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APA Rolls Out New Programs
Trudi M. Rosenblum -- 10/2/00
APA holds second job market and two narration panels and begins consumer survey


The APA is rolling out a full slate of new projects, including a buyers' convention aimed at wholesale audio buyers, audiobook narrator seminars, the second annual Audiobook Job Market, a new consumer survey and a revamped program to gather industry statistics.

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Plus, Recorded Books Enters Retail



The buyer's convention will be held in April (no date set yet). "The idea is that we put together the people who buy audiobooks on the wholesale level with the people who sell them the audiobooks--salespeople and publishers," explained Beth Baxter, committee chair. "By listening to the buyers tell us what we can do to sell more audiobooks, the net result will be that more audiobooks will be sold."

The convention will span a day and a half. The first morning will feature short, round-robin meetings in which the publishers meet with the buyers individually. The following morning, each wholesale buyer will speak before the group, discussing ways that publishers can help them sell more audiobooks. The event will be free to the buyers, but the publishers will pay to attend. Nine buyers have already agreed to attend, Baxter said.

Narration PanelsAspiring audiobook narrators should make note of the APA's two upcoming panels on audiobook narration. The first will be held on November 10 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at The Lighthouse at 111 E. 59th St. in New York City. Panelists will include experienced narrators, audiobook producers and publisher members of the APA, including narrators Barbara Rosenblat, George Guidall and Grover Gardner and producers Paul Ruben, Robert Kessler and Dan Zitt. The seminar will also be held in Los Angeles the first week in December, date and location to be announced.

The panel will focus on the nature, growth, and structure of the audiobook industry as it pertains to narrators; the important differences between audiobook narration and other kinds of voice work broadcasting and acting; how to create a demo tape; and how to get a demo tape to the right people. The panel will also describe an audiobook recording session, offer strategies for preparing for an audio recording session, and explain how preparing a book reading is different from preparing other kinds of material.

The cost for the New York panel is $200 if registering before October 27, $250 thereafter. For APA members, the cost is $175. For more information, visit the APA Web site at www.audiopub.org or e-mail Carol Stewart at cstewart@aph.org.

Audiobook Job MarketThe APA is also preparing for its second Audiobook Job Market, which will be held February 8 in New York City (location to be announced). The first job market, held last April, was a rousing success, said coordinator Beth Baxter. "More than half of the publishers who came last time hired someone as a result," she said. "To date, 12 of the narrators have gotten jobs, five of the six abridgers who attended were offered jobs, and one editor and one producer were offered work. One narrator, Richard Allen, got assignments from Live Oak, Chivers, Pocket Audio and B&B, and is being considered by Penguin Putnam. So it's clear that people really are getting work from the Audiobook Job Market."

Changes to the Audio Job Market include a lowered fee of $600 for job applicants, a microphone for the narrators and shorter performances so that all the publishers can see all the narrators in one session, rather than running two concurrent sessions. "We're also hoping to record all the performances and duplicate them on site, so everyone can leave with a recording," Baxter said. The APA is currently taking applications on its Web site. Twelve publishers have committed to attending so far.


The APA is also working to improve statistics on the audio industry. To gather and analyze the information, the APA has hired Albert Greco, a noted author and consultant who serves on the statistics committee of the Book Industry Study Group and the media management and economics division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. All APA members were asked to prepare and submit a form indicating dollar and unit totals for 1999. The data will be analyzed and used to formulate statistics on the state of the audio industry. Beginning in November, on APA members will be asked to submit individual monthly forms tracking sales. APA president Paul Rush said, "Al Greco and his background are a perfect fit for what the APA is trying to do: compiling the most accurate and helpful information for our membership concerning the growth we are experiencing in our industry."

In addition, the APA has begun work on a 2001 consumer research survey, to track buying, renting and listening habits of audio consumers. "The consumer research survey is extremely important to the APA," said Rush. "Every other year we do a full-fledged effort to understand where and how consumers are using audiobooks, where our growth is coming from, and in which format consumers prefer audiobooks. That is a major goal of APA for this year."


Recorded Books Enters Retail
Long a staple of libraries and mail-order rental, unabridged pioneer Recorded Books will enter the retail market on November 14 with The Mark, the eighth installment of the bestselling Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. The unabridged audiobook is read by the popular Frank Muller (who also reads the abridged version from
Recorded's debut
offering: unabridged
The Mark.
Tyndale House), and will be a simultaneous release with the hardcover. Recorded Books also has exclusive unabridged rights to the entire Left Behind series, which will also be released to retail; the first title in the series, Left Behind, will hit stores Nov. 21.
Recorded Books was founded in 1979 and was purchased by Haights Cross in November 1999, but the company is just now venturing into bookstores. "With the expansion of the library market and the audiobook market in general, we realized that we had a brand name, and that the same people taking audiobooks out of libraries are buying audiobooks in bookstores," said Brian Downing, sales and marketing manager for Recorded Books. "Authors and agents were telling us we had to do it."

The company plans to release five retail titles per month, Downing said, adding that Recorded Books has retail rights to 1,400 titles of its 3,000-title backlist. The retail releases will be a combination of new titles and backlist. "Catalogue titles of enduring popularity, such as 84 Charing Cross Road, will be on our retail list," he said. "We'll also do some specialty things, take some chances on material that has not traditionally been available on audio, because we do have a strong base of support in libraries and can afford to take some chances."

For example, Recorded Books has just signed a co-branding deal with the Mayo Clinic and will produce audio versions of the clinic's series of health books.

Although many big-name publishers now routinely publish unabridged versions of hot titles, Recorded Books has not suffered from the competition, Downing said. "We have better titles now than we've ever had," he said. "Our fourth-quarter list is the most exciting we've ever had. There are so many authors and titles out there, the publishers can't do them all. And the smart agents are realizing that if they withhold audio rights and auction them, it's a win-win situation: they can get more money for their author, and it's not going to screw up the hardcover deal. We're as big as the big publishers when it comes to audio, so we have just as much money to compete."

Among Recorded Books' big acquisitions are Maeve Binchy's upcoming novel (as yet untitled) and Nevada Barr's Blood Lure, both due next spring, and Jane Smiley's upcoming novel, due next summer.

Recorded Books' entry into retail follows that of Books on Tape, the other veteran unabridged publisher, which created its own retail imprint Reef Audiobooks in the summer of 1999. "We don't especially see ourselves as going head-to-head with Books on Tape," Downing said. "Traditionally they've done very well in consumer rentals, we've done well in libraries. We think our entry will just expand the market; we don't see it as a competitive situation. Hopefully everyone will be happy to see us do this. Everybody knows who Frank Muller and George Guidall and Barbara Rosenblat are, and they were all Recorded Books readers. The market is still growing so fast but there's room for everyone. Simon & Schuster and Harper and the other big publishers look at it the same way and have been very friendly and cooperative."

Recorded Books will also revamp and relaunch its Web site this month (www.recordedbooks.com). "Our Web site business is booming--revenues are up over 200% year-to-date," Downing said. The site, which launched in 1996, initially focused on consumer rental. The new, revamped site contain a consumer site, a trade site, a library site and a school site, and will also feature downloads, such as the recent free Perfect Storm download done in conjunction with RioPort (Audio, Sept. 4).
--Trudi M. Rosenblum

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