I’ve seen some articles floating around the internet discussing this new phenomenon of audiobooks outselling print books. I know a little about book sales, so I read further.
The main article being cited had the worst example of the audiobook version outselling the print version significantly. Something like four times as much. BUT what they don’t tell you is that it’s a book published by Amazon. Which means the Kindle and Audible versions of the book will be heavily promoted on Amazon’s various platforms.
The notion that audiobooks are going to start outselling print on a regular basis is crazy.
What do you think?
Johnny Reads 
I think Audiobooks are great, and the are definitely quite popular. But they aren’t for everyone. There’s a niche for audiobooks. Commuters, stay-at-home parents who want to multitask, and folks who lack the attention span to sit for 300+ pages.
Personally, I’ve never tried an audiobook, but my aural comprehension isn’t super great, so I don’t think it’d go too well. Plus, listening to someone tell a story out loud would take longer than reading the book myself.
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Mhm. Most of the audio books I see have 8-12 discs and last 8+ hours. Very rarely do I take 8 hours to read any book. So taking that long to LISTEN to someone is crazy.
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You might be surprised. My coworker is never seen without an earbud in his ear, listening to an audiobook. He “reads” over a hundred books a year this way. And otherwise he would not have time to actually sit down and open a book.
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Nope. Not surprised. Cause he’s one person. Think about all the new books released this year. What are people buying. Print. EBook. Audiobook. In that order. That’s what all the data says. But then someone writes an article about an Amazon book that sells virtually zero print books. No bookstores carry them. And the difference in price between the print and eBook versions is outrageous. And an Amazon title selling well on an Amazon site (Audible) is not surprising. I’d love to see the numbers for books more known.
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I’m not surprised either. The audiobooks at a store I just went to were only $5, while the print books were starting at $8 and went up to $20.
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Of course, I don’t listen to audiobooks. I’d much rather read the e-version of books than listen to it.
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I’d like to know where you were shopping for $5 audiobooks. I work at Half Price Books. And the cheapest we sell them for is $9.99. Unless it goes clearance.
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Midtown scholar at Harrisburg, pa
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Pfft… If this happens, I’ll be most shocked. I can see e-books outselling print books far earlier than audiobooks. It reminds me of this episode of Doctor Who, where they’re in the biggest library in the universe. It literally takes up a whole planet. And he talks about how, despite them being in the future with all the different kinds of technology there is for reading and such, people still prefer print books over anything else. I hope the future is like that.
Sigh. Sorry about that. Nerd rant.
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Hmmm. I actually don’t think it’ll ever happen. Audio books are still pretty expensive. I know we sell them for $9.99-$24.99. And I can’t imagine a subscription to Audible ever being worth it. Cause they take so much time. You’d never really get your money’s worth unless you’re driving 3-4 hours a day.
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I have friends who only “read” via audio book because they say they are too busy to do it any way.
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But I imagine you have many more who read print a whole lot more than they listen to audiobooks.
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I don’t know. It might be a toss up.
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I’ve discussed reading habits with a lot of people. And I think two said they mostly listen to audio books.
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I know a lot of home schoolers who seriously embrace listening to audio books in the car.
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Home school teachers? Then they have no commute. Which means very few books. I’m not saying people don’t listen to them. I’m saying the report I read trying to lead readers to believe that it’s a regular thing for audio books to outsell their print version is blatantly false. We have thousands of books at my store. And there’s just half of one aisle of audio books. If they’re so much more popular then print I imagine we’d have more.
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Laughing. You clearly know nothing about home schooling. I understood you were asking if we could imagine a situation in which audio outsold print. I was just giving a perspective on a “world” in which it might already.
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I can’t stand audio books. I would rather have a book in my hands than listen to someone.
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Haha I’ve never bought one myself.
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Maybe in, like, 1000 years when we turn out like the humans in WALL-E, but not anytime soon. 😛 Kidding. But seriously, audiobooks aren’t gonna start outselling hardcopy books. If anything e-books will, but even those won’t for a while…
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😂😂😂😂😂😂 Oh geez. Yes. You’re spot on.
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