Highlights from a post at Book Riot, the full articleavailable here

In a survey of more than 4,000 U.S. Americans who have engaged with a book in the last year – not just people who have read a book in the last year, but also those who have gifted a book or used a book as reference material, and it has resulted in a ton of very interesting data. 

The Executive Director of Audio Publishers Association shared that “2020 was a banner year for audiobooks with over 71,000 titles published and the ninth year of double-digit sales growth.” In fact, 43.6% of the survey answerers engage with audiobooks to some extent.

While audiobooks were first produced by The American Foundation of the Blind and continue to be a great resource for accessibility in books, they’ve also taken off in a lot of different contexts. They’re great for multitasking, whether commuting, walking the dog, doing dishes, shopping for groceries, and more. The survey showed that 70% of audiobook users multitask while listening. 

The survey found also that people who listen to audiobooks are the most avid book engagers: 67.9% of them engage with four or more books in a month, as compared to 53% of the general survey population. They also have a higher percentage of library card membership: 81.4% compared to 75.8% of the general survey population. They don’t just listen for free, though: 49.6% of audiobook listeners buy books in multiple formats. If you listen to audiobooks, you can probably understand this: sometimes you want to show off that shiny hardcover even though you read it through your ears. Or, you might want to read along with an ebook while listening. And, of course, many audiobook listeners like to read in multiple formats.

If you’d like to dive into more data, check out the full report, which has lots of numbers to compare. At the end of June, for Audiobooks Month, the lead researchers held a webinar hosted by Audio Publishers Association to share their findings on audiobook listening habits, which you can watch in full on YouTube.

So, who listens to audiobooks? Probably you do! Or are more likely to that ever. If you are an author, then your next book reader will likely read it by listening to the audio.

Are you missing a sale if your book isn’t yet in audio? 

I can help fix that.