What Is An Audio Book?

As you travel the vast expanse of the internet, you are bound to come across an audio book website or download opportunity at some point in time. Indeed, these files are basically audio files, which represent a physical book - with the bonus that they have been transcribed by a speaking person. Audio books are available for a number of titles, however it is certainly not correct to think that there is an audio book for every production book out there.

Whether or not a particular book will be represented by an audio version will depend on a number of things. Firstly - is the book going to be popular enough to warrant the time and effort of dictating it in to audio format? If the book is a long novel - it will take a number of days to make the recording - and hence this results in a large cost being incurred for the publishing company.

The Cost - Return Tradeoff.

As with most product out there on the market today, audio books must adhere to the principals of cost effectiveness. As was described in the previous 2 paragraphs, it is important to understand that if there is not enough predicted demand for a particular series of individual book release, it is unlikely that an audio version will be released at the same time.

On the other hand, books with a lot of hype, and a series with a proven record will probably include an audio book option when an additional text is released.

Retrospective Audio Books Titles.

Another option available to audio book producers and publishing companies is to release an audio book version of a particular text - after the physical version of the book has been on the market for some time. In doing this, the success and popularity (demand) of the book can be measured. If it is concluded that an audio version of the book is indeed worthwhile, this would then be recorded and released in due course. 

There have been a number of titles which were retrospectively released. Major successes such as the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling had audio books released some time after the popularity explosion which the line of books received. 

Additionally, as a foot note to this article - there is conclusive evidence showing that children's books are more likely to have an audio version than adults books.