Vampire author Anne Rice set to release video book
By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer
NEW YORK—Anne Rice is giving the video book a try.
The author of “Interview With a Vampire,” “The Vampire Lestat” and many other favorites has agreed to terms with the video book company Vook on a multimedia edition of “The Master of Rampling Gate,” a vampire story published in Redbook magazine in 1984 and set in an England mansion in the 19th century.
“Vook represents a very exciting combination of new technological elements, that I think is long overdo in publishing,” Rice said in a statement released Wednesday by Vook. “I’m excited that ‘The Master of Rampling Gate’ is going to have new life in this form, and cannot wait to see the finished product. I’m not sure that my mind can conceive of all the possibilities of this new form. I’m learning. And it feels good.”
Opinions are still mixed among publishers and authors about video books, or vooks, with some calling them a gimmick and others saying new formats are needed for the Internet age. The product integrates text, video and social networking.
Vook, based in Alameda, Calif., has been producing video books for Simon & Schuster and the HarperCollins imprint HarperStudio and also making works out of public domain texts. Vook founder Bradley Inman says “The Sherlock Holmes Experience,” based on two stories by Conan Doyle, has been downloaded thousands of times.