamus "business cards" in librabry books or those for bookcrossing...

Mentioning Legamus to organizations for sight-impaired people (if you know any) or your church or hospitel or bookclub or whatever

In general, just leaving business cards and leaflets wherever possible... I am going to leave a notice for Legamus and LV on my company's online notice board... maybe someone will see it [Edit: I already postet one for LV ages ago )

However... I just recently read some statistics, that LV has only about 500 regular readers (of which 100 have read about 50% of all recordings)... and a lot of one-hit-wonders... so we might be in for a slow but steady race... and as the database of recordings grows, so will our base of listeners, me thinks

on a side note: does anyone know how to 'manipulate' google? when you search free audiobook for example, LV is right up there on the first page... Legamus is nowhere to be found (I only scrolled through the first 10 pages)

[crowwings]

Optimizing websites for search-engines, especially if you don't want to buy a good placement, is a very specific science of its own ....
You can do some good by the website programming itself, META-tags for example, but the other way is,to just mention the search terms, i.e. Legamus, just as often on other websites as possible, at social networks etc...
And, of course, it helps to search for the terms just as often as possible, the more often you search the more important is the term, ... that's the way how search engines "think".

[Hokuspokus]

I like the idea with the cards in library books! Could be placed in books where we have an audio version in the catalog(s).

I mention LV and Legamus to people who buy my used books.

And Hokuspokus has a blog now! Ha! Not so much in there (and German only) but if you want to have a look http://hokuspokus77.wordpress.com/

[crowwings]

Oh yeah, and I have a great big podcast at http://de.1000mikes.com/show/crowwings_on_air where I mention LV and Legamus all the time by podcasting 'soon to come' or already completed projects ... with heartbreaking 4 listeners at top times...
Anyway, slow going means also some process, just slowly ...
Spreading the words, enlarging the database, that will help us to break the critical mass point, sooner or later.

[J_N]

and in the end... we do it because it's fun... not necessary because we have to have listeners

[J_N]

By chance, I just passed by a new project in the Librivox Launch Pad which so happend to not be PD in the US, but fine for both the BC (from Australia) and us to record... I checked with the MC if it was OK to contact the BC and tell them about Legamus and they said "sure". So now I wait and see if we might be getting a new reader. *keeping toes, fingers and whatever crossed*

[J_N]

The person I was talking about in my last post contacted the developer of the Librivox Android app and apparently Legamus is going to be added to the app... Personally, I think it's a brilliant idea. However, should I request that a warning lable is put on the Legamus recordings about not being PD in the US? (In contrast, people from Europe might inevitable also listen to things recorded on Librivox not yet PD in Europe and noone really seems to care [apart from us ])

[Hokuspokus]

That's great! So I don't know the app.

Yes, if you could ask them to but a warning, that would be great. In the end it's up to them, but that way we did what we could.

[crowwings]

I know about the app, one of the first things I installed on my tab ... and is has some great feedback and ranking/favorite functions ... it also offerse an easy to use search function and so on. It's much more complicated to use the web interfaces of Librivox or archive.org itself.
To be listed there, would be a big "up" kick to our public present, I am sure.
The feedback link you sent me a few days ago, hok? That was the regular-web interface website of the app ... the feedbacks there, sent thru Facebook, are part of the app...
Anyway, I hope our server or database can handle the extra traffic, what do you think, Viktor?

[Viktor]

I'm in contact with the app developer. Very helpful and friendly discussion. It all looks good

For the server traffic, we'll see what happens. When the server hits its limit, I'll get a second one, and maybe a sponsor. So far, in other threads, there was consensus that a little message "This download server is sponsored by ..." is preferable to advertisements or calls for donations. Fortunately, as long as we don't need dozens of servers, it's all quite cheap. Server costs have really gone down in the last years.

[scout]

I like the idea with the cards in library books! Could be placed in books where we have an audio version in the catalog(s).

I mention LV and Legamus to people who buy my used books.

And Hokuspokus has a blog now! Ha! Not so much in there (and German only) but if you want to have a look http://hokuspokus77.wordpress.com/

I do not wish to be a kill-joy but I really do not see the point in promoting Legamus. After all, you are the person most responsible for holding us back, ie discouraging almost every effort made to stimulate an increase in production.

Daniel