The Audie awards is an annual gala produced by the Audio Publishers Association. They showcase the very best in audiobook production and in a similar vein as the Oscars. This year, Billy Crystal took home the biggest honor with Audiobook of the Year.
Crystal narrated his 2013 memoir, “Still Foolin’ ‘Em.” He also won awards in the humor category and best narration by an author. He was able to draw his established fanbase to an often neglected medium in the publishing industry. “Crystal pulled out all the stops to draw in fans and to create new ones with a clever mélange of audiobook-specific print, radio, TV, social media and store appearances.”
Over 30 different wards were given out during the event and some of the most notable ones include; The Donna Tartt Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Goldfinch, won the Literary Fiction prize, and the audiobook’s narrator, David Pittu, also won the prize for Best Solo-Narration-Male.
The award for “multi voiced performance” went to World War Z: The Complete Edition, which includes performances by the author, Max Brooks, but also Martin Scorsese, Alfred Molina,Common, Nathan Fillion and Simon Pegg. This book sold a copious amount of copies when the movie first hit theatres.
Malcolm Gladwell, who recorded the audio version of his David and Goliath, won the award for nonfiction and Stephen King won the Fiction prize for Doctor Sleep a sequel to The Shining.
The audiobook industry is currently worth around 2 billion dollars and the vast majority of titles are produced and sold by Amazon. Audible, their main audiobook unit currently is the exclusive distributer to iTunes.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.