Guest Column: The Price of E-Popularity

There is no simple answer. Audio-book publishers are experimenting with ideas. Some are reducing their production expenses, compromising on the experience of the narrator, or the number of support staff, all while struggling to maintain quality. Others are trying different price breaks or new channels that might combine audio book and e-book. Some are releasing some new titles as "download only" in the faint hope that cutting out the hard-goods replication and distribution costs will give a title a better chance to break even on the production costs. No single publisher has a simple answer. What we all agree on is our desire to continue serving the customer, whether they purchase CDs or a digital download, or borrow a copy from a library or a friend. BB

Janet Benson is president of the Audio Publishers Association (www.AudioPub.org) and vice president of Audio Editions (www.AudioEditions.com), an online and catalog audio-book retailer.