lord of the rings

My First Audiobook Experience

Posted on by tippclass

My first audiobook experience was the BBC dramatization of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings by Brian Sibley.

I was about 14 at the time and had borrowed the set of tapes from a friend.

What impressed me is that my friend recorded each of the 26 episodes directly from the radio onto audio-cassette.

On top of that, he hand-illustrated the tape covers. Now that’s dedication.

Being a big Tolkien fan myself, I had already read the Lord of The Rings a few times before popping the first tape in, so I knew the whole story going in.

However, this didn’t stop me from enjoying it – I found the audiobook just as gripping as the unabridged text version and considering that the audiobook came out 20 years before the movies did, it was very effective at bringing the story to life.

Here’s an interesting fact: Ian Holm plays Frodo Baggins in the audiobook – the very same actor that plays Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations of the trilogy.

I would definitely recommend this audiobook, as long as you don’t expect the technological complexity found in Peter Jackson’s movies.

I got hooked on audiobooks when I was on a road trip. I normally cannot read while the car is moving. Give me a few minutes of a book in a moving car and we will be stopping all the time.

All I wanted was a good book to help with the killing of time. Since that road trip, I have been getting ahold of every audiobook I can. They are great for work as well. I can sit behind my computer in my little cube and jam away to a great book.

It helps the time go by faster! I absolutely love Simply Audiobooks for their great selection of books. I could rent from the library but I have to wait a really long time for the book I want.

With SA I can select the books I want and not have to worry about how long it will be before I get the book I want. Not only that but I like being able to hold onto the book for as long as I need. This way I am saving myself money on late charges.

I have always commuted to work anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours each way, I got hooked about 3 years ago.

Now it’s all I listen to in my car. I could not agree more when you find a good book with a good narrator it’s special.

I have found Michael Beck to be the best I have heard, with Billy Campbell as a good second, then there is Jim Dale, what more can I say. I am hooked.…

recommendation

Getting the Word Out About Audiobooks

Posted on by tippclass

One of the biggest problems I have running marketing here at tippclassical.com is trying to figure out efficient ways to let people know how great audiobooks actually are.

We’ve done qualitative research and conducted a survey that gives us overwhelming evidence that word of mouth is critical. There’s simply nothing as effective as getting a book from a friend and being told to listen to it.

But audiobooks aren’t inherently viral – unlike cellphones and bottled water, they are not consumed in public.

netflixAnother big non-visible product, 70% of Netflix customers come from word of mouth referrals (their statistic).

About 15% of ours come from word of mouth. This sort of mirrors the overall market penetration of DVD movies and audiobooks, so it’s not terribly surprising. But it’s clear that audiobooks could do with a lot more show and tell.

We’re starting a beta program internally to promote word of mouth, and it’s not a simple extension of our current referral program. We’ll see how it goes and I’ll report on it later in this blog.

Any suggestions people might have on plans of action on this front (alerting people) would be MUCH appreciated. More people should listen to audiobooks. They’re ridiculously great!

How did you first get started on audiobooks?…

audiobooks while driving

Tuesdays with Morrie

Posted on by tippclass

I’d been meaning to read this audiobook, Tuesdays with Morrie, for ages, so when I opened my SAB mailer yesterday, I was excited to see that I’d received the book.

And yes, despite my working at SAB, I still get the mailers as opposed to picking up the CDs at the office.

I’ve often gotten into an audiobook and enjoyed it so much that I find excuses to get in the car.

But this was the first time I ever got the mailer and wanted to get into the car right away. I had to do some shopping anyway, so I immediately went down to the garage, got the car, loaded up my CD deck and happily went off.

For the first 15 minutes or so, I was just enjoying the book and happy to be (about to be) getting some errands taken care of. Then I encountered one of the mixed blessings of audiobooks.

I got so into the audiobook that it kept making me think of things I’d like to ponder. So I’d ponder, and miss the next minute of dialogue.

Then I’d rewind, overshoot, hit the same ponder-inspiring segment, and again ponder and miss the next couple of minutes.

This went on with one particular section on remembering your favorite teachers, and I gave up, stopped the CD and put on music instead, which I can safely ignore while I ponder.

The good part is that I had a nice day/night remembering some of my favorite teachers and being happy that I’d returned to visit many of them from high school and university. But of course not all, and not recently. A nice reminder to make a few phone calls.

I just read that a lady, RuthAnn Hogue, has written a book, Goodbye, Walter: The inspiring story of a terminal cancer patient.

Unfortunately, no audiobook version. She mentions that the most frequently asked question – by far – from those who read “Goodbye, Walter,” is whether she had heard of Tuesdays with Morrie.

I almost have!…

reading list

Shame For Not Listening to Audiobooks

Posted on by tippclass

I found a blog entry where the author lists a bunch of books they would like to read – a great personalized summer reading list.

The funny part is that they come right out and says that they don’t read audiobooks. And it doesn’t look like a defensive statement, as in “I don’t swim”, or “I fall down when I drink too much”.

dislikeI’d prefer, “I don’t read audiobooks because they’re too expensive.” Or “I don’t read audiobooks because they’re too heavy to lift.” Just saying “I don’t read audiobooks” sounds dismissive and kind of ticks me off, as if there’s some sort of understanding that the reader would automatically appreciate whatever the reason is.

Of course, I’m an audiobook bigot myself, so who am I to say.

But this does serve to illustrate something I’ve suspected for a long time.

The more a person loves books, the less likely they are to love audiobooks. This is so counterintuitive as to be shocking. People who don’t like books don’t like audiobooks.

People who love books don’t like audiobooks (generally). The logic is something like, if you have all the time in the world to read prodigious quantities of paper books, then you don’t need one of the chief benefits of audiobooks – listening while doing other things.

Thank god there’s a huge middle ground of people who like books and wish they could read more.

Or they’re just plain bored in their cars and have the good sense to listen to a book on cd rather than yelling at the car in front of them, or talking on their cellphones (likely complaining about traffic).…

expensive

Audiobooks are… expensive?

Posted on by tippclass

It never fails, no matter how inexpensive something can be, someone’s going to want it for less.

I stumbled across Jennie’s innocuous comment about audiobooks being expensive, and thought, “Hey, another audiobook fan!” And then I thought, “Wait, expensive? What about the library?”

Audiobooks go anywhere from free to really expensive, but it’s all about knowing where to get them.

Doing some research on pricing around the world last week, I discovered that the Harry Potter audiobooks are TWICE as expensive in the UK as in the US.

Meaning over $100 for any given one (unabridged of course). Go figure. Captive audience? Most audiobooks there is the same price as here. Now that’s expensive.

With the advent of digital downloads, prices for books keep dropping.

Our own rental program brings the cost down quite a bit, but the program isn’t designed for getting specific audiobooks right at the moment you want them.

For that, you have to either download, with all the attendant hassles or go to your neighborhood bookstore where they still might not have what you want and would charge you an arm and your left eye to buy it anyway.

No perfect solution.

But I’ve been an audiobook fan for going on a dozen years now, and selection AND pricing are much better now than they’ve ever been in the past. How nice.…

Guns, Germs, and uh, Guns…

Posted on by tippclass

I just started listening to the audiobook Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.

I find it fascinating. And then I read this post that claims it’s all mumbo jumbo (I’m paraphrasing).

This reminds me that it’s the people who tell the best stories that are remembered, not the ones that are right.

Which isn’t to say that Diamond is wrong of course.

And then we have Malcolm Gladwell’s story in “Tipping Point” about how the broken windows theory was part of the reason New York crime went down in the ’90s.

And later Freakonomics author Steven Levitt says it was Roe vs Wade.

I was surprised to see that Gladwell actually wrote a glowing commendation on Levitt’s dust cover. And they’re both good storytellers.

I guess I should just be glad there are lots of good storytellers. And hopefully, some of them even get the story right.…