Audiobooks are an easy way to make an in-depth content medium more easily accessible and digestible. When our mates at ANZCA approached us in late 2022 to turn their popular “Blue Book” into an audiobook, we had to say yes.
“Australasian Anaesthesia, also known as the Blue Book due to cover artwork, is a highly-valued compilation of selected continuing medical education lectures and invited papers published every two years. We were approached by one of our fellows (an anaesthetist, a specialist medical doctor) suggesting some fellows might enjoy having the option of listening to the chapters “on the go”, for example, while driving” says Liane Reynolds, ANZCA’s operations manager for design and communications.
Part of the brief was recording in a remote setting with Dr Peter Cook, an anaesthetist based in the Gold Coast/Brisbane to avoid studio costs, with Tandem crew managing the recording from Christchurch alongside ANZCA staff listening in from Melbourne. With the help of Riverside, every Friday for 2-3 months we joined together for recording sessions, which saw Dr Cook make easy work of some pretty complex phrases.
We’re proud to say that the recordings have been incredibly well received, with over 400 listens on each episode on Soundcloud alone – and counting.
“Working with Tania feels like working with a diligent and thoughtful colleague. She meticulously organised each of our 10 recordings and the technology worked seamlessly – especially considering Tandem was working with non-tech savvy people” Liane says. “We’ve been overwhelmed with positive feedback and have had more than 6000 listens over the past three months to our 10 chapters which has exceeded our expectations.”
When asked if there’s plans to keep recording these for each book, Liane says “the editor of the Blue Book is keen to record future chapters and would also like to explore creating a podcast where anaesthetists interview one another about views expressed in the book. Watch this space!”
We’ve really loved working with ANZCA to make their dreams come alive for their highly popular publication. It’s always a pleasure to see new content ventures succeed.
You can listen to all episodes on Soundcloud, Spotify, Google and Apple Podcasts.