May 4, 2003

SNEAK a peek at the history of world civilizations. The scenario tells you that “literature was spoken before it was written”. Three instances seem adequate to prove this fact, though scores are handy: Alberto Manguel, in his exquisite book, The History of Reading, writes, “We used to read aloud to the blind novelist Borges.” Rousseau promoted his work Confessions with readings in aristocratic Paris. Dickens was boastful of theatrical command that had caused listeners to weep during his public readings.

Eventually people began to make disparaging remarks about loud reading. It was assumed to be appropriate only for illiterates, children, and factory workers. Instead, the elite introduced and promoted silent reading. However, the spoken literature or loud reading demonstrated resilience. Having regained life, it emerged in a different guise, which is popularly called the audiobook.

One might be curious to know what an audiobook is all about. An audiobook includes any audio recording, which is primarily spoken. It covers all categories of original productions, which include fiction, non-fiction, instruction, language, self-help, storytelling, etc. Any subject that you can think of is probably available as an audiobook. Audiobooks are produced on cassettes, CDs, MP3s and as downloads from publishers’ websites.

The history of audiobooks may well be traced as far back as 1932, when a durable long-playing record, the “Talking Book” was produced for the American Foundation for the Blind. It is considered the earliest form of the modern commercial audiobook. In 1934, Readophone was demonstrated as a book for the blind, at the Library of Congress.

Initially, Ampex started delivering audio tape records in 1948. The idea caught on and the same year the first audiobooks were produced in New York for American war veterans, who had lost their sight. In 1952, came an audiobook for the young titled A Child’s Christmas in Wales. Dylan Thomas wrote and read this audiobook. In 1958, the Library of Congress produced prototype books on 16-2/3 rpm audio discs. As they became popular, manufacturers explored new formats and the first book on a compact audiocassette on polyester 1/8-inch tape that runs at 1-7/8 ips was produced in 1963. This also led to automobiles being equipped with eight track stereo cartridge players as it was discovered that listening to audiobooks made driving on the highways less monotonous.

By the mid-seventies audiobooks had come to stay. Companies such as Books on Tape and the Recorded Books were set up, and audiocassette players became a standard accessory in most new cars. At the same time, commercial recordings and rentals of unabridged copies became common.

It was in the eighties that the modern audiobook market was formed as leading American publishers such as, Bantam Doubleday Dell, HarperCollins, Random House, and Simon & Schuster launched their own audiobook divisions.

The 1990s may indeed be termed as the decade of milestones for the audiobook industry. The Herrick Company launched the Audio Book Club in 1994, followed by Doubleday and Columbia House. Simultaneously debuted the first website dedicated to selling audiobooks online named Audiobooks.com/.

The sales of audiobooks went up by 10.2 per cent in 1998 over 1997 and today the industry has an annual sale of 2.5 billion dollars. The industry has its own Audiobooks Publishers Association (APA), founded in 1986, with over 200 members.

APA publishes AudioFile, a bimonthly magazine online and in print form. Each issue of the magazine carries reviews of over 100 audiobooks. The AudioFile magazine gives Earphone Awards for exceptional performances and publishes the Audiobooks Reference Guide, which is an annual source book on titles, publishers, distributors, manufacturers, and talents.

About 23 million Americans (or one in five households) listen to audiobooks, says Eileen Hutton, president of Brilliance Audio, who is also the president of the APA. According to the 2001 Biennial Market Survey commissioned by the APA, the average audiobook listener is highly educated. Nearly 22.5 per cent American households listened to audiobooks that year and 76 per cent of the listeners were women. Other interesting findings were that 38 per cent of the listeners borrowed audiobooks from public libraries while 37 per cent of them purchased their books. The favourite genre were mystery, horror, and suspense.

The study also reveals that the average age of the audiobook listeners continues to be 45 years and the automobile remains the most popular venue to listen to them (55 per cent) with 37 per cent listening at home. Many people listen to audiobooks while exercising, jogging, walking, at work, and in public transport.

In 2003, the publishers and retailers confront the same old challenges, which have haunted them for the past several decades. The most pressing issue is that of determining the format. Discovering more listeners is also a challenge. Although audiocassettes continue to be popular, as usual, CD’s and MP3s are fascinating listeners as well. In addressing the format of audiobooks, the publishers and retailers have to attend to their packaging, delivery, space and storage.

The problem of format would resolve itself as new cars are now equipped only with CD players. Automobiles are recognized as the major place for audiobook listening. The audiobooks industry appears to be more focused today on drawing the attention of listeners to its products. They have created websites such as http://www.ilistentobooks.com/, by Brilliance Audio which lets listeners share views and reviews. Its aim is to promote audiobook listening and Eileen Hutton, the president of Brilliance Audio, tells me that audiobook sales are growing at a much faster rate than print books in the United States.

Simon & Schuster lays particular emphasis on title selection to attract new listening audience. For instance, the publisher produced Meet the Osbournes for the MTV audience, who are more used to CDs than to reading books. Also they published Stephen King’s two audiobooks Riding the Bullet last year and L.T.’s Theory of Pets the year before, which were instrumental in converting book readers to book listeners.

Last September, Blackstone introduced a new cardboard retail packaging with more eye-catching graphics. The first package included 24 best, both previously and newly published titles, such as Bin Laden, Cold Sassy Tree, Catch Me If You Can, Positively 4th Street, Stranger in a Strange Land, and When Character Was the King. Blackstone produces approximately 60 audiobooks a year selected from their 175 books published annually.

The chain of Borders bookstores, through its State Street Audio, offered the bestsellers such as The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte at a more affordable price. They aim at attracting both the casual and new audiobook listeners. They stock multiple formats of a single audiobook title.

Barnes & Noble Booksellers’ chain advertises a 20 per cent discount on the 15 top selling audiobooks. The area that requires improvement, for them, is the outreach to younger, literary people who would find audiobooks interesting.

Audio textbooks of all levels are also available. Recording for the Blind & Dyslexics has a master tape library with a collection of over 75,000 audio textbooks and other reference titles.

In line with America’s national policy, a countrywide network provides library services to the blind, visually impaired, and other print handicapped children. The network consists of four multistate centres, 56 regional libraries, and 101 subregional libraries. They produce audiobooks in addition to books and magazines in Braille, on cassettes, and discs.

By law, American public libraries are supposed to provide patrons with entire library services, which include offering books on tape or audiobooks. They have set up special sections to shelve audiobooks, which are mostly on audiocassettes.

Audiobook listening offers quite a few advantages. All the surveys conducted so far describe multitasking to be the major advantage, which the audiobook listeners earmark, especially those who commute, travel, and drive long distances. In June 2000, the Opinion Research conducted a survey, which revealed that listening to audiobooks reduces stress and fosters relaxation.

Given the public interest in audiobooks the industry can be expected to grow over the years.

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