Is the audiobook encapsulating the publishing world?
Last week, it was revealed that David Cameron’s For the Record had stormed the Amazon’s non fiction chart list to scoop the number one. With the shambles of Brexit causing a civil war in Britain, it’s no surprise that many want to indulge their evenings into learning about Cameron’s memoir. The former prime minister narrates an audiobook version, which has gained more listeners than kindle readers.
In response to the popularity of the audio book, neither one knows whats more alarming. The current outright political chaos or the question of how audiobooks are causing major destruction to the printing industry. In this podcast-friendly world does this question the future for books and the bleak direction they are heading?
The daunting pace of the rise in audiobooks.
Are audiobooks the new books? It was recorded last year that the UK leading audiobook retailer, audible, customers downloaded more than three hours of material last year (Poole, 2019). The under lying worry is that the shift from print to audiobooks will be the final factor to confirm that the slowly dying world of print could be sooner then we all anticipated. The audiobook sales are thriving because it is pursued as a valuable alternative to reading with a strikingly similar cognitive process as picking up a book. Today we live in a world that is so fast moving it’s difficult keep up, this is where an audiobook fits in suitably as it gives you the ability multi-task. In the last year there was a 12% rise in the volume and in the past five years sales have doubled for audiobooks (Clark, 2019). The main contributors being men on their way to work, leisure walking, looking after children and running errands are further impacts into these statistics.
Children also have caught onto the craze.
The younger generation are taking a leaf out of the adults book, also shifting to audible rather than print. The Insight revealed the popularity of audiobooks in 2018 increased by 138% and in the past year this has doubled (thebookseller.com, 2019). Today it was disclosed that author Sophie Dahl debut children’s book has granted Bolinda Publishing exclusive audio rights. She will narrate Madame Badobedah which also features a song that she wrote along side her grammy nominated husband (thebookseller.com, 2019). This new incentive of creation will no doubt spread like wild fire and other authors will be influenced by this, collaborating songs with audiobooks will become the norm; ultimately leading to a desperate print crisis.
The result of audiobooks wiping out print will cause a global devastation
These trends that keep occurring lead us to fear that audiobooks will do to reading what keyboards has done to writing. As technology continues to develop we can only shudder at the future for books, knowing that it is looking more gloomy than ever before. Predictions from current themes suggest that in ten years children’s book will be nothing more than an audio matched with a book full of pictures, displaying no words to read. It has got out of control the way books are spiralling, the importance of reading needs to be reiterated and appreciated. Learning to value both the digital and printed word needs to be remembered and obtained before it’s too late.
Bibliography
Amazon.co.uk. (2019). Amazon.co.uk: michelle obama audiobook: Kindle Store. [online] Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=michelle+obama+audiobook&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss_1 [Accessed 28 Sep. 2019].
Clark, A. (2019). Easy listening: the rise of the audiobook. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/09/easy-listening-rise-of-audiobooks-alex-clark [Accessed 3 Oct. 2019].
Nuwer, R. (2019). Are paper books really disappearing?. [online] Bbc.com. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160124-are-paper-books-really-disappearing [Accessed 3 Oct. 2019].
Poole, S. (2019). Listen up: why we can’t get enough of audiobooks. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/13/listen-up-rise-of-audiobooks-steven-poole [Accessed 3 Oct. 2019].
Thebookseller.com. (2019). Bolinda snaps up Sophie Dahl children’s book | The Bookseller. [online] Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/bolinda-snaps-sophie-dahl-childrens-book-1092836 [Accessed 3 Oct. 2019].
Thebookseller.com. (2019). Children’s audiobooks double in popularity | The Bookseller. [online] Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/childrens-audiobooks-double-popularity-1086296 [Accessed 3 Oct. 2019].
Thebookseller.com. (2019). Amazon Charts: Cameron scoops number one | The Bookseller. [online] Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/amazon-charts-cameron-prime-number-one-1087976 [Accessed 3 Oct. 2019].
Vulture.com. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.vulture.com/2018/12/investigating-michelle-obamas-record-book-sales.html [Accessed 27 Sep. 2019].
