The awesome co-hosts for the April 6 posting of the IWSG are Joylene Nowell Butler, Jemima Pett, Patricia Josephine, Louise – Fundy Blue, and Kim Lajevardi! Go give them a thank you comment and keep the interactions going. This group is all about those connections.
Sadly, the question for this month is literally unanswerable for me. Have any of your books been made into audio books? Let me stop you right there, even before we get to: If so, what is the main challenge in producing an audiobook? Because nope. None of my books have sold well enough to indicate any desire for an audiobook, so less than one of them have been made into audiobooks. CONSIDERABLY less than one, let me just say.
Instead, let me dive headfirst into a peripheral post about audiobooks. Suitably tangential yet hilarious GIF first, though. Obviously.
Do I like audiobooks? YES
Do I know they are incredibly popular, and the fastest growing market segment in the cutthroat book market arena? Also yes.
Will I ever, ever look down upon or otherwise indicate having some weird idea that a book being read to you is not ‘reading’? HELL to the HI-HO-CHERRY-HELL-NO. I read aloud to my children every single night. Every night. If you try to tell me that they have not listened to the words, comprehended the content, absorbed the message, and reacted to the plot, I will kindly tell you to go boil your own bottom in trout water. Audiobooks are a legitimate way to consume reading material. End of story.
Do I plan to make my published books audiobooks at some point? Yes. Due to the aforementioned ‘huge part of the market’ thing, this is in my future plans.
But do I, myself, read using audio? Well…no.
This may not be apparent from my pantser authoring style, my somewhat scattered subject random posts, or the eclectic genres I’ve admitted to loving, but I have ADHD. If we’re talking spectrum, I’m not Stereotypical Squirrel Brain™ or Never Stops Moving™. I’m more the: checklists for literally everything, I left the fucking oven on AGAIN didn’t I, obsessive scheduling, emotionally dysregulated, labeled as ditzy, spend a lot of time masking, very bad at social cues, thousand-yard-stare-right-through-you-sorry-I’m-overstimulated, ‘could you repeat that again?’ ADHD. (™ I guess?)
One side effect of ADHD (for me, not for most other people with ADHD) is that I can’t do audiobooks. I just cannot. I start one, listen for around 5 minutes, start multitasking/moving, realize I haven’t comprehended anything said for the last half hour, try to go back to the bit I remember, can’t remember where that is, start from the beginning again, rinse, and repeat. It’s a mess.
I turn on audiobooks in the same way some people put on white noise machines. I love the gorgeous, soothing tones of some narrators and they please my ears. But my brain can’t get onboard with the listening part. For whatever reason, I can hyperfocus on printed pages and binge a 400 page book in a day, but I have zero focus for spoken words (and this applies to everything from meetings to lectures to podcasts to simple freaking introductions). I will still encourage your love of audiobooks and happily listen to your list of favorites, so shoot me one of those anytime. I’m always here for a new favorite narrator to add to my collection of soothing noises list.
Great gif!
Right? Suddenly squirrel is the best!
Not me. I love them and listen to audiobooks whenever I get a chance.
<a href=”http://emaginette.wordpress.com”> Anna from elements of emaginette</a>
They are such a favored way to read for many of my friends!
I too get easily distracted and sometimes zone out during audiobooks. I like them best when I literally can’t do anything else, like when I’m driving or doing data entry. The book keeps my mind engaged just enough so I don’t completely zone out of the task at hand. Does that make sense? It sounds dumb when I write it that way.
No, that makes perfect sense! And the one audiobook I’ve ever actually finished was on while I was driving. Luckily I don’t have to do data entry but if I ever do, now I know. Audiobook.
Everyone has their own preferences for reading. I like audio books but reading print books is better for me now. Awesome you might produce one of your books in audio version some day.
I admire the readers who are able to fluently switch between both. It’s a skill!
I don’t listen to them either. Not sure why as I can work on something and watch television at the same time.
Boiled in trout water – funny!
I feel trout water drives the indignity home better than plain old water. Could just be me. Maybe you’ll give audiobooks a try! I know there are some really big name SciFi books out there with awesome narrators.
I hear you! I use podcasts as white noise — I prefer listening to ones about writing (the Creative Penn, Rage Against the Manuscript, Self-Publishing Show) as I do sometimes hear something interesting and useful for my business — which I have to act on immediately or it just won’t happen.
Ronel visiting for IWSG day <a href=”https://www.ronelthemythmaker.com/the-difference-between-reading-books-and-collecting-books-iwsg/”>The Difference Between Reading Books and Collecting Books</a>
Acting immediately or forgetting all about it forever . . . yes that sounds familiar. (It’s the ADHD calling out to you. Come joinnn usss.)