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.