March 2021 News Roundup

AUDIOBOOK PUBLISHING 101 FOR AUTHORS

Virginia Festival of the Book featured audiobook narrators and producers Andi Arndt, Ron Butler, Paul Heitsch, and Karen White, who presented an overview of the range of audiobook publishing options available to authors in the current landscape, whether independently or traditionally published in print. Moderated by Michele Cobb, APA Executive Director and Publisher of AudioFile Magazine. [Source: VABook.org]

THE COVID BOUNCE AND THE COMING ATTENTION RECESSION

Audiobooks were a big winner: While podcast listening was up by an impressive 35%, audiobooks were lockdown’s biggest winner, increasing average time by nearly 50%. However, some of that extra time will diminish when the population starts returning to work and going out again. Which means that for the first time ever in the Attention Economy, there will be an Attention Recession, with very obvious potential ramifications for all entertainment companies. [Source: MidiaResearch.com]

WAZE IS MAKING IT EASIER TO LISTEN TO YOUR AUDIOBOOKS WHILE ALSO USING YOUR PHONE FOR NAVIGATION.

That means you’ll also get turn-by-turn directions within the Audible application if that’s what you have open instead of Waze itself. [Source: Yahoo.com]

THE POWER OF AUDIOBOOKS HELPED ME KICK MY COVID LONELINESS

It turns out there are psychological terms for the way audiobooks have been embraced during the pandemic. One is "narrative transportation theory," another term is "parasocial interaction". [Source: Newsday.com]