What is the Attraction to Audiobooks? APB Speakers David Pogue & Brad Meltzer Explain
02 Jun 2020
Audiobooks are having a moment. APB speaker and bestselling author Brad Meltzer along with APB speaker and CBS News contributor David Pogue say it’s the acting and tone of a good narrator that draws listener to the audiobook.
The obsession with audiobooks is the convenience - you don’t even have to pay for them, you can download them straight from your library. More than 45,000 new audiobooks were recorded last year alone; and the industry registered a billion dollars in sales. Meltzer has had actor Scott Brick record all of his books, "People say, 'Oh, why don't you read your own book?' I can't do 30 voices, I can't do scenes of someone's death and make you come to tears. A good reader can do that." Meltzer said.
While audiobook sales are up and physical book sales down, it’s not a given that the two are related. Pogue asked, "But what about that whole thing about you, Scott, are depriving me of letting my brain imagine what they sound like?" "I wanna do just enough to keep your imagination muscle working," Scott said. "My job is to get the author's story across, job one. If I've done that, then anything else is gravy."
Learn More About David Pogue and Brad Meltzer.