Talking books.

Until beginning work on this article, I fostered the idea that the

world of book publishing was characterised somehow by a charming

anachronism when compared with modern commercial standards, a world

still of the gentleman’s agreement and merely nominal deadlines. Of

novel publishing today, this is quite inaccurate.

One excellent example of how publishing in the 1990s is entirely

contemporary is the proliferation, over the last five years or so, of

audiobooks: that is, books read onto tape. In high street chain-stores,

bookshops, record stores and lending libraries, an increasing number of

titles on cassette testifies to this rapidly expanding market.

There’s even now a talking bookshop in Wigmore Street in central

London, given over entirely to the sale of recorded books. It is an

Aladdin’s cave for anyone interested in this form of entertainment.

Its shelves carry thousands of titles recorded by an astonishing number

of different companies: established record labels as well as specialist

firms, and, naturally enough, well known book publishers also.

Penguin Books is a field leader in this last group. Known world

wide, Penguin this year is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary. Its

audiobook publishing operation, however, is less than two years old. Its

inception is a clear testament to Penguin’s dynamic approach in a

fast-changing entertainment market. Jan Paterson, publishing manager of

Penguin Audiobooks and its effective head, spoke recently to the

Contemporary Review for this article. He is proud of their achievement

so far. `On our launch list in November ’93, we had twelve titles

which ranged across the nature of our publishing. There was Dirk

Bogarde’s autobiography, Beatrix Potter, Homer’s Iliad, Madame

Bovary. We’re now doing about 100 new titles a year’.

Even a cursory glance at Penguin Audiobooks’ catalogue is

enough to see that their selection policy is eclectic. `There are four

areas in which we publish’, explains Jan Paterson. `We publish the

classics; also there are twentieth century classics, which are the ones

that have the eau de nil binding, such authors as Evelyn Waugh, Franz

Kafka, Jack Kerouak and so on. Then contemporary titles which have the

Penguin orange binding: Dick Francis, Barbara Vine, Dirk Bogarde,

William Boyd, Stephen King, Donna Tart. This autumn we’ll be

starting a new series of Children’s Classics which will include

such things as Black Beauty, Treasure Island, The Secret Garden and

Kidnapped’.

Who are Penguin’s audiobooks aimed at? Debate continues to

rage among visually impaired people (a group of consumers with

long-standing experience of books read onto tape) over the legitimacy of

the abridging of books prior to recording. The point arises because a

substantial number of audiobooks commercially available, Penguin’s

included, are heavily cut. It’s all down to cost. Several companies

do record books in full but they retail way above what most consumers

could afford. A single title read over eighteen or twenty tapes might

cost in the region of 50[pounds]. Such products are aimed principally at

lending libraries with library budgets. For general readers, audiobooks

only become a realistic possibility at much lower prices. Publishers and

record companies achieve these by abridgement.

Penguin, though, have hit upon a compromise. Traditionally, books

have been produced on two cassettes (three hours running time) which for

a long novel, like Wuthering Heights or any Dickens title, can sound

very condensed. Jan Paterson records many books on four cassettes

running at six hours, for under 10[pounds]. This provides more of a

flavour of the full text. `Although we’ve pioneered these six hour

abridgements, we’ve priced them very competitively at 9.99[pounds]

as opposed to three hours at 7.99[pounds]. Anybody can see that the

margin is going to be a lot smaller on the 9.99[pound]s. We just felt

that you couldn’t abridge some of these larger books and keep the

integrity of the book in three hours. Also, in terms of a satisfying

listen, if you have six hours over a weekend, say, and you’re doing

a lot of driving or whatever, a book in six hours can be so much more

satisfying than three hours. Our longer abridgements can be so much more

fulfilling because we can achieve more depth and detail.’

Obviously, though, these are still summaries of the originals. For

Penguin Audiobooks, and presumably for all the other publishers of

abridged books on cassette, this is not a problem since they don’t

regard their audience as wanting titles in full. `They actually

don’t want to listen to twenty-four hours of a book being read.

They want story telling and that is essentially what we’re doing.

We take a novel, and in the same way a film maker would adapt it into a

film script, we’re taking words away to distil a very strong

narrative sense from it.’

Who buys them? `Market research is very difficult because there are

never the resources to do it properly. From the limited amount we have

done, car drivers (in-car entertainment) seem to be a primary market.

Secondly, people doing the ironing, housework. Basically, audiobooks can

accompany people doing any task where you need your eyes and hands but

where your mind doesn’t have to be engaged. You can put your

walkman on while walking the dog or in bed where it can be very

relaxing. It takes you back to pre-adulthood with someone reading you a

story. I hope the abridged audiobook will invite people into the world

of the imagination, into the world of fiction in a way that perhaps just

picking up a classic and trying to read it, might not. It’s a way

of getting through to people who perhaps don’t have the time or the

inclination to buy and spend time reading books.’

Interestingly enough, all this implies that sales of an audiobook

don’t hinder sales of the same title in other formats such as

hardbacks. Mr. Paterson confirms this. `Our feeling always has been

that, as a major publishing house, we publish books in a number of

formats. Hardback and paperback releases of the same book have been the

case for years, of course, but as electronic media develop there’s

audio and, depending on the title, there may be in the future `CD

ROM’ or other, interactive presentations. Increasingly publishers

will have to see themselves as creators of copyright rather than as,

specifically, book publishers. If you’re spending so much money on

advertising and promotion you might as well have it available in as many

different formats as will sell. This autumn we’re publishing a new

collection of John Mortimer’s Rumpole stories as Viking books. At

the same time as that comes out in hardback, we’ll also be

publishing the audiobook. The same applies to Dirk Bogarde’s

autobiography. There is absolutely no evidence that hardback sales are

declining because of audio sales.’

Surprisingly, Penguin’s talking books’ operation is not

bound by Penguin lists. Jan Paterson has the freedom to buy whatever he

thinks will sell on cassette. `Obviously the main store of material is

going to come from Penguin because of our relationship within the

company, but for example, I’ve acquired this autumn Harry

Secombe’s autobiography which we have no book connection with.

I’ve acquired Quentin Crisp’s autobiography, The Naked Civil

Servant read by him which, again, we don’t publish in book

form.’ Penguin Audiobooks’ best selling author is Dick

Francis. There isn’t an identifiable worst selling author because,

as Jan Paterson points out, if someone isn’t selling well you stop

publishing them.

Any audiobook costs many thousands of pounds to produce. If asked,

Jan Paterson is coy over exact amounts or even estimates come to that.

Costs for a specific project might include a producer, a reader, abridge

meet, recording rights, studio and crew. Producers, performers,

abridgers and the like will all be freelance, engaged to work on one

title. Penguin Audiobooks only employs two people full time but, of

course, has access to corporate facilities such as marketing and sales.

What are Jan Paterson’s plans for the future of Penguin

Audiobooks? In November this year they’re publishing their first

poetry collection. `Perhaps our most ambitious project to date.

It’s a series of poetry readings entitled Penguin English Verse. It

isn’t based on any book. We’ve selected the poems specifically

for this collection. It consists of six volumes, each of three hours.

The volumes are 16th century, 17th century, 18th century, the Romantics,

the Victorians and finally, early 20th century. It’s been a

nightmare to put together, but for variation we’re using nine

readers and have edited the series so that shorter and longer works are

interspersed. Each volume comes with a booklet containing all the works

on that cassette so if you want to read and listen you can do. It offers

a real way into poetry.’

`In addition to that’, Mr. Paterson continued, `we would like

to develop some more poetry.’ Next spring sees the release of some

selected Canterbury Tales. `We’ll be developing the Children’s

Classics’ list. We’ll be doing more of the classics on tape,

so this time next year you should be able to get almost all the works

of, say, Dickens or Hardy or Jane Austen on Penguin Audiobooks.

We’ll continue as we’re going with contemporary titles as and

when they’re suitable.’ Penguin, I suspect, like many other

labels, would love to release drama on cassette. The cost of drama

capable studios plus sizeable casts make such schemes prohibitively

expensive however. `I’d like to do more non-fiction. We’ve

done a lot of autobiography and I’d like to do some historical

biography.’

`Penguin is unusual in being an international publisher. We sell in

America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. We have a company in India

and Hong Kong as well as offices throughout Western Europe. I was

visiting our Paris office a few weeks ago when the W H Smith in the Rue

de Rivoli had just ordered one hundred copies of Wilkie Collins’

The Moonstone. In the European export market a lot of people use

audiobooks as supplementary English language material. An unabridged

recording can be used for listening comprehension for instance. There

are also ex-patriot communities for whom audiobooks can be a way of

keeping in touch with British culture or whatever.’

Critics and purists look down on audiobooks. They regard them as

symptomatic of an increasingly passive literary culture: testaments to

the basely popular, the sound-bite mentality and shrinking concentration

spans. Over the question of abridgement, audiobook publishers do have a

charge to answer but if one accepts their claim to be in the business of

story telling rather than the repackaging of novels, it is a charge

which they can plausibly rebut. They could also add that story telling

is probably one of the oldest communicatory arts. Penguin can point to

titles in its lists such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey,

Virgil’s Aeneid plus forthcoming poetry publications as examples of

works which were created for the oral tradition, works which were later

set down on the written page.

Whatever your view, audiobooks are here to stay and it’s a

fast growing market. Jan Paterson believes it is only just beginning. It

might be as well to bear in mind the scepticism with which the novel was

first received in the early eighteenth century.

[Tim Gebbels is a freelance radio producer and journalist.]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Among other noteworthy audiobooks, two from Reed

Audio are worthy of special mention. Helene Hanff’s 84 Charing

Cross Road has become a minor classic since its publication in 1971. The

book has been adapted for radio, television, stage and film and now it

makes a welcome appearance on tape. It consists of letters between an

exuberant New York author who has a sparkling love of English literature

and an old fashioned London bookshop. On these slightly abridged tapes,

the letters of Helene Hanff are read by Rosemary Leach, while Frank

Finlay reads the replies of Frank Doel, the bookseller who gradually

lays aside his natural English reserve to become a friend. 84 Charing

Cross :Road is exactly the right type of book to have on tape as one

never tires of hearing the marvellous letters that say so much about

human nature and the Anglo-American connection. Death in Venice also has

appeared in various forms since Thomas Mann’s short novel was

published in 1913. This story of an aging writer’s fascination with

an alluring youth was made into a memorable film. Dirk Bogarde, the star

of that film, reads the slightly abridged novel in translation by David

Luke.

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