Hachette Does Audio Widget for New Sedaris

By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 6/5/2008 2:08:00 PM

Knowing the bankability of David Sedaris' famous whine, Hachette Digital Media, was looking for a way to package a voiceover into its online promotion for the digital audio version of the essayist's latest collection, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. The publisher found the perfect partner to deliver that experience in the online retailer, Zipidee.

Zipidee, according to Hachette's David Stack, offered to build a widget with audio capability--the only company to make such a promise. Although Hachette could have built its own widgets, Stack said the company does not currently have the ability to build audio functions into them. 

Stack described Zipidee as a retailer with a focus on digital products (in addition to bricks and mortar mainstays like books, CDs and DVDs, Zipidee sells the digital counterpart to all those products). He said Hachette was impressed with the widget the company created for Cory Doctorow's latest book, Little Brother, which also also featured audio clips.

The hope is that the widget not only drives sales of the digital audio version of Sedaris's book--the Zipidee widget only links to the Zipidee site but the digital audio title, which retails for $24.98, is currently available at a host of online retailers--but also drives consumer's to Hachette's newly updated website. "It was serendipity," Stack said, speaking to the fact that the Sedaris widget bowed shortly after Hachette unveiled its redesigned site.