Tell Me a Story, Mommy

Remember when digital books were all the rage and various companies were rushing to bring out new readers?

Well, no more it seems. Audio books are now where it's at.

That's according to a lengthy article in the Seattle Times entitled "Listen carefully, book lovers: Top authors are skipping print for audio."





"After years of stagnation in the industry, audiobooks have become a rare bright spot for publishers. While e-book sales have fallen and print has remained anemic, publishers’ revenue for downloaded audio has nearly tripled in the past five years, industry data from the Association of American Publishers shows."

And …

"Cellphones now function as audiobook players. People who felt they had little time to read are listening while they commute, exercise or do chores. Consumers bought nearly 90 million audiobooks in 2016, up from 42 million in 2012, driving audiobook sales up to $2.1 billion, according to the Audio Publishers Association."

So the main advantage of audio books is you can be told a story while doing something else, such as sitting in traffic, which appears to be getting worse and worse in major cities.

When it comes to fiction, most people like to read "page-turners" of one sort or another ("I can't wait to find out what comes next!") and I suppose audio comports well with that experience.  One can also argue that depending upon who is reading the text, character can be enhanced.

But isn't one of the pleasures of some types of fiction the ability to linger over a page, a paragraph or even a sentence and think for awhile about what the author is saying, or how he or she said it?  Someone in the article suggests that audio will help sell print editions as opposed to the reverse.

We shall see.