In a prepared statement on the release this morning of the finalists, Audio Publishers Association president Ana Maria Allessi is quoted, saying that those finalists “are a reflection of the continuous growth and popularity of the medium. Nevertheless, there have been promising signs in the American market and other international regions that audiobooks may be a more popular approach to fiction and nonfiction for men and boys, helping to attract a consumer segment not always easily enticed by traditional reading. It’s also good for context to remember that audiobooks account for a relatively small part of the US market, at 8.9 percent in December, for example. After close to 10 years of strong gains, the robust reception of downloaded and streaming audio has been welcomed by many in the industry, and that’s understandable. In the most recent StatShot report from the Association of American Publishers (AAP), downloaded audiobook sales in the United States in 2021 were seen to have risen 13.4 percent, to US$766.2 million for the year. The association does a great job of watching carefully the popular data of sales in audiobooks and at times releases helpful and informative research on the market and its consumers. The UK’s Parliamentary Book Awards shortlists, specialized in political writings, are a fine place to start for candidates. Newly energized in our era of freakishly divisive politics, the political sub-set of nonfiction contains enormous consumer energy and commitment, and its books are traditionally-and sometimes quite skillfully-narrated by their authors. It might also be proposed that political books could be given a category of their own. Audiobooks are growing in many parts of the world (just ask Storytel’s Jonas Tellander), and the Audio Publishers Association does not limit itself to American operations or content, at least in its public descriptions of itself, which is admirable and realistic in such a globalized industry.Ĭertainly the internationalist stance from which Publishing Perspectives operates would respectfully recommend that the association consider doing more to survey and incorporate non-English and non-US audio publication. While journalists appreciate the work of the Audio Publishers Association for its research and data reports on the market under executive director Michele Cobb‘s leadership, the Audies are easily the bigger consumer-facing element of the association’s work: glam is a draw.īased in the United States, but working a bit in international channels-there’s a Spanish-language category-the range and multicultural diversity of this program shows “room for improvement,” as Elsevier’s Michiel Kolman would say.

Mine to Protect by Kennedy L. Mitchell