Audio books are now the rage or are they?

You can find a wealth of reasons to do audio books from authors and readers.

For those of you who follow author, Joanna Penn (a guru for book marketing!) you will know that she is a great proponent of multiple revenue streams.  She encourages authors to get their books out to as many sales opportunities as possible and that certainly includes audiobooks

When researching audio books and their impact we found some interesting observations:

1. Readers like memoirs that are read by the author – Tina Fey reading her books it a great example. Fantasy and thrillers are very popular in audiobook form.
2. Some readers hate how slow it is but now you can speed up the reading on most apps which makes for a more enjoyable experience. Like everything today, the technology is moving ahead in leaps and bounds.
3. Audio books are now used where a reader might have watched TV before- Gyms, doing household chores etc.  Again capturing an audience that might have been overlooked.  I appears to me, that everyone has earphones in today- walking, riding, exercising, riding the train or just standing in line to make a purchase!
4.  Believe it or not, there are a lot of “non-readers” out there. These are people who feel they just can’t take the time to sit down and read a book but will listen to one.
5. There are a 100,000 audio books out there and millions in print and ebooks format. Therefore you have a better chance of being discovered in the audio library.

Take the time to study up on the advantages and disadvantages- it can be confusing and intimidating.  Since the market for audio books is really just starting to boom, the sooner you get in, the better chance of having your book sell more as the market grows. Lots of good info and statistics are shared at: Creative indie

We have covered audio books in the past and they have really caught on.  However here is an interesting article on why NOT to rush into the expense of audio books.

For many it is hard to believe, but print is still king when it comes to reading formats.

Here are some observations from Book Baby:

While audiobooks are growing, 70 percent of all books sold in 2017 came in some form of paper and ink: hardcover books accounted for 36 percent of sales and softcover made up 34 percent — a level of market dominance that’s held steady since 2011.

And while eBook readership has declined, it still accounted for 17 percent of the market in 2017.

That doesn’t leave much market share for audiobooks. Even it’s all-time high of $2.5 billion in sales accounts for less than six percent of the overall market.

For independent authors looking to reach the largest amount of readers possible, there are a variety of better places to invest your time and money than audiobooks.                                                                                                                                                                                   Book Baby

Have you done an audio book?                                                                                                                                                                                          Have you considered doing one and done some research?

Please share you thoughts with us:  Do an audio book or not?