Publishers beginning to use audiobooks to build buzz; remember the mobile!

Link: Publishers turn to audiobooks to build anticipatory buzz – International Herald Tribune

Fogarty’s feat comes as Henry Holt and other presses are rethinking their audiobook divisions, which have negligible marketing budgets and typically ride the coattails of the hardcovers. Because audiobooks are so fast, inexpensive and easy to record, that dynamic seems to be changing, with publishers looking to the audio format to fuel interest in paper books that aren’t quite ready for the printing press.

I am all in favour of audiobooks. I listen to a load and I’ve got a subscription to audible and I often buy via iTunes too. However, I’d really like to see more publishers recognising that almost every consumer (in the UK at least) has an audio capable handset which will generally play MP3s.

A text call-to-action to download the first chapter to your handset could be rather wicked. (As long as you’re not paying 2-3 quid a meg to download data….)