Last week I discovered something interesting. BBC Audiobooks America, a well-known publisher of audio books, is now AudioGO.AudioGO is not only a leading publisher of audiobooks in the U.S. and Canada, but also the exclusive North American distributor for BBC Audiobooks, one of the most respected and prolific publishers of unabridged audiobooks and radio dramatizations in the world today.
Since my romantic comedy novels began to be produced as audiobooks, which thrilled me to pieces, I really became interested in the audiobook scene. Of course, I'd listened to audio books for years, and, in the past, I've even interviewed some of the more popular audiobook narrators.
If you haven't discovered the convenience of audiobooks, let me give you a really good reason why you should add audiobooks to your library.
Why Audiobooks?
Reading the popular nonfiction and fiction books out there reflects well on you in social and business circles.
Let's imagine you're at the company Christmas party, and your boss says, "Tell me, Smith. What did you think about that Brian Tracy book, Eat That Frog?"
If you read the book, you're safe. If you didn't, you've lost a chance to impress the boss. So what do you do? Stumble over an explanation of how you didn't have time to read that popular self-help book – probably because you spend 18 hours a day trying to impress your slave-driver boss with your hard work.
If you listened to audiobooks, you could have heard the entire book on your commutes to and from work, whether that's driving through rush hour traffic or taking mass transit.
Indeed, lack of time is one reason so many readers have turned to audiobooks to keep up with the nonfiction and fiction being published today.
Social Stress
What if you're meeting the parents of your significant other for the first time? Now there's a situation fraught with stress. What do you say to these strangers whom you desperately want to impress? Perhaps the mother is an Agatha Christie fan, particularly the Hercule Poirot mysteries – but you're not. You were probably told this in advance. If you were smart, you'd have read one of the books.
However, for many people, reading a book that isn't their taste is arduous. It's so much easier to listen to the book especially when a full-cast dramatization of a book breathes life into the material. I've often described the audiobook editions of my novels as listening to a great romantic comedy movie. That's what really good voice actors do for a book – even for a book you feel forced to read, as in the "meet the parents" scene above.
Cultural Past
You see, it wasn't so long ago that people were judged by the books they read. Once it was common to peruse a host's bookshelf to see what they bought – and to see if it was worn from reading. Educated people, business people, and the "in crowd" were readers. Books were discussed at formal dinners and cocktail parties as well as at casual "meet and greet" events.
That's why you still see books and authors featured on late night talk shows and early morning news shows. In fact, due to the popularity of ebooks, reading is cited more now as a pastime than in the past. People read in bits and pieces of time using their cell phones, ebook readers, or tablets.
For those who can't even find the odd minutes in a day to do this, there are audiobooks.
Rising Popularity
Once just for the blind, audiobooks became available to the general public in the 1970's, first in libraries. Shortly thereafter, you could find them in bookstores. By the turn of the century, they took up quite a bit of real estate in the big box stores. Now, in this era of digital downloads, the audio book industry is booming.
At audiobook sellers, like AudioGO, you can get an audiobook on CD and MP3CD, or you can download online with options as to what to do with the download.
Takeaway Truth
In today's world, there's really no excuse for not keeping up with the books everyone talks about when audio books make it so easy.
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