B&N to close their audiobook store

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Hmm. This may be the reason that my library is changing to Axis 360, which I think is terrible.

I don't know what the charges are, bu I know my library delayed joining for two years because of the cost. Then they joined via a group, but every year I think it's on the cutting board because it's so expensive. The books themselves are not that bad, and I think initially they had a grant to get started.

[tubemonkey]

So far there's no indication that any of my libraries will be dropping OverDrive. Although some of them aren't growing their collections as fast as they used to.

[gabby98]

I am with all of you that I did not know B&N sold audiobooks, yet I got an email from them that I have purchased some in the past and should download them before they shut it down.

[little and large]

I always hate hearing anything bad about B&N. Nice places to shop and I'd like to see them stick around. Then again, I'm not sure how many audiobooks sell these days anyway (any ideas on figures of, say, a best-seller?).

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by little and large

I always hate hearing anything bad about B&N. Nice places to shop and I'd like to see them stick around. Then again, I'm not sure how many audiobooks sell these days anyway (any ideas on figures of, say, a best-seller?).

I don't know the figures, but I do know that book generally ISN'T made into an audio book unless it first sells quite a few copies. When it became possible for indie writers to produce audio, I talked to Full Cast Audio (they are a specialty recording outfit. Tamora Pierce did her audio with them). At any rate, unless a book already has quite a large audience and traction, audio just doesn't pay.

One other audio person I talked to mentioned that the audio book industry was changing. There are such high costs associated with the recording (paying the actor(s) and the time spent working on the recording) it was getting harder and harder to pay advances to authors. It was becoming more of a partnership -- and this 5 years ago.

There is an audience for audio and those who like audio books are quite loyal to the medium, but many of them get their audio via the library because of the high cost of individual books.

Amazon's program may or may not make audio more popular. I looked into the cost and decided even at 300 to 1000 dollars that was too much to risk. People will pay indie rates for audio books, but there simply isn't the same demand for it as there are regular or ebooks.

[xendula]

When Amazon first introduced Whispersync between ebooks and audiobooks, I thought: "Who would ever pay to own both?!"
Now, I am totally hooked. Depending on the publisher, you can grab the audiobook for a few dollars in addition to the kindle book. I don't know how they manage to keep the cost so low. I love that the audio and ebook version are always in synch and continue on where the other one left off. B&N would never have been able to compete with this.

[Xanthe]

Didn't know that B&N sold downloadable audiobooks either.

Out of curiosity, I opened up the Shop on my Nook HD. The categories listed are:
Books
Magazines
Movies & TV
Kids
Apps
Newspapers
Catalogs

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

Didn't know that B&N sold downloadable audiobooks either.

Out of curiosity, I opened up the Shop on my Nook HD. The categories listed are:
Books
Magazines
Movies & TV
Kids
Apps
Newspapers
Catalogs

Interesting.
The top level picks in a FireHD 8.9 are:

Search
Shop
Games
Apps
Books
Music
Videos
Newstand
Audiobooks
Web
Photos
Docs

Obviously ranked in order of expected frequency of use.
So audiobooks are towards the back of the list...but they *are* there.

I just use the favorites pane, myself.

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I don't know what the charges are, bu I know my library delayed joining for two years because of the cost. Then they joined via a group, but every year I think it's on the cutting board because it's so expensive. The books themselves are not that bad, and I think initially they had a grant to get started.

I forgot they carried them until I got an e-mail telling me the MP3 store was closing and I would have to download my MP3 audiobooks. Of course, there was no link to just download the suckers, and of course, it took several e-mails to find out the titles and order numbers of my MP3s. They think you can just scroll through your order number, clearly not realizing that people who buy lots of ebooks will have dozens or even hundreds of order numbers to scroll through.

One of my e-mails explained clearly that I did not have the order number and titles. So of course their next e-mail asked for the order number, or if I did not have that, the title, last four numbers of the credit card, and billing address. I guess my response must have lit a fire under 'em (about time), because they were able to retrieve the information, but as it turned out the order were placed in 2009, and their website only shows order numbers going back 18 months, so I wouldn't be able to get anything with those order numbers.

Way to go, B&N. Way to go.

Luckily I had already listened to one of the books, and the other two were books I really no longer want to hear. I'm sure I'll eventually find the files on my backup drive anyway, except that the search feature on Windows is kinda sucky, and even the new, improved file finder I installed can't find the files if I'm not sure what the geniuses at B&N called them.

[ereaderSam]

I did not know B&N sold audio books, but then again I do not buy them. I have not bought them since I was in college and that was a long time ago.