I lurk on a couple of mystery list-servs, just to see what people are saying about the mystery business. There've been a couple of interesting things lately, having to do with the growing availability of audio books through library downloads. I've followed this with interest, because when I was on tour, a reader told me that her library made the China Bayles books available as an MP-3 file for free download to her computer. (Check with your library to see whether that's available to you.)
But there seems to be a widespread misunderstanding out there about the way audio rights work. Recently, one person wrote something like this: "I wish more authors would let their books be recorded, because there are lots of times when I'd rather listen to a book than read it."
I agree. I love to listen to books, too, and a good reading brings out aspects of a book that even the author may not have understood. (I certainly feel this way when I listen to Virginia Leishman reading The Tale of Hill Top Farm.)
But the author usually has nothing to do with whether her/his book gets into audio. Either the publisher records the book (if the house has an audio division) or the publisher's sub-rights department sells the audio rights on behalf of the author--if they can. Many (most?) books are not deemed popular enough to warrant any audio recording. This has nothing to do with how "good" the book is--it's a bottom line, just-the-numbers-ma'am kind of decision that is made by the bean-counting department, rather than by editorial. I am sure that all authors would LOVE to have their books sell to the audio market, but it just isn't always possible. For instance: China Bayles and the Cottage Tales are available in audio, but the Robin Paige books that Bill and I used to write are not. The decision to record the book has nothing to do with quality, just quantity. Period. Paragraph. End of story.
Is this a bad thing? Well, probably. It's always sad when a good book goes unread or unheard or unwritten because the accountants are calling the shots. But we live in a market economy, and in the end, a book's success (or failure) is up to its readers. Readers vote with their dollars--and not on the used book market, either. (Used books don't get counted.) Vote for a good book by buying it, and that book is more likely to be available more widely (in large print, audio, film, and foreign translations) and will stay in print for a longer period of time. Don't vote, and the book will go away.
And yes, the bad sometimes drives out the good, doesn't it?
That's my rant for the morning. Here's something much, much prettier.
Reading note. If you want to get rich from writing, write the sort of thing that's read by persons who move their lips when they're reading to themselves.--Don Marquis