Audio previews and the future of free audio book download websites

One feature that I would like to highlight today is available only on the free audio book download site AudioOwl.com and not on BooksShouldBeFree.com. This feature is instant audio previews allowing site visitors to begin listening to a sample of their chosen audio book before committing to downloading the entire book in MP3 format or importing it into their iTunes library as a podcast. Not only does this feature help site visitors choose books in which they are most interested, it also saves their time by allowing them to avoid free online audio book downloads that do not suit their tastes.

In the future I plan to enhance this instant audio preview on the AudioOwl.com website to be even more robust. My plan will be to develop a more fully functional online audio player allowing site visitors to listen to individual chapters and if they wish the entire audio book all from within their web browser. Initially I will launch this web browser based free audio book player only for audio books that are in high demand. For instance, a page containing the life works of Shakespeare would be a good candidate page for introducing this feature. So keep your eyes on AudioOwl.com and look for this update in the future. Finally, some more of the genres that I feature on AudioOwl.com are Memoirs, Music, Mystery, Myths/Legends, Nature, Non-fiction, Philosophy and Plays.

The iPod and free audio book downloads online

iPod MP3 players have several features making them particularly suited to audio book playback. The most important of these is an automatic book marking feature that does not require the user to take any actions. The iPod will save your place in audio book files without having to navigate menus and manually set bookmarks. When you visit BooksShouldBeFree.com you can download a zip file containing MP3 files for each chapter of an audio book. If you wish to listen to this audio book on your iPod. You need only to merge the MP3 files for each chapter and then rename the resulting MP3 file to have an .m4b extension.

Alternatively, if you visit AudioOwl.com you can import free audio book downloads into your iPod directly from the website. This method brings the audio books into your iTunes library as a podcast with one separate file for each chapter of the audio book. Once the free audio book is in iTunes you can choose which chapters you wish to download, listen to and transfer to your iPod. Or you can just download the entire book into iTunes. Finally, some more of the genres that I feature on AudioOwl.com are Historical Fiction, History, Holiday, Horror/Ghost stories, Humor, Instruction, Languages and Literature.

User interface for free MP3 and iPod format audio book downloads

a top priority is creating an interface for browsing through the free audio books available in a way that captures the interests of the user. With this aim in mind, I have focused much development time on building an extensive list of categories, tags and genres by which the free audio book downloads in MP3 and iPod format can be sorted. By clicking on these category or genre buttons, site visitors will be able to easily and visually navigate through different topics of interest. Some of the genres I have included on AudioOwl.com include Adventure, Advice, Ancient Texts, Animals, Biography, Children and Classics (antiquity).

In addition to browsing the book catalog, I have also added a custom search box at the top of each webpage with a search feature that allows visitors to look for books by title, author or simply search by keyword. BooksShouldBeFree.com will feature free audio book downloads with these two methods for navigating the catalog. AudioOwl.com will have the free audio books for download in MP3 and iPod format as well as similar catalog browsing and searching features. Finally, some more of the genres that I feature on AudioOwl.com are Comedy, Cookery, Dramatic Works, Economics, Epistolary fiction, Essay/Short nonfiction, Fairy tales, Fantasy and Fiction.

Free audio book downloads for iPod/MP3 and the public domain

I have chosen the domain name BooksShouldBeFree.com because large online bookstores already have created a visually interesting and entertaining way to browse for audio books that are professionally published and still under copyright. While books are recently released and still under copyright, the publisher has an interest in creating an eye-catching cover image for the work. So large online bookstores pick up on this and will display the cover image for copyrighted audio books that are professionally read by actors. The books are then made available for download at a price slightly less than you would pay in a bricks and mortar bookstore.

What I find of interest is that there are many thousands of books now in the public domain, meaning that the copyright on them has expired. These books in the public domain are not currently being made available in a fun and interesting way because the publishers no longer have any incentive to market them. This is where BooksShouldBeFree.com comes into play making these books widely available in an easy to use browsing format. While a domain name like AudioOwl.com is much shorter and more catchy, it doesn't emphasize the fact that public domain audio books are free. There is this vast repository of free audio books just waiting for the general public to tap into. So, I have set the goal of developing my first site for downloading free MP3 audio books at the domain name BooksShouldBeFree.com. Then later I will make a more catchy free audio book download site for MP3 and iPod audio formats at the domain name AudioOwl.com. Finally, here is a sneak peak at some of the genres that I will feature on AudioOwl.com: Sea stories, Short stories, Spy stories, Teen/Young adult, Tragedy, Travel, War stories, and Westerns.

Getting started in free audio book download website design

I have recently turned my attention towards developing websites that make online information more accessible to larger numbers of people. I have always been interested in audio books as an alternative way to digest classic literature. However on searching the web for audio books, I've found the available websites to be lacking in some respects. Yes, online audio book websites do have large catalogs and they can be searched by various fields like title and author. So what is it you might ask that the free audio book download websites are missing?

I would characterize this as the difference between looking up a book in a Dewey decimal card index and browsing for a book in a large chain bookstore. One method is dry and efficient, while the other can be fun and entertaining. I would characterize the currently available free audio book download websites as Dewey decimal indexes. So, I have set out to contrast these sites by creating a free audio book download website that will be easy and fun to use. To do this, I will make browsing the main method for finding the next audio book that a given visitor wishes to read. Also, my website will display large cover images for each book in the catalog, allowing users to quickly flip through pages of results to visually identify if they have interest in a given book. Finally, the website domain I have chosen for this new free audio book download website is BooksShouldBeFree.com. Finally, here is a sneak peak at some of the genres that I will feature on AudioOwl.com: Poetry, Politics, Psychology, Romance, Religion, Satire, Science and Science fiction.