Audiobooks are expected to be the future of books, says publisher

The sale of audiobooks across the world grew from $1.5 billion in 2015 to $2.1 billion in 2016, said Power Publishers. If statistics are to be believed, then readers are steadily shifting from reading printed books to listening to audiobooks.

It was speculated for a decade that digital books will gradually replace printed books, like digital innovations have wholly or partly replaced analogue and earlier technology in other industries.

Ebooks were thought to be the future of books.

However over several years ebooks did not become popular as per expectations, in India.

Ebooks proved to be a good option for readers based abroad, where the printed version was not deliverable.

Indians still largely preferred printed paper books over ebooks, said Power Publishers.

Audiobooks first appeared in India as FM radio programs, arresting the attention of readers with dramatized version of short stories by popular authors, complete with background score and foley sound effects.

Sunday Suspense was an extremely successful audio story series aired by Radio Mirchi from Kolkata.

In 2017, Power Publishers launched the first Bengali language audiobook mobile phone app for android phones, named Power Talking Books.

Audiobook apps like Audible (from Amazon) and Power Talking Books are downloadable as mobile phone apps and can be played and enjoyed from the phone.

This is what is making audiobooks popular quickly: the freedom from reading, usable from mobile phone, without having to depend on any other device, listening while on the go, and economic pricing.

For example, Power Talking Books app comes at an annual fee of Rs 200 for all audiobooks within it.

Interest among authors to get audiobook versions of their printed books published is increasing too, said the piblisher.

Indian audiobook publishers have set up a separate team to handle publication of audiobooks.

Even traditional book publishers are collaborating with audiobook publishers like Power Publishers on revenue sharing basis to get their books converted to audiobooks, said Pinaki Ghosh, co-founder of Power Publishers.

As Indian audiobook publishers like Power Publishers keep searching for good titles to be published as audiobooks, authors can now reach out to a much larger section of readers who ‘listen’ to books while they are traveling, or during recess.