Listening with the Lights On – a Recording from the Virginia Festival of the Book

Last month at the Virginia Festival of the Book, the Audio Publishers Association hosted a panel, Listening with the Lights On: The Art of Narrating Mystery/Thriller Audiobooks. The panel consisted of four narrators – Karen White, Barbara Rosenblat, Shannon Parks (Marguerite Gavin), Sean Pratt (Lloyd James), and was moderated by Andi Arndt.

We’re honored to present you today with a recording of that panel. Thank you Andi for providing us with this recording and thanks to the Audio Publishers Association for allowing us to share. Please keep in mind that a member of the audience recorded the panel’s discussion and therefore you will hear some background talking and other such noises.

But first, I’d like to lay some groundwork. Andi agreed to answer a few questions for us today about this splendid festival and provide us with some impressive audio industry stats.

Talking with Moderator Andi Arndt

Lea  Andi, thanks for joining us today! Can you give us a little background on the Virginia Festival of the Book?

Andi  The Virginia Festival of the Book just held its 21st annual festival. It is a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, and is held in Charlottesville, Virginia each spring. It pretty much takes over the town, with programs clustered around the downtown pedestrian mall. Because there are literary luminaries like John Grisham and Rita Dove who live in/near Charlottesville, the festival has welcomed notable authors from all over the country to town each year. It feels local but is national and even international in scope.

Lea  I know you have been involved with the Festival in the past. Please tell us about your involvement.

Andi  Yes. The first time I was involved was back in the 1990’s when I was the Promotion Director for WMRA, an NPR affiliate that serves Charlottesville. I got the idea to bring NPR-related authors to Charlottesville for the festival, and we had very successful panels and readings with Jacki Lyden, Alan Cheuse, and Marion Winik. Two years ago, I proposed an audiobook program and we came up with “Headphones Over Heels,” about romance audiobooks, and we featured author Jeaniene Frost and narrators Elizabeth Wiley and Anne Flosnik. The audio of that panel lives on at AudioGals, so thanks!

Lea  Has the Festival featured audiobooks for a number of years now?

Andi  This is the second panel I’ve helped to coordinate, and looking at the festival archives, it’s hard to find much mention of audiobooks, although I do know that there was at least one audioboook-related program before “Headphones Over Heels.” I think what we’re seeing is an overall evolution in the relationship among book lovers, audiobook lovers, authors, and print and audio publishers. Having the Audio Publishers Association and AudioFile magazine support our programs in Charlottesville means that we can be part of a larger conversation (thank you AudioGals!). That kind of impact is consistent with this festival’s role and profile. We’ll continue to offer audiobook-related programs. Mark your calendars for next year’s festival, March 16-20, 2016.

Lea  You give some interesting statistics in the opening of the panel discussion. I’d love to stress those numbers. Can you share with us here?

Andi  Sure – I reviewed the most recent Audio Publishers Association Sales Survey in preparation for our panel. APA’s report estimates a $1.3 billion market for audiobooks, and exponential growth in production. 2013’s total production of over 35,000 titles was more than double the previous year (16,000 titles released in 2012). The audiobook sector is growing faster than any other part of the publishing industry, outpacing growth in eBook sales. Why start with stats? For the audiobook fans in the audience, I wanted them to feel justifiably patted on the back, and for those who weren’t quite there yet, I wanted them to leave feeling eager to choose their next listen(s) right away.

Lea  Those certainly are some impressive numbers. Writing about audiobooks as we do, we see evidence of that growth all around us. It’s quite exciting to see that growth verified with numbers. Thanks Andi!

Listening with the Lights On  

As Andi indicated in her comments above, AudioGals also presented a recording of an earlier Virginia Festival of the Book panel, Headphones over Heels. You can find that recording in AudioGals’ archives here.

Lea Hensley