Brendan Curry, director of the trade group at Norton, is on the Open Book podcast this week speaking to David Steinberger about changes in the nonfiction market since 2020 and current publicity and marketing challenges. Black Lives Matter triggered an unexpected hunger for nonfiction, he explains. “We started to see mass curiosity at a level of more mass culture, a real hunger for understanding about pretty deep and painful and complex issues in American life,” he says. This resulted in “really large sales results from books that you wouldn’t expect,” like The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein, which began […]
Audio
Eleven Labs to Produce AI-Narrated Audiobooks from Bookwire
Ebook distributor Bookwire and AI voice company Eleven Labs have partnered to create AI-narrated audiobooks for Bookwire’s publishing clients. The books will be available in the Eleven Reader app in more than a dozen languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, Polish, French, and German. “At Bookwire, we are driven by one clear goal: to help publishers achieve maximum reach and success for their titles worldwide,” Bookwire co-founder and co-ceo John Ruhrmann said in a release. “Innovation and the intelligent use of new technologies are essential to that commitment. Through our partnership with ElevenLabs, publishers who choose this model can […]
Spotify Launches Audiobook Charts
Spotify has launched audiobook charts of the top audiobooks on the platform based on users’ “listening behavior and engagement” in the US and UK. Similar to podcast and music charts, the lists are updated weekly with the top overall titles and top titles in select genres. In the US, genres include Romance, Mystery and Thriller, Self-help, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Biography and Memoir, Business and Careers, Teen and Young Adult, Religion and Spirituality, History, and Parenting and Relationships. “As we’ve proven with music and podcasts charts, when content is easier to access, discover, and enjoy, the demand grows,” director of partnerships and […]
New Audible Feature Synchronizes Text and Audio
Audible has launched “immersion reading” in their app, which highlights text as a user is listening to an audiobook. The feature is currently available on Kindle and is new to the Audible app. “Audiobooks count as reading,” chief product officer Andy Tsao said in a release. “But now at Audible, you can read with your eyes too. Read & Listen gives book lovers the best of both worlds. Whether you’re learning a new language, studying for school, or lost in a story’s world, you no longer have to choose one format over the other.” Read & Listen is available to US […]
Spotify Launches Page Match, Partners with Bookshop
Today, Spotify announced two features that they hope will increase reading across formats. Page Match, which allows users to sync their audiobooks and print books in an effort to provide a seamless reading experience, launches today with “most English-language titles” available by the end of the month. In the Spotify app, users can scan a page in a physical book and listen to the audio from that point. The feature also works in reverse–after listening to a portion of an audiobook, readers can scan the pages in their print book and the app will find their spot, highlighting the text […]
Audible Tests In-App Promo Videos
In December, Audible began testing in-app vertical videos for book promotion. Select publishers can trailers, author interviews, and more to drive audiobook discovery. The feature is now in beta, available to about half of Audible users.