The Challenge
Tell us about yourself and the nature of your work.
I am the co-founder of The Diction Police, a website that provides comprehensive tools for the study and application of lyric diction for classical singers. I co-write interactive diction books for professional singers and vocal coaches. I do the writing, editing, and audio for the books, as well as other duties for the rest of our offerings.
Our philosophy centers on learning lyric diction by hearing the sounds of foreign languages delivered by native speakers. Those native speakers are also professional singers or coaches with a practical understanding of the intricacies of singing language.
What challenges did you face prior to using Kotobee?
We were looking for ways to create an interactive diction book where we can include embedded audio as well as exercises and interactive features. Even though printed books have been the industry standard, they are not as effective as hearing a native speaker pronounce the words to capture the subtleties of language.
“We are very impressed with the tools and features that Kotobee offers such as widgets and interactive quizzes. They have helped us make our ebooks more interactive and fun for our readers.”
The Solution
How did you hear about Kotobee?
My business partner did a thorough Google search of programs that would allow us to create interactive books, and that's when he came across Kotobee.
What drove you to choose Kotobee?
When we first started trying out Kotobee, we found the fact that we could export our ebooks as mobile or web apps a great advantage. And now, we are also using it to export our ebooks as web-based books. Moreover, we quite like the fact that, as the market changes, we can update our content at any time, and our readers will immediately have access to the most up-to-date version of the ebook without needing to do anything.
Is there a specific aspect of your ebook that you are particularly proud of?
We are very impressed with the tools and features that Kotobee offers such as widgets and interactive quizzes. They have helped us make our ebooks more interactive and fun for our readers. We also like that we can include audio files so our readers can click on specific words and hear them pronounced by a native speaker. Many of the tools that Kotobee offers--such as the games and pop-ups--can turn a normally dry topic into a fun one, as well as help neurodivergent students learn in their own way.
“As a small business, selling these interactive books has helped our business tremendously, and we’re thrilled to see our readers engage with our content in such an exciting way!”
The Results
What metrics do you use to measure the success of your decisions? Has Kotobee affected those in any way?
Everyone who uses our books raves about them. As for our sales, offering our books as interactive digital ones has added a great deal to our other offerings in a way that has tripled our sales. As a small business, selling these interactive books has helped our business tremendously, and we’re thrilled to see our readers engage with our content in such an exciting way!
The Future
What are your plans for the future?
We currently have two books in the works: one in the early stages of development and another that we are putting the finishing touches on. We plan to continue this series so that we can create lyric diction books in other languages. This will help singers and voice students around the world access the most up-to-date information on lyric diction in their native language. We also hope to be used by everyone who studies lyric diction, both beginners and professional singers.
