5 ms·
I already commented it on reddit, but I was very surprised by the fact (mentioned in passing) that 75% of pre-buyers for Sanderson's last book were audiobooks.
by torben-friis 4y ago
I already commented it on reddit, but I was very surprised by the fact (mentioned in passing) that 75% of pre-buyers for Sanderson's last book were audiobooks.
For each person reading the book there are 3 people hearing it. Those are wild numbers for me.
- pugio 4y agoIt's worth noting that the narrator - Michael Kramer - is exceptional. One of the characters in this particular series is known for his ability with accents, so listening to the audiobook with a good narrator is an extra amount of fun. I've read most of Sanderson's books in print, but for this one I also bought the audiobook specifically for that kind of narration.
- kneebonian 4y agoThe other narrator commonly used Kate Reading is also exceptional and is Michaels wife.
- nindalf 4y agoNot surprised Kate Reading narrates audiobooks.
- therealdrag0 4y agoI know I’m in the minority but I stopped reading Sanderson because I dislike Kramer so much. His inflection makes everything sound so corny.
- hejaodbsidndbd 4y agoGraphicAudio provides an alternative audio production for most of them.
- torben-friis 4y agoDumb question: is “reading” also used as a verb for audiobooks? (English is my second language).
- freedomben 4y agoYes. It's not without controversy, but it's widely accepted.
- stock_toaster 4y agoNo, in the dictionary sense, being told a story is not the same as reading. As with many words these days, certain liberties are taken.
- hejaodbsidndbd 4y agoIt didn’t used to be, but now it is quite common. I think that, as listening to audiobooks has become more and more popular (as per this thread), folks have tired of saying “listened to the audiobook of” and are switching to just “read”. Pretty standard linguistic evolution following subject frequency.
- kinghtown 4y agoAudiobook listeners ;) get really defensive about it but think about it this way: when you teach a child how to read, what kind of image pops in your head? Are they listening to mp3s??
- edanm 4y agoIn most contexts that's what I use. In contexts where it can be misleading I'll be more specific.
- dfinninger 4y agoTechnically, no. But sometimes it is used for that purpose. Most people you talk to expect “reading” to mean physically reading the book. But if you listened to it, you know the content as well as someone who read it. There’s usually not a reason to clarify because it’s not usually a useful distinction unless you want to discuss the narrator.
- erinnh 4y agoIm confused by it. I cannot listen to audiobooks without either fully focusing on it or forgetting half of it when Im listening to it while doing something else. Even with podcasts I have the same issue, but there I dont really need to listen to every second and fully remember all of it. How do you guys listen to audiobooks? Are you just so much better than me in focusing on multiple things at the same time or are you just listening to audiobooks and not doing anything at the same time?
- swyx 4y agoyou might be underestimating the number of people with long drives and mundane chores that use their eyes and hands but not their full attention
- rootusrootus 4y agoSome people can do it. I'm with you, I cannot. My mom likes to listen while driving, but if I try to do that I lose the story really fast because I pay too much attention to driving.
- rufusroflpunch 4y agoThe simple answer to this is to pay less attention to driving!
- romanhn 4y agoI listen to audiobooks in fits and starts - when driving, when cleaning or washing dishes, when brushing teeth. Basically whenever I can do something else essentially on autopilot.
- Volundr 4y agoFWIW you described the exact reason I listen to so many audiobooks. I struggle with insomnia, and one thing that helped quite a bit was taking a walk before bed while listening to an audiobook. If I listened to music I could just tune it out and my brain would just continue cycling on whatever track it was on. Audiobooks forced me to actually pay attention and stop thinking about whatever was in my head. Breaking that thought cycle really helped with getting to sleep after.
- kneebonian 4y agoI'm one of those people. Simply because sitting down to read requires a complete devotion and time out which is hard with 4 small children and a wife. But listening allows me to do chores around the house, and enjoy at the same time.
- romanhn 4y agoI love reading, but there's too much going on in my life to be able to devote an uninterrupted chunk of time to reading. So audiobooks are a compromise that fills in the gaps that I do have, even if a few minutes long. These add up throughout the day, and I've covered quite a significant amount of fiction and non-fiction in the 15-ish years I've been doing this.
- taeric 4y agoThis is probably skewed heavily by the credits system that Audible uses. Combined with the bundle where the Audible and Kindle versions are discounted together, it is often very low friction to get the audio version. Of course, this is where my question of this view comes in. If you cut out Audible, how certain is Sanderson that the same number of audio books would be purchased? If it cuts over half of the sales, than that more than justifies the lower cut in profit, no?
- unnamed76ri 4y agoWith these books specifically, he already made money from his core fan base via a Kickstarter campaign. So the sales through Audible would have already been lower than a regular release.
- taeric 4y agoWell, yeah. But that isn't helping his stance here. Doesn't necessarily hurt, but is a distraction. He is claiming that audible gives a raw cut of profit, particularly to the smaller artists. But is there evidence that they give a smaller net payout to the same audience?
- edanm 4y agoThere are no sales through Audible for these books. He specifically chose not to release them on Audible. I'm fairly certain he was just looking at numbers of other books of his for comparison.
- the_lonely_road 4y agoMy wife and I listen to books together. We have tried, and failed, several times to buy two books and read them together. One inevitably gets ahead and has to wait for the other which ends up killing the whole experience. We haven’t bought a book in years now but have spent a large amount of time, close to if not in excess of our television time, listening to audiobooks together. I use to have a big library of fantasy and sci do books that I was really proud of and was the primary one dragging my feet about trying audiobooks because I thought they would be an inferior product. I was wrong and I love them more than reading now. My only gripe is the classic space skip in a chapter usually delineated by like 3 stars are pretty jarring in audiobook format with the author just moving on to the next section without mentioning it.
- arglebargle123 4y agoThat scene change seems like a missed opportunity to use a quiet bell/gong or other small audio cue. I feel your pain there though, I bought a new ereader this year and a goodly number of the books I've read since have had issues with scene skips not using any kind of indicator mid chapter.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]