Audio is publishing’s new star as sales soar across genres
Top thriller writer opts to publish solely in spoken-word format as demand rises
Writers are turning to the spoken word as their preferred medium, encouraged by a boom in audiobook sales that is transforming publishing.
This weekend, audio publisher Audible, owned by Amazon, released an audiobook of Andrew Motion reading 30 mostly unpublished poems as part of his memoir Essex Clay, and thriller writer Brian Freeman has given up on print entirely for his 19th novel, out out next year, which will appear only as an audiobook. “We haven’t even thought about print,” he said. Just 15 years ago, hardly any of his readers chose audio versions of his books. “Now I hear about them all the time. It made sense to do something specifically for the audio market.”
Related: We’re all ears for audiobooks – and here are some of the best
