Comments on: Audio Book Buzz

By: JohnM

JohnM — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:15:30 +0000

Hi Gwen – You are more than welcome. The site was at http://www.audiopod.ca

By: Gwen

Gwen — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:35:01 +0000

JohnM – thanks for the heads up. If you want to share the url, by all means please do.

By: JohnM

JohnM — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:16:24 +0000

I have just visited a site that is offering audiobooks in a different way. They are currently testing and access is free, but it looks very interesting. I really like the ability to Drag and Drop an audiobook, and have it play. There is also bookmarks for as many open books as you want and you can email them to friends, as well. They are using public domain books for now, but I think they are building a studio right now. This should fix problems of price and monopoly.

By: BevQB

BevQB — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:05:07 +0000

Thanks Tilly, I just assumed I would hear from her PA, so I was totally tickled that she emailed back to me.

And yeah, I agree– I would hate to see the production values suffer because of pressure to lower prices. Like I said, my biggest gripe is with the download prices– I can usually find a deal on the audio book CD prices. I have no problem with paying $15-25 for a good audio book. Yes, I wish they were lower, but keep them fairly reasonable and keep the standards high, and I will continue to be a (mostly) happy customer.

By: Tilly Greene

Tilly Greene — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:47:13 +0000

Amazon is taking over more and more of the book biz and that is a worry. Granted I’ve tried the Kindle and find the WhisperNet a big selling feature but it doesn’t work abroad so it’s a bit of a eunuch.

I like the non-DRM move and even understand audio books occasionally higher prices – some of the readers put seriously hard work into these. However, I can’t believe any would choose to check out an abridged audio book over unabridged. If you take the time to read [in this case listen] a book, you don’t want the cliff notes.

By the way, congrats on the personal response. She sounds like a fab lady

By: Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:35:31 +0000

Or they label books as romance that aren’t romance. Oh wait, publishers do that with print books too We better stop while we’re ahead

By: BevQB

BevQB — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:48:03 +0000

OY! The higher download prices just burn my bacon. Brilliance Audio is notorious for it.

And don’t get me started on the lack of respect that the Romance genre gets within the audio book community- Romance isn’t even listed as a genre on many “serious” audiophile sites! But that’s a rant for another day.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:21:57 +0000

Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer. The library editions tend to come with ready-for-shelf packaging (heavy plastic containers, nicer sleeves for the CDs) PLUS most companies offer replacements. CD #6 got scratched all to hell, and they’ll replace it for free or for a small (usually around $5) fee. Maybe they’re gouging us librarians because of replacements and packaging?

Well abridged is great for authors with verbal diarrhea – but that said I can’t remember the last time I listened to an abridgment.

Downloadable doesn’t always mean cheaper. They can still cost a pretty penny. Why? Don’t know. But audio is very complicated. They have separate rights (there’s print rights, audio rights, movie rights….), separate contracts, and are a totally separate entity from the book. Which is why not all books become available in audio. Because the author/agent/publisher/whomever never sold the audio rights.

It’s enough to make your head hurt.

By: BevQB

BevQB — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:10:54 +0000

See, here’s what I can’t figure out, Wendy– what’s the difference between the consumer priced unabridged audio books on CD (usually between $15-$35) and the uber expensive library editions? Seriously, are they burned on titanium CDs or something?

And I can’t for the life of me figure out WHY anyone would want to listen to an abridged CD. Yes, they are MUCH less expensive, but with so many libraries now offering downloadable audio books, it makes no sense to miss out on every word the author wrote. The only reason I can think of would be for a school paper, but that just doesn’t strike me as enough reason to continue to offer so many fiction books in abridged format.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:02:28 +0000

I can assure you that libraries no longer prefer the abridged versions (maybe they used to – but I can’t speak to that). I’m currently not in charge of buying AV for my library, but I do know we rarely buy anything anymore that isn’t unabridged and on CD (we also have dipped our toes into the downloadable eAudio pool, and that’s proven to be quite popular).

I think abridgments were so prevalent back in the day because of cost. 5 cassettes/CDs is “cheaper” than 12. Less packaging, less materials, less time in the recording studio. As more and more people discover audio, the demand for unabridged has increased. Why do they still bother with abridged? Well that I can’t answer. Maybe to keep cost down for the consumer/retail market? Unabridged is damned expense. Libraries easily can spend $100+ for ONE audio book. Retail costumers? I can’t think of one person who would spend that kind of money for one book – myself, an audio junkie, included.