Now an audiobook! What a GREAT book!Now, with technology, there are different ways to enjoy a book. For those of you who do not like to read or do not have the time but have time to listen to a book while you do other things, "Little Miss Sure Shot" by Jeffrey Marshall is waiting for you! I asked Jeffrey to contribute the following message. Enjoy it and then order yourself a copy (paperback, ebook, or audiobook)!
Why Audiobooks?
By Jeffrey Marshall
Clearly, audiobooks are a success: millions are sold each
year, many of them developed from best-sellers. And they aren’t just for the
James Pattersons and Harlan Cobens of the world: I just had an audiobook made
of my novel, Little Miss Sure Shot: Annie
Oakley’s World. It’s a relatively easy process through companies like
Audible, and it’s not expensive. Obviously, it’s another market for an author
to sell to. But more than that, it reaches another audience.
Why would someone want to listen to a book rather than the
time-honored scenario of curling up with a hardback and getting immersed in
reading the story? It isn’t that these people don’t read books. To me, the key
reason to get an audiobook is to listen to it while you’re occupied doing
something else that doesn’t always require your full attention. That could be
during morning exercises at a gym or doing light housework, but most likely
that is driving. Instead of listening
to some shouting DJs or the sonorities of national news, you could be immersed
(somewhat, anyway) in literature.
Millions of commuters stand to benefit from listening to a
book they may not really have time to read, and to enjoy a narration that
presents the book in a different way; the listening experience is different,
and the use of assorted voices and cadences does allow for experiencing a book
in a manner that reading can’t.
Years ago, I remember listening to an audiotape of Like Water for Chocolate, the wonderful
novel by Mexican author Laura Esquivel that was essentially magical realism.
The narration by turns breathless, sensual, and knowing, and it made for a
wonderful listening experience. It was a great introduction to audiobooks, and
my wife, who had a far longer commute, ended up going
through dozens over a few years.
Not every book lends itself to an audiobook, and fiction, I
think, is clearly a better platform than nonfiction. They’re no substitute for
reading, but audiobooks have an audience, and it seems that they’re here to
stay.
