Audio book store offers books read by Turkey’s best-selling writers

ISTANBUL

The first books of Seslenen Kitap are available by the voice of their writers, who came together at a recent press conference.

Turkey’s first audio book store “Seslenen Kitap,” which means “calling books” launched by Berk İmamoğlu aims to reach book lovers with Turkey’s popular and best-selling writers. Writers such as Ayşe Kulin, Hasan Ali Toptaş, Canan Tan, Murat Menteş, Can Dündar, Buket Uzuner, Cem Mumcu, Pucca, İclal Aydın, Berrak Yurdakul, Tuba Ünsal and Fatmanur Erdoğan have read their own books which are now available online at seslikitap.com and as an application on tablet computers and smartphones. 
The aim is to become an online store, which is easy to reach and listen to the books on an online platform. The project also creates a digital archive for Turkish literature. 

Speaking at a press conference recently held in Istanbul, the creator of the project İmamoğlu said the audio book application was not a new thing for Turkey however the standards that Seslenen Kitap application offered were all new. In the project it is possible to reach the information very fast and immediately in any kind of format. The project is moving hand in hand with the new technologies. 

“People who adapted their daily lives to technology are expected to show an interest in Seslenen Kitap. We believe that people who are willing to follow contemporary Turkish writers and their books would use Seslenen Kitap in the car, traffic, during sports time and travel,” he said. 

The first books of Seslenen Kitap are available by their writers’ voice, which makes it easier to connect to the book and writers. Speaking at the meeting, Ayşe Kulin, one of the best-selling authors of Turkey said, she read the book at her home in Urla and said at the end she cried. Canan Tan, best-selling novelist said, she came from İzmir to contribute to the project. Tan also thanked to İmamoğlu for the project, which she believed in a lot. “I have cried at the end of the book and I came and prepared every day,” she added.

Developing the project

The aim of İmamoğlu is to develop the project and spread it to 100 books in 2014. “We are considering to make agreements with publishing houses.” The first agreement has been done with Okuyan Us Publishing House and Can Publishing House. “We wish to see all the publishing houses on Seslenen Kitap,” said İmamoğlu noting that the project is not a publishing house but a book store. “This does not mean that publishing houses will make a new investment, this means to develop this market with new mediums and new resources. In 2014 the infrastructure and the mobile application of the project will continue to develop,” he added. 

Currently still on the recording with Seslenen Kitap Nebil Özgentürk’s Turkish writer and director, theater actor Ali Poyrazoglu’s book are yet to come. 

The project has 15 books and one finance magazine, said İmamoğlu, the idea of Seslenen Kitap started in 2009 but developed in six months. We aim to increase writer and book figures, he said. In the Seslenen Kitap application after the book has finished, listeners will have the chance to listen to an interview with the writer on their books and their stories. This also leads to a new communication area that writers and readers can enter.

Hatice Utkan contributed to this article