Funny- but in the last week or two I’ve received a lot of good information from a number opf sources related to audio books. And strangely enough, I was contracted to read another this week. This new one is non-fiction. That’s about al I can say at this point because of the NDA I signed. So I’ll be staying busy for a while.

But here are some great resources about this genre which all came to my attention very recently.

First another awesome free lesson from Pat Fraley in promotion of his Billion Dollar Read class next week in Los Angeles:
http://www.patfraley.com/Free/FreeLessons/AudiobookDemos.mp3

Next, some interesting stats from Edge Studio in NYC:

APA Survey Finds Solid Audio Gains in 2007
by Jim Milliot — Publishers Weekly, 9/15/2008 online at
www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6596272.html

Sales of spokenword audiobooks rose 12%, to just over $1 billion,
in 2007 and the percentage of adults that now listen to audiobooks
rose to 28%, according the Audio Publishers Association’s annual
sale and consumer surveys. Young listeners are the fastest-growing
segment of the market, with the APA reporting that 53% of teens have
listened to an audiobook. Sales of CDs and downloads increased in
the year, while sales of cassettes declined. CDs represented 78% of
audiobook sales in 2007, with downloads comprising 17%, up from 14%
in 2006. The market share of cassettes was 3% in 2007 down from 7%
in 2006. The library was the most popular place for consumer to get
audiobooks, while retail bookstores was the largest sales channel.

The car continues to be the place where consumers listen to
audiobooks the most, with 40% of consumers reporting they listen to
audiobooks during long drives and another 18% listen on their commute
to work. 23% of consumers said listening to audiobooks was a good
use of time while doing other activities. According to the survey,
mystery/thriller/suspense is the most popular segment, followed
by general fiction, science fiction/fantasy, biography/memoir,
and classic fiction.

The consumer survey was based on responses from 2,363 adults,
while the sales information came from 26 APA members.

Then Voices.com posted about doing your own audio books with material from the public domain:
http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/2009/02/how_to_make_money_in_audiobook_narration.html

And last but certainly not least, my pal John Florian of Voiceover Xtra sent me this:
Q&A on narrator tips with audiobook greats Grover Gardner and Scott Brick. The article is written by Anthony Goff, president of the Audio Publishers Association. Here’s the link: