Audiobook Boom Provides Big Opportunities for Publishers

If you're under the impression that Colin Firth's finest professional moment involved his supporting role in Bridget Jones's Diary, or that Jake Gyllenhaal's controversial performance in Brokeback Mountain was that actor's crowning achievement, well, you'd be wrong.
Last year, Firth's narration of Graham Greene's novel, The End of the Affair, resulted in a surprise Audiobook of the Year award from Audible. Audible also made headlines in 2013 after publishing an audio version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby in advance of the book's most recent film adaptation; Gyllenhaal's narration of Gatsby has been called "masterful."

Dan Eldridge is a journalist and guidebook author based in Philadelphia's historic Old City district, where he and his partner own and operate Kaya Aerial Yoga, the city's only aerial yoga studio. A longtime cultural reporter, Eldridge also writes about small business and entrepreneurship, travel, and the publishing industry. Follow him on Twitter at @YoungPioneers.