June/July 2023 News Roundup

The three bears of audiobooks leave their pudding on the table for our readers to determine which is just right, in this compilation of June and July 2023 news. From the too long/too short/just right category (Jan 6 chronicles, short form audiobooks, interview with Sarah Jaffe), to the too easy/too difficult/just right category (voice switching, narrating an autobiography, mom reads erotica) and the too passive/too aggressive/just right category (Tolstoy chill, deep fakes, growing Spanish sales). After you’ve had your pudding, settle down for a comfy read of the APA annual sales report to feel… just right.

The Next Big Idea Is Audio

When the Next Big Idea Club launched in 2018, the centerpiece was a hardcover-or-ebook subscription. Now, it's short-form audiobooks. [Source: publishersweekly.com]

Audiobooks as a "Goldilocks" activity

Audiobooks hit the sweet spot in dopamine response - not too little or too much - just right. [Source: npr.org]

APA Report: U.S. Sees Double-Digit Audiobook Sales Growth for 11th Year

The Audio Publishers Association finds in its annual report that audiobook sales generated US$1.8 billion in the United States in 2022. [Source:publishingperspectives.com] [APA Survey: audiopub.org ]

Voices report finds audiobooks enable greater literature consumption

The survey found that audiobooks are quickly growing in popularity, both as a preferred audio experience and as a literature format. [Source: prnewswire.com]

Tolstoy and Chill

Listening to books is more passive than reading them. That might be a good thing. [Source: theatlantic.com]

Reading boosts IQ. Do audiobooks?

Reading and listening to books share certain brain benefits. [Source: cdapress.com]

FEED YOUR EARPODS

How a team turned the Jan. 6 Report into recorded history in 26 hours

It’s the recordings you’ve got to watch out for. [Source: latimes.com]

Black Sabbath's Geezer Butler Explains the Most Difficult Aspect of His Book

Black Sabbath bassist, Geezer Butler, has called recording the audiobook version of his recently released autobiography, "one of the hardest things" that he's ever done. [Source: ultimate-guiltar.com]

BEYOND ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Dosdoce: Growing Sales in Spanish-Language Audiobooks

“The constant growth of interest in the United States in Spanish-language culture,” the Dosdoce report reads, “is noteworthy because in 2022, the consumption of audiobooks increased by 82.94 percent. [Source: publishingperspectives.com]

Nunavik students helped write and illustrate their own award-winning book

The book draws on a traditional Inuit legend and language. [Source: cbc.ca]

Frankfurt’s CONTEC Mexico: Audiobooks’ Finer Points

At Frankfurt’s CONTEC Mexico, panelists from Chile, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the United Kingdom discussed making audiobooks. [Source: publishingperspectives.com]

European Publishers See Audiobooks, AI as Inevitabilities

Topics ranged from an overview of sales trends from the European book publishing market to the need for publishers to hire professionals from adjacent industries. [Source: publishersweekly.com]

Startups & new offerings

‘AI Voices’ in Audiobooks: Storytel in ElevenLabs Partnership

Storytel invests in ElevenLabs, looking to offer automated audiobook readings and ‘voice switching’ for users between preferred voices. [Source: publishingperspectives.com]

A.I.

AI Is About to Turn Book Publishing Upside Down

If you try to evaluate the opportunity through the lens of the coming AI apocalypse, you’ll have a hard time seeing the green light ahead. [Source: publishersweekly.com]

A.I. human-voice clones are coming for the Amazon, Apple and Google audiobook

Voice actors say opportunities to clone their voices for speedier, cheaper production on some forms of audiobooks can’t be ignored. [Source: cnbc.com]

Will AI threaten publishing jobs?

the impact of AI on the book publishing industry will be determined by how it’s implemented as well as how publishers and industry professionals adapt to these new technologies. [Source: bookriot.com]

Meta to Help People Craft More Zuck Deepfakes With ‘Voicebox’ AI

The Meta AI team shamelessly says their audiobook-trained AI model can generate speech from text prompts, modify audio clips, and edit sound to take out unwanted noise. [Source: gizmodo.com]

Interviews

How audiobooks are made

Meet Sarah Jaffe. She's an executive producer at Penguin Random House Audio. [Source: npr.org]

I Was A Married Mom. Then I Started Narrating Erotica — And My Entire Life Changed

I played women who owned their own desire. They acted on their fantasies. They told their partners what to do to make them feel good. Honestly, I didn’t know you could do that. [Source: huffpost.com]