Audiobook Sales Are Out-Pacing Print Books

Hey, there!

One of our VO2GoGo student-clients and Pro member, Madeleine Mrozek, caught this info from the revered CBS Marketwatch: an article that reported that audiobook sales, once a very small fraction of total book sales, has increased so much that they are eclipsing printed books.

Here’s why that’s great for you and me.

First, here’s a link to the article in case you want to read the whole thing (I’m going to give you the highlights below):

[dropcap]1[/dropcap] The lead subject of the article was an economist (not just a pundit, but a financial math geek) named Richard Thaler, who couldn’t quite believe the stats when he saw that more people were listening to the audiobook version of his works than the printed version. This is awesome for Royalty Share work on ACX, depending upon the title.

[dropcap]2[/dropcap] These results aren’t just a “Hey, it seems that…” rather, it’s based on sales figures compiled by the APA, the Audio Publishers Association, and research conducted by Audible for the article itself.

[dropcap]3[/dropcap] This is the big takeaway: in some cases, audiobooks are outselling their printed and electronic counterparts by four times! Again, great news for the industry in general, and for us as audiobook narrators.

[tweet_box]Wait…what? Audiobooks are often outselling the print and ebook versions?[/tweet_box]

There’s more to the article, like a couple of authors stating very clearly that these days, as they write their books, they are imagining how the audiobook will sound as their favorite narrators would be producing them. This is more good news for you if you’re one of those many VO2GoGo student-clients who have made great relationships with your rights holders on ACX – I’ve had more than a few of you write me with similar experiences.

Oh, and yes, the article was published originally in January of 2016, but the growth of audiobooks has continued, even accelerated slightly.

Good news for all of us narrators, yes?

Hope this helps.

David