The audio industry made itself heard at BEA with a full roster of Audio Publishers Association—hosted events and with a solid presence—including a number of hot titles—in the exhibit halls.

Thursday's daylong APAC conference at the Wilshire Grand Hotel kicked off a generally optimistic few days. Approximately 200 attendees gathered for the morning's general session, which revealed results from a recent survey about audiobook listening habits and included an update on the APA's continuing work with CEA to adopt audiobook-friendly standards for consumer listening devices.

Eight nuts-and-bolts workshops were held throughout the day, followed by 12 roundtable groups. This new, more interactive format garnered a number of favorable comments. "I thought APAC was a welcome change from previous years," said Paul Rush, marketing director for Oasis Audio. "For the past few APACs, I got the feeling we were doing the same topics with the same speakers year after year. This time, given the format had more audience participation, more information was shared."

During the APAC luncheon, outgoing APA president Eileen Hutton, associate publisher of Brilliance Audio, was recognized for her two years of service to the organization. Mary Beth Roche, publisher of Audio Renaissance, was elected as her successor. New board members included: Hutton, Ana Maria Alessi (HarperAudio), Arnie Cardillo (Live Oak Media), Gavin Caruthers (Simon & Schuster Audio) and Christine McNamara (Random House Audio).

Hutton announced that the group is now under new management, provided by Association Management Bureau in McLean, Va. AMB's Laura Skoff will serve as APA's executive director.

With everyone's blood sugar on a post-lunch high, comedian, audiobook enthusiast and keynote speaker Louie Anderson took the stage for one of his trademark low-key standup routines.

"APAC was a nice improvement," said Carrie Kania, associate publisher of HarperAudio. "I saw lots of new faces there and was very encouraged by that." Some of the new faces included aspiring audiobook publishers, a venture capitalist and representatives from eBay. "Audiobooks are a big and growing business for us," said Clay Kallman, associate manager of eBay's media division, explaining that booksellers and publishers often choose eBay for selling titles as an alternative to going through a remainder company. "We're here to get more educated about the audio industry," he added.

Friday night, APA members and their guests were puttin' on the glitz at the eighth annual Audie Awards, a dinner gala held at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Emcee actress Marsha Mason immediately shifted things into high gear by recalling her days as an L.A. race car driver. Audiobook narrator Frank Muller, who continues to recover from devastating injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident 18 months ago, received a warm ovation from colleagues and fans and later won the Audie for Best Narrator—Male. A complete list of Audie winners can be found at www.audiopub.org.

More to Celebrate

Tea for more-than-two was served at the APA's third Audiobook and Author Tea Saturday afternoon. Booksellers and audiobook fans sipped as authors Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez (The Dirty Girls Social Club, Audio Renaissance), T. Jefferson Parker (Cold Pursuit, Brilliance Audio) and Doris Roberts (Are You Hungry, Dear?, Audio Renaissance) each spoke about their connection to audiobooks. Valdes-Rodriguez joked about having to audition to read her own work and likened her "fun and easy" recording sessions to playing music (she's an accomplished saxophonist). "I don't hear or see the difference between language and music," she said. "Speaking my writing, and performing, marries my passions."

T. Jefferson Parker reminisced about his earliest memories of "audiobooks": "My mother discovered, when I was a very fussy baby at six months old, that if she read to me, I would pay attention." And Doris Roberts joked, "When I was recording my book, I realized I couldn't complain about the dialogue, because I had written it! There's a little bit of an ego trip there when you read your life, but I also think I tell damn good stories."

Librarians (and library lovers) were feted at a Sunday afternoon reception held in the Beverly Hills City Hall Rotunda and Art Gallery. "The turnout was smaller than we had hoped for," said Diane Ring of the Beverly Hills Public Library, an APA board member and organizer of the event. The event's timing—late in the BEA line-up—was likely a factor. "But the event was wonderful and it was a beautiful setting," Ring added. During the celebration, narrators Richard Allen (Brilliance Audio), John Lee (Recorded Books), Anna Fields (Blackstone Audio), Judith West (The Audio Partners) and William Dufris (BBC Audiobooks America) read from Audie-nominated and Audie-winning titles.

Authors Drive Traffic

Throughout the show, author appearances proved the perfect tool to generate interest in audio titles. Christine McNamara, v-p and publisher at Random House Audio, mentioned Suzan-Lori Parks (Getting Mother's Body) "sang during one of the panels and lots of booksellers were asking about the audio after that. And Jhumpa Lahiri [The Namesake, Houghton Mifflin] was a breakfast speaker and people really noticed that we were doing the audio. I think that the authors Random House brought with them helped us get more attention."

Chris Lynch, v-p and associate publisher of Simon & Schuster Audio, voiced a similar opinion, "I think in general authors are becoming more savvy about audio, realizing they can reach a whole new audience." Titles creating buzz for S&S included Maneater by Gigi Levangie Grazer. "The party for the book was a real star-studded affair," said Lynch, noting guests included Harrison Ford, Steve Martin and other Hollywood heavies. "Uma Thurman read the audio for us and people seem to be excited about it." Lynch also played up a memoir by a certain former first lady, Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton. "It's our biggest title in the near future," Lynch told PW. "She's a talented speaker and she did a great job on the recording. People want to hear what she has to say."

Author T. Jefferson Parker did an audio-only signing for Brilliance, where the narrator of the audiobook, Patrick Lawlor, also made an appearance to literally lend a hand. "We had a huge crowd," said Parker. "It was great." Other audio signings included author and actor Armin Shimerman (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), who signed copies of the audiobook Magic Time by Marc Scott Zicree and Barbara Hambly (which Shimerman narrates), at the Blackstone Audio booth.

On the Show Floor

Most audio publishers reported good traffic and knowledgeable inquiries about their titles in the exhibit halls. "We got some really smart questions," noted McNamara. "Booksellers are much more familiar with what we do now and are more curious about specific titles."

"We've received lots of comments about the variety on our list, and booksellers seem really excited about our classics," said Kania of HarperAudio. "They can't wait for the new Cheever [read by Meryl Streep] and Faulkner collections."

Classics were on display at The Audio Partners booth, too. "We've had a tremendous amount of interest from librarians in our Arkangel Shakespeare collection," said marketing director Michael Taylor. "At 13.25 pounds, we can claim it's the heaviest audiobook around," he joked. "And people aren't falling over when they hear the price [$600], which is good." The Audio Partners also announced its agreement to publish 10 books by Will Durant (The Story of Civilization).

"I wasn't at the booth much this time," said Thomas of Time Warner AudioBooks. "But when I was there I was amazed by the volume of traffic we had." Advance listening copies of James Patterson's The Lake House and samplers of David Sedaris: Live at Carnegie Hall were especially popular. "We gave away hundreds of them every morning at the show, but people were still asking for more," said Thomas. At the Oasis booth, Paul Rush reported that "traffic was light on Friday but Saturday and Sunday were very strong." He noted "very strong interest" in the company's new foreign language line, The Complete Idiot's Guide series, available in six languages and Laughing at Allegra by Anne Ford.

"Of course we got tons of questions about Harry Potter," said McNamara of Random House. "Booksellers are very excited about it, which makes us very happy." Random's Listening Library imprint is releasing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, read by Jim Dale, on June 21 with a record-breaking first print run of 575,000 copies.

"We got orders from 14 different independent bookstores at the booth and a lot of positive comments about our titles," Recorded Books publisher Brian Downing told PW. "We got lucky and had both the Book Sense fiction [The Lovely Bones] and nonfiction book of the year [Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight], so it was very positive." Downing noted that his company's new Book Sense Audio series, a joint venture with the ABA, garnered plenty of attention, too. Recorded Books will supply audiobook titles to be sold in Book Sense member stores in specially designed packaging that carries the Book Sense logo.

Things were "very, very busy" at the Brilliance booth, said Hutton, who reported that the company is coming off its "best year ever" in 2002 and is beating all monthly projections so far in 2003. "I think it's a combination of factors," she said, including "good titles and authors and the fact that people are traveling more within the United States these days." Booksellers were enthusiastic about forthcoming titles Remember When by Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb, Quantico Rules by Gene Riehl and The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan.

First-time exhibitor Full Cast Audio was "building a presence" with its booth, said managing director Dan Bostick. "We've been getting a lot of recognition from all angles," he added. For Listen & Live Audio, "This year was a little different for us because we didn't have a booth," said president Alfred Martino. "Rights have become more of our focus here," added publisher Alisa Weberman. "I've been meeting with lots of book publishers and rights people." The company will publish its first adult fiction title, Nina: Adolescence by Amy Hassinger, this month.

New Millennium Audio had "a great show," according to v-p Mary Aarons. "We had two breakfasts that were incredibly well received," she noted, citing the appearance of New Millennium authors Larry King, Tom Cook, Gene Simmons and Herb Cohen at those events, as well as an outing to a Dodgers game. Things were also rosy for Audio Renaissance. "We've had an enormously positive response to our list," said marketing director Jeanne-Marie Hudson. She pointed to lead titles Dune: The Machine Crusade by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, as well as The Red Hat Club by Haywood Smith and Ultimate Punishment by Scott Turow, as piquing the interest of visitors to the booth. "I think people are recognizing the potential of the market," she added.