Saturday, April 8, 2017

Which Book Genres Sell Best As Audiobooks?



Which genres do well in audiobook sales?

Fiction does bonkers, non-fiction not so well.

Fiction accounted for 64% of the downloads on audiobooks.com last year, while non-fiction accounted for 36%.

The best month of the year is June, which coincides with heavy promotions tied into June being Audiobook Month.

·         General fiction represents 23% of the downloads.
·         Mystery and Thriller took 12%.
·         Sci-fi and Fantasy registered 8%.
·         Business registered 6%.
·         Health, Mind, Body and Spirit 6%
·         Children’s, YA, and Literature each registered 4%

I’m a little surprised to see children’s books are so low.  Audiobooks are touted as being great tools to help introduce the love of reading to the youngest generation. Kids can read along with what they hear or, if after reading and enjoying a book they can listen to how it’s dramatized.

I’m also surprised business only accounts for one in every 16 and a half downloads, considering people can listen in their car to audios that motivate, educate, or train themselves.

On the other hand, it shouldn’t be a surprise that people want to be entertained, especially if listening on a beach, at a park, or on a long car ride.  Fiction can be fun to hear.  It lacks the visual of a movie but it also doesn’t require reading.  You can close your eyes and imagine another world as the sounds of the story unfolds.

Health, Mind, Body and Spirit seems to be doing well, accounting for one in every dozen downloads.  Meditation, self-help, inspirational, exercise and new age books will always be popular as long as people have stress, sickness, challenges in life, or burdensome experiences.

Audiobooks said its top users downloaded about 75 books in 2016, each listening to over 1,000 hours of audio, which averages out to almost three hours a day for the year.

One of the cool features of audio books is that the narrator can sometimes be the author or a celebrity.  It’s a treat to hear them read the words aloud and to shape them with their inflection and pacing.

Audiobooks can be consumed everywhere at any time. You could be exercising or walking to work.  Maybe you are on a long flight or enjoying a vacation.  Perhaps instead of watching TV you spend a relaxing evening listening to an audiobook.

Of course, the sale of audiobooks depends on a number of factors, including:

·         How many and which titles are available in certain genres.
·         How well audiobooks in general or specific titles are advertised, marketed or promoted.
·         How popular the book is.
·         Who narrates.
·         The cover price.
·         Whether an author’s prior audiobook was good.
·         Favorable media coverage and reviews.
·         Social media exposure.
·         Word-of-mouth recommendations.

Some advantages of audiobooks include:

·         Allows you to rest your eyes.
·         Engages your other senses.
·         Improves your listening skills
·         Allows you to be hands free.
·         Sound enhances the reading experience.

For more information about audiobooks, consult www.AudioPub.org, home of the Audio Publishers Association.  It has done a terrific job to grow, no, explode the audiobook market.  

Have you listened to a great book lately?

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog 2017©. Born and raised in Brooklyn, now resides in Westchester. Named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs 



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