Audible Inc. has struck deal a with Diversion Books to release a majority of the e-book house’s titles in audio format, while Audible UK has signed a new agreement with U.K. literary agency AP Watt to produce audio editions of backlist titles of seven major authors.
In the Diversion deal, Audible will publish “a large portion” of Diversion’s existing list and the majority of their new titles in audio beginning this winter. “Audible’s commitment to the Diversion list offers our authors a new audience. We couldn’t be more excited about this arrangement,” said Scott Waxman, cofounder of Diversion Books, which does about 100 e-book titles annually.
In the Watt agreement, Audible will produce brand new audio recordings of the works of Somerset Maugham, Nevil Shute, Robert Graves, Rafael Sabatini, P M Hubbard, Ronald Knox and Anthony Price. All but the Maugham works will be available to U.S. customers.
The audio editions with be available by the end of November and will add to Audible UK’s list of over 60,000 audiobooks. The deal with Watt is similar to ones Audible has made in the U.S. with American literary agencies that have brought hundreds of titles to Audible.
