Interview with Amanda D'Acierno, President & Publisher, PRH Audio Group

March 13, 2019

Penguin Random House’s audiobook business is an essential pillar of our global growth strategy for 2019 and beyond. Read on for an interview with Amanda D’Acierno, who oversees Audio at Penguin Random House US. 

Q: First, congratulations on your five 2019 Audie Awards. What a wonderful recognition for you and your team. Now, the audiobook business in the US is one of the fastest-growing publishing areas for Penguin Random House. How do you account for the current boom in the demand for audiobooks and what is the outlook for the next few years?

Amanda D’Acierno

A: One of the major growth factors in the digital era has been increasing the number of titles we’ve produced each year – in 2018 we published more than 1,400 titles, up from 650 in 2014, the first year we operated as a combined Penguin Random House Audio team. We’ve expanded our staff, built additional studios in our offices in New York and Los Angeles, dedicated more resources to promoting the audiobook format and our titles, and created a proprietary archive and distribution system. 

When I look forward a few years, I'm very positive about our future growth. More listeners are coming to the audio format every year, helped by major new retail players, including Google Play, Apple Books, BookBub’s Chirp and several others. These listeners are young and they are consuming more content than ever before. Many of today's customers are listening from multiple platforms and the crossover between podcast and audiobooks listeners continues to grow in tandem. Consumer data shows that audiobook listeners mostly listen on their smartphones. As we are all attached to our phones every waking moment, and every phone is equipped with multiple audiobook stores and libraries, I feel very bullish on the future of audio. Q: How has the recording process for our audiobooks evolved? A: Production values are higher than ever – while the majority of the audiobooks we produce are voiced by a single narrator, we’re always experimenting with new techniques to create an immersive listening experience. We’re producing more full-cast recordings like Audiobook of the Year finalist BEASTIE BOYS BOOK, narrated by Mike D and Ad-Rock along with 40 of their friends and collaborators, and DAISY JONES & THE SIX, which also incorporates original music inspired by song lyrics from the novel. We’re leveraging our production expertise to publish more audiobooks from genres that weren’t traditionally available on audio, like picture books and graphic novels such as Victoria Jamieson’s Newbery Honor-winning ROLLER GIRL, which is narrated by a full cast with sound effects and music, including sounds recorded live at a real roller derby match. Q: Are the listening habits of the consumers changing and if so, how are you going to address these changes? A: While many people start listening to audiobooks as a way to multitask, such as listening during their commute, at the gym, or doing chores around the house, we’re seeing a strong new trend of listening to an audiobook as a way to wind down at the end of the day. According to the most recent consumer data, “at home” now beats “in the car” as the most popular place to listen, and many audiobook fans are listening simply as a way to kick back and relax. Smart speakers like Amazon Echo or Google Home are another trend affecting listener behavior. Smart speaker users’ consumption of audio content of all kinds increases sharply after purchase, and since those devices are typically kept in a communal area of the house like the living room or kitchen, listening can be communal rather than a solo experience with your headphones plugged in. As a result, we’re adjusting our promotional messaging to reflect these trends by incorporating imagery of listeners relaxing—in addition to multitasking—and listening via smart speaker.  

Interview with Hannah Telfer, Managing Director, Audiences & Audio, PRH UK

March 13, 2019

Romesh Ranganathan reading Straight Outta Crawley

Penguin Random House’s audiobook business is an essential pillar of our global growth strategy for 2019 and beyond. Read on for an interview with Hannah Telfer who oversees Audio at Penguin Random House UK. 

Q: Congratulations on your recent Audie Award for THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY: Hexagonal Phase by Eoin Colfer & Douglas Adams. 
The digital audio growth is expanding our authors’ reach by attracting new consumers. What does the demographic for audiobooks look like in the UK?

Hannah Telfer

A: Audiobooks have played a critical role in reaching audiences we traditionally find harder to reach with our books – younger men.  This remains the case with the single biggest group of purchasers of audiobooks in the UK, men aged 25-34.  However, as audiobooks become more mainstream, we are starting to see the audience evolve with the biggest increase in listeners coming from women aged 35 – 44 and, for the first time, the majority of audiobooks being purchased by those aged over 35.  As we look to grow the overall market for books, we’ll remain focused on reaching audiences who are not heavy book-buyers and find creative ways to persuade them to convert some of their media time from formats like podcasts to audiobooks.

Q: What are the subjects and genres that UK audio audiences favor most?  A: UK listeners love smart Non-Fiction, with psychology and business performing strongly.  MYTHOS, brilliantly read by Stephen Fry, was our biggest title in 2018, followed by 12 RULES OF LIFE by Jordon Peterson and Yuval Noah Harari’s SAPIENS. Adult Fiction makes up the largest proportion of our turnover with Crime and Thriller titles consistently leading the charts.  Science Fiction over indexes so we’re always on the lookout for new rights we can ambitiously publish, like the award-winning series by Sylvain Neuvel we produced with over 14 actors on one title.  We’re also continually promoting titles like READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline which has proven to be such a huge hit in the U.K. It’s encouraging to see that since Apple relaunched their audiobook offering in December, they are already providing a point of difference to Audible and are able to achieve a higher share in memoir and comedy. And of course biographies by well-known names who read their own work perform strongly in audio. It was brilliant to end the year with BECOMING as our fastest-selling audiobook yet. Q: In addition to audiobooks, you are also producing podcasts. Could you expand on how podcasting overlaps with audiobooks? A: We know from our audience research that there is significant crossover between the audience who consume our audiobooks, and the podcast audience, with nearly three quarters of audiobook listeners also listening to podcasts. For us, this presents a huge opportunity to convert podcast fans (who we call “active listeners”) into audiobook consumers.  So as well as advertising and promoting our audiobooks on podcasts, our publishing and audio teams have worked together to create our own podcast content to build this bridge. We’ve found this works particularly well where the author has the right profile for podcasting and their title lends itself to broader conversations about a topic or issue. In this way the podcast compliments the book, rather than replacing it, and gets listeners excited about listening to or reading the title. A great example is Love Stories with Dolly Alderton, produced to coincide with the launch of Dolly's book EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE. The podcast, which is now in its second season, reached number 1 on the UK iTunes chart and has had nearly 2 million listens. The audiobook has been a perennial bestseller and we’re confident that the podcast has played an important role in its success. Similarly, the FEMINISTS DON'T WEAR PINK podcast was launched last Autumn with Scarlett Curtis, to coincide with the book of the same name. The podcast has had hundreds of thousands of listens and sales estimates for the title both in print and audio have been exceeded.  

Interview with Marion Garner, VP & Deputy Publisher, PRH Canada

March 13, 2019

Penguin Random House’s audiobook business is an essential pillar of our global growth strategy for 2019 and beyond. Read on for an interview with Marion Garner who oversees Audio at Penguin Random House Canada. 

Q: PRH Canada launched an audio division in 2017. What were your first steps toward building a successful audiobook business and what are your goals for the next few years?

Marion Garner

A: When Audible and Kobo announced their plans to launch digital audiobook sites in Canada we quickly leapt into action. Having the great resource of our U.S. colleagues at PRH Audio was a huge advantage. The advice they provided as to what kind of human resources and technical help we needed was priceless. And we were able to find the right people, especially Ann Jansen, our Director of Audiobook Production, who came with extensive experience in radio and audiobooks after years with the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), alongside studios in Toronto and across the country willing to step into this uncharted territory.

Now, with an in-house team and studio, a host of resources across the country, and a great set up with ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists), we are well established and capable of producing titles everywhere. The generosity and expertise of our U.S. and UK colleagues from their more established markets has been invaluable. In the future, we hope to expand our productions to include more of our children’s publishing and to offer our services to outfits in Canada that aren’t equipped to produce their own audiobooks. Right now there’s great excitement from authors, agents, and the public around our Canadian recordings, and the promise of more growth. Q: How does your extensive publishing background translate to audio? A: As someone whose entire career has been firmly based in print publishing, the idea of taking on audiobooks was daunting. While they are completely separate specialties, the principles are similar. Understanding how a book is made and the timelines involved in getting final print pages turned into an audiobook are crucial. My scope of knowledge allowed for forgiveness and understanding as well as being able to be realistic about what’s possible. After working with so many of our authors over the years, it’s been inspiring to honour their work in a new way, and to help them to reach new audiences. It has been an amazing education and opportunity to learn and create a whole new format for our books in a market which had previously been dormant. Q: SPLIT TOOTH was nominated for an Audie Award, making it PRH Canada’s first-ever nomination.  Can you talk about the experience and process of creating this audiobook, which became a sensation partly due to laryngeal singing in the Inuit language performed by the author? A: SPLIT TOOTH is Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq’s first book and it is a story full of power, pain, laughter and love. Her voice is a tremendous instrument and it was clear from the beginning that she would record the audiobook, but it was a new experience for her, very different from her previous performing and music recording. Producer and director Ann Jansen and co-director Beverley Cooper worked with Tanya to find ways to keep her connection with the text while making sure the storytelling was immediate and intimate. Spontaneity ruled during the taping, and the team experienced moments of laughter in addition to poignant, powerful moments where trauma was addressed and acknowledged. Recording engineer and sound mixer Caleb Stull worked with Tanya’s extremely dynamic delivery in recording, as she moved from whispers to high volume—often very swiftly. And at the end of recording, we were gifted with her improvised singing, pieces which help transition the listener between the poetic and prose sections. The audiobook also includes a song from her band, in place of a passage from the book with syllabics from Tanya’s mother tongue. We feel the audiobook makes the most of the medium, and is as raw and elemental, as lyrical and spiritual as the artist’s music. And the publicity and marketing team found creative ways to support the audiobook, including a powerful short video with images from the book by artist Jaime Hernandez, animated to the rhythms of Tanya reading the title poem. It was a privilege for all of us to work with this amazing artist to help capture a story that is like no other we have recorded.  

LINCOLN IN THE BARDO Wins Audiobook of the Year at the Audies

June 1, 2018

Penguin Random House Audio won the top prize – Audiobook of the Year – for George Saunders’ LINCOLN IN THE BARDO (Random House Audio) last night at the 23nd annual Audie Awards® in New York. The Audio Publishers Association (APA) annually presents the premier awards program for audiobooks in the United States, recognizing excellence in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment.

LINCOLN IN THE BARDO, narrated by Saunders, Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, and 163 other voices, was produced by Senior Exectuive Producer Kelly Gildea, who accepted the award on stage along with Amanda D’Acierno, Senior Vice President and Publisher, Dan Zitt,Vice President of Content Production, other Penguin Random House Audio team members, and several narrators.. On Wednesday, LINCOLN IN THE BARDO received the Indies Choice Audiobook of the Award at the Celebration of Bookselling & Author Awards Luncheon at BookExpo. Penguin Random House Audio won more Audie Awards in these categories: Nonfiction: AMERICAN WOLF by Nate Blakeslee, narrated by Mark Bramhall and produced by Linda Korn   (Random House Audio) Fiction: ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE by Gail Honeyman, narrated by Cathleen McCarron (Penguin Audio) Mystery: THE GIRL WHO TAKES AN EYE FOR AN EYE by David Lagercrantz, narrated by Simon Vance and produced by Aaron Blank   (Random House Audio) Middle Grade: SEE YOU IN THE COSMOS by Jack Cheng, narrated by a full cast and produced by Karen Dziekonski (Listening Library) [caption id="attachment_10899" align="alignright" width="150"] (left to right) Vicki Tomao, Heather Dalton, and Rob Guzman[/caption] Big congrats to the authors, narrators, producers, marketers and the entire award-winning PRH Audio team.In addition, Penguin Random House Audio won an Excellence in Marketing Audie Award for “Transform Your Commute,” the NYC campaign that encouraged listeners to turn a sour commute sweet with audiobooks. Pictured at the Audies are several members of the marketing team who created the initiative (left to right) Vicki Tomao, Heather Dalton, and Rob Guzman. To view the complete list of Audie Awards winners, click here.

PRH Audio Earns Three More Audie Awards Noms, including for Audio Book of the Year

March 22, 2018

The Audio Publishers Association has announced  additional  2018 Audie Awards  finalists, including for its Audio Book of the Year honor, recognizing LINCOLN IN THE BARDO by George Saunders, narrated by George Saunders, Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, and 163 other voices (Random House Audio).  LINCOLN IN THE BARDO is also nominated for Excellence in Production; and Penguin Random House Audio’s “Transform Your Commute” campaign is up for the Excellence in Marketing award.  

Finalists in 26 other Audie Awards categories were previously announced by the APA on February 7 and included 12 Penguin Random House Audio titles.  To read the Igloo article covering our 2018 Audie Awards finalists in those categories, click here. Winners in all categories will be revealed during the Audies Gala on May 31 in New York during BookExpo 2018.