Forget brides, grads and dads; June was one swell month for books—and notably, a pair of audiobooks. Just like their print counterparts, the audiobook versions of Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton (Simon & Schuster Audio) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Random House Audio/Listening Library) far exceeded expectations in their first days on sale, racking up impressive numbers.
It was hard to avoid the media blitz for Living History (laydown date: June 9), especially since the embargoed book was somehow obtained by press outlets and excerpts from it began appearing a few days early. Interviews on national television, a glamorous launch party and a much-ballyhooed book signing in Manhattan were more icing on the cake. And these efforts seem to have paid off. The print book boasted a one million—copy first printing and has gone back to press for an additional 500,000 copies; the audiobook had an initial print run of 50,000 (25,000 cassette, 25,000 CD) and has gone back to press several times, bringing the in-print total to 85,000 copies. Doing the math (as S&S Audio president and publisher Gilles Dana has), the audiobook is proportionally outpacing the book in terms of reorders. "It is one of our best selling nonfiction titles in recent memory," said Dana. "In today's market, 50,000 copies is quite terrific for an initial number, so we are very happy to exceed that already." To put things in perspective, S&S Audio's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (released in 1989 with 9,000 copies) was the first audiobook ever to sell one million copies, and it took seven years to reach that mark.
Dana noted that the sales for Living History were distributed almost evenly across national accounts, mass merchants, and independents and wholesalers. Barnes & Noble has reported a high sell-through on the title and is having trouble keeping it in stock. Across the board, "many retailers were eager to get the books on the shelves, but not as eager to put the audiobook in the front of the store," Dana lamented. "Some people missed the boat because of that."
However, such overall success indicates that consumers were "looking for more" than what they saw on TV and in the newspapers, according to Dana. "People did not just want to hear the scandal. They obviously wanted to hear Hillary's message, her point of view. And some people bought the book as a statement, a vote of confidence for her. The recording allows listeners to have a one-on-one experience, it's like Hillary talking directly to them," Dana said. And according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll, listeners (and readers) in New York like what they've heard. Hillary Clinton's approval rate has risen to 57% among New Yorkers, the highest it's been in seven months.
Harry the Heavyweight
Harry Potter remains a certified phenomenon and is proving to be the knockout sales champ in all arenas. If Hillary's media coverage was big, the attention paid to Pottermania (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix went on sale at 12:01 a.m., June 21) was gargantuan. Print-book sales records have been smashed (an estimated five million copies sold in the U.S. in the book's first 24 hours of release), and the audiobook is following in those big footprints. Listening Library, the children's imprint of Random House Audio, went out with a walloping—and record-setting—first printing of 575,000 copies (200,000 CD, 375,000 cassette). As of June 26, the company had ordered trips back to press that will raise the total in-print figure to 750,000 copies (300,000 CD, 450,000 cassette). Incidentally, the four previous Potter audiobooks (all formats combined) have an in-print total of nearly three million copies; by Random House's estimation, a successful children's audiobook typically sells between 15,000 and 20,000 copies; for adult books it's more like 250,000 copies.
Listening Library publisher Tim Ditlow was on hand at Toys R Us in Times Square for the book and audiobook's huge New York City release party and a reading performance by narrator Jim Dale. "It struck me at midnight in Times Square that for the first time as an audiobook producer, I felt like a Broadway producer and this was opening night," Ditlow said, using an analogy befitting the locale. "I was anxious, but I could see from the number of cassettes being sold there, and from the recognition factor of Jim Dale by the man on the street, that things were going amazingly well. It's the best feeling you can have—it was like a standing ovation," Ditlow continued. "And when I got the numbers on Monday morning and knew that we were okay with what we printed and people were coming back for more, well, that was like the encore."
With its long running time (26.5 hours) and non-impulse price ($75 CD, $45 cassette) Ditlow said that Order of the Phoenix has not met with much price resistance. "For people new to audiobooks, there is some sticker shock," he said. "But experienced buyers want to know how we can produce something that's 30% longer than the last title without much of a price increase. The running time is such a big part of the story; the per minute cost is a great value." And at this point, many consumers are not paying list price. Ditlow noted that the audiobooks are being substantially discounted—30% to 40%—"for the first time ever" at retail, right along with the print book, something that was not true with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. "It's been a major factor," he said.
Savvy marketing played a role, too. At the height of the pre-pub Harry hoopla, Listening Library released a 90-second audio clip of its Phoenix recording via the Internet to all its accounts. The clip became the only information available on the forthcoming top-secret tome, creating a very hot click on computers and garnering major attention for the audiobooks. The gimmick worked so well that Ditlow has learned it was just used as an example during an M.B.A.-level marketing course. "They studied how it was a great—and very inexpensive—marketing ploy," he said.
