What are the Top 100 audiobooks of 2013 as measured by library downloads? OverDrive Media released a list of the most popular audios downloaded so far this year. In this post on the company’s blog, libraries can take a look at the complete list in the OverDrive Marketplace, to beef up the audiobook collection. Or just click on the image above to read the list for yourself. I noticed plenty of the usual suspects – blockbuster bestsellers, novels turned into current movies, popular YA crossovers – and one surprise, Wheat Belly. But there are also titles that I’ve never heard of – I suspect these are the uber popular Romance titles that drive library downloads, a category that isn’t my strong suit. The titles aren’t ranked by number of downloads, so no one title can take the top dog honors. But take a look – you’ll find lots of great listening, and a good tool for library promotions & marketing!

Post a clip of the first chapter of hot new titles along with cover art and satisfy fans and entice new readers of both print & audio editions. Libraries have full permission from publishers to include the audio files and widgets on library websites & social media posts. Hearing a short clip is a great way to gain  interest for new titles in your collection and increase circulation of all formats. Highlight your digital collection with direct links to download titles below an embeded clip to make things easy for your online-only patrons. Many audio publishers have email newsletters, such as Macmillan’s “Hear, Here!” newsletter, that will feature cover art and clips for you to use. Promoting Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card? Grab the clip. Book club reading Where We Belong by Emily Giffin? Play the clip to kick off your discussion. Check the Audiobook Reference Guide on AudioFile’s website for audio publisher websites where you can find audio clips, or sign up to get news alerts which will include links. No need to ask for permission – at the recent Audio Publishers Association Conference, I heard a panel of publishers begging libraries to make use of these promotional clips.

Narrators, autographs, FREE audios - #JIAM2012 June is Audiobook Month at the American Library Association’s Annual Convention in Anaheim. If you are attending, add these terrific FREE events to your calendar!

SUNDAY June 24, 1:00pm – 4:00pm PopTop Stage,  located at the end of the 2700 aisle on the Exhibit Floor.
Audio Publishers Association hosts “Get Caught Listening!”

Featured will be the various aspects of audiobooks with a mix of authors, voice talent and actors. The APA consists of audio publishing companies and allied suppliers, distributors, and retailers of spoken word products and allied fields related to the production, distribution and sale of audiobooks. Drop by these FREE sessions:

1:00pm   Ramon de Ocampo narrator of the Wimpy Kid series and award-winning Producer Bob Deyan, Recorded Books

1:20pm   Maggie Stiefvater, Steve West & Fiona  Hardingham, author and narrators of 2012 Odyssey Honor, Scorpio Races, Scholastic Audio

1:40pm   Nancy Cartwight, voice of Bart Simpson, and Travis Oates, voice of Winnie-the-Pooh’s Piglet, performing radio theater “Stories from the Golden Age”, Galaxy Press

2:00pm  Daniel Kraus and Kirby Heyborne, author and narrator of 2012 Odyssey Award winner, Rotters, Listening Library/BOT

2:20pm  Trent Reedy and Ariana Delawari, author and narrator, Words in the Dust, Scholastic Audio

2:40pm  Director of Audio Production, Dan Zitt and narrator Kathe Mazur to discuss the art of audiobook-making, Random House Audio/BOT

3:00pm  Kelly Gildea and Lincoln Hoppe, producer and narrator 2012 Odyssey Honor, Okay for Now, Listening Library/BOT

3:20pm   Jennifer Bradshaw and Antony Ferguson, reading from a collection of short stories and The Missing of the Somme, AudioGo

3:40pm   David Cochran Heath will be selections from reading from the Bible, Christian Audio

MONDAY June 25, 4:00pm – 5:30pm, Anaheim Convention Center, Room 213D. Cocktail Reception to Follow.        The Sweet Sounds of the Odyssey Ceremony – FREE to attend!

The Odyssey Award is given to the producer of the best audiobook produced for children  and/or young adults, available in English in the United States. Stepping out from behind the recording booth, your favorite narrators perform a piece from their Odyssey Award-winning audiobooks at this engaging presentation. Celebrating the magic of audio and storytelling has never been so much fun.
PLUS, every attendee walks away with a FRE

June is Audiobook Month and the listenin’ is easy. Great suggestions for an in-car book club to make traveling time fly by are in the links below!

NPR’s Audiobooks That’ll Make the Family Road Trip Fly By

USA Today’s Good Picks for Audiobooks on Your Road Trip This Summer

SiriusXM’s Kids Place Live Summer Book Club

AudioFile Magazine’s Audiobooks on the Go Summer Listening for Kids & Families

Random House Audio’s Heard Any Good Books Lately (with three free titles!)

Need hints for including summer audiobook listening to your library’s programming & promotions? Try these suggestions from Books on Tape or grab links to FREE audiobook titles plus promotion materials from SYNC

Free webinar for fans & librarians Tuesday June 12, 2pm Eastern. Celebrate National Audiobook Month this June with Booklist! Representatives from AudioGO, Books on Tape/Random House, Dreamscape, Recorded Books, and Tantor Audio will discuss the latest audios and upcoming trends in this hour-long, free webinar. Don’t miss the opportunity to connect with audiobook experts and get a preview of summer and fall listening titles. If you can’t attendin real time, sign up any way – you’ll get a link to the archived webinar

Free webinar for fans & librarians Tuesday June 12 – perfect for #JIAM2012 June is Audiobook Month. I love that Booklist’s webinars are archived, so that those interested can view any of the past webinars here. And if you can’t take part in real time at 2pm Eastern on Tuesday, sign up here anyway – you’ll get an email with a link to the video of the archived session as soon as it’s available. Here’s the complete scoop:

Celebrate National Audiobook Month this June with Booklist! Representatives from AudioGO, Books on Tape/Random House, Dreamscape, Recorded Books, and Tantor Audio will discuss the latest audios and upcoming trends in this hour-long, free webinar. Don’t miss the opportunity to connect with audiobook experts and get a preview of summer and fall listening titles.

Vote for $5,000 winner! 10 finalists at www.youtube.com/getcaughtlistening Perfect #JIAM2012 way to start off the second day of June is Audiobook Month. Watch the finalists of the Audio Publishers Association’s great way to reach more people than ever about audiobooks. The grand prize winner gets $5,000; second place gets $2,000; third place gets $1,000. Why not post the link on your library’s web site or share with friends? Get more info about the free resources available through the Get Caught Listening promotion here!

Food, drinks, friends gathered around for a read-aloud: Book Club 2.0. Here’s a great how-to for libraries or traditional book clubs looking for a new twist. Apartment Therapy blogged about a novel way to share books in this post “Reinvent the Book Club: How to Host Your Own Audiobook Gathering“. I love the suggestion to take the group outside next the the firepit to listen together – a virtual return to the oral tradition storyteller’s circle. Can’t you just imagine the stress release…

Wouldn’t it be fun to hold a quaint gathering in your living room — seated ’round the fireplace with a refreshing cocktail, while a central speaker broadcasts a good story as if it were the 1930′s?

And I’m sure that what’s good for grownups would be just as fun for kids – parent-child audiobook storytime on the library lawn under the stars or  audiobooks around the scout campfire, anyone?? Thanks to narrator Ze Sands for passing this along!

The Princess and the Pea & transliteracy. Naxos Audio’s free MP3 file can be played on your computer, or dragged & dropped on any player (just scroll down, right-click link & save). Perfect for your little princess! And perfect timing for me. I’m developing a transliteracy unit for gifted 6th graders, examining the concept of theme in folk & fairy tales, looking at how different formats affect the message and address personal learning styles. This audio will be a perfect addition to the traditional picture books, retold modern versions, graphic novel adaptations, poetry, short novelizations,  reader’s theater, novels in verse, video, and long-form literature. A short audio listen-aloud is a wonderful addition to the classroom (or family room!), no matter the students’ age.

Pass out some 11×17 blank paper, fold into frames, turn out the lights and press play. Encourage the kids to visualize as they listen. At predetermined plot points, press pause and have the students illustrate the audio segments in sequential  frames focusing on a particular literary element such as setting, character, mood. Later, cut apart the frames and create posters that have the enlarged text of the audio selection as a heading, with all of the different visual interpretations below. Voila! Instant concrete example of transliteracy

Download or promote free SYNC audiobooks? Show the impact of teen audiobooks to publishers by taking time to fill out the quick surveys below.  SYNC provided two free paired audiobooks each week – one a current hot YA release, one a classic – to promote audiobook listening by tweens & teens (and the many adults who are YA lit fans). The initiative is supported by the generous donation of the completely-free, yours-to-keep-forever, MP3 audiobooks by the top audiobook publishers and AudioFile Magazine. The results from the surveys will provide valuable statistics to show the impact of SYNC. If you promoted the program on your library website, as I did,  please post the link to the “Listeners” survey, and fill out the “Librarian & Educators” survey yourself – you’ll get a nice reward at the end of the survey

Let’s keep this great  program going, and make it even better next summer!

SYNC Listeners Survey

SYNC Librarian & Educator Survey

Today & tomorrow SYNC has downloads of great dystopian fiction – perfect for a Hunger Games listen-alike or classic summer reading requirement. Grab Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and The Trial by Franz Kafka now, as two more titles, Where the Streets Had a Name by Randa Abdel-Fattah and A Passage to India by E. M. Forster will be available July 7 – July 13. Each week this summer you can download two FREE titles from SYNC at no cost, in a easy MP3 download that can be played on just about any cell phone, media player, ereader, or computer. There’s a full press kit here with downloadable bookmarks, posters, newsletters, logos and more. We spoke about SYNC during the audiobook panel that I was on at ALA Annual, and people couldn’t believe that Yes, these are totally free and that Yes, they are yours to keep forever – absolutely no strings attached. The panel moderator, President of the Audiobook Publishers Association Michele Cobb, told everyone that publishers are happy to give these great titles to teens & adults to encourage new audiobook listeners and to allow fans to begin a personal audiobook collection.

Participants must become a member of the Audiobook Community and join the SYNC group within the community – members must be ages 13+, but parents can be encouraged to download for their children. During the summer, the Sync group will host discussions and chats about the downloaded titles – a ready-made online audiobook club for your patrons! Terrific for teachers, students, families, teens, never-before audiobook listeners, or audiobook addicts looking for great new titles. Plus, the downloads are managed by OverDrive, so Sync group members can become acquainted with your public library’s download provider. Each pair of titles is available for just one week. If you’re afraid you’ll forget to download, just text syncya to 25827 to receive text alert reminders!

June 27th: Top narrators, a goody bag & reception, all for FREE. A great finish to the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in New Orleans, whether you are an audio aficionado or new to the genre.

Celebrate the spoken word at the 2011 Odyssey Award Presentation featuring clips from the 2011 winners of the award that highlights the most excellent audiobook productions for children and young adults. Bahni Turpin, the reader of Odyssey winner The True Meaning of Smekday (Listening Library), is slated to speak as are MacLeod Andrews (narrator of Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green, Brilliance Audio), Emma Bering and Emily Janice Card (narrators of Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly, Listening Library), Booklist’s Voice of Choice Katherine Kellgren (narrator of Alchemy and Meggy Swann by Karen Cushman, Listening Library), and Nick Podehl (narrator of The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, Brilliance Audio).

This free program concludes with a reception sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association and a cash bar. The Odyssey Award is presented annually to the best audiobook production for youth. It is co-administered by YALSA and ALSC and is sponsored by Booklist magazine. The Odyssey Award Presentation and Program, will take place Monday, June 27,  from 4:00-5:30pm in room 356-357, New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Hope to see you there!

Miss last week’s suggestions of great new titles? The session is now available in the BooklistOnline archive of past webinars – here’s a direct link, just click the Playback button. Here’s a description of last Tuesday’s event:

Top new titles featured in Booklist magazine’s What’s New in Audiobooks webinar this coming Tuesday, June 14.  June is National Audiobook Month and the perfect time to experience a lively and informative hour of audiobook talk, moderated by Booklist Media editor Sue-Ellen Beauregard. Join Michele Cobb from AudioGo, Andrea McLin from Books on Tape/Listening Library, Brad Rose from Dreamscape, Susan Lovley from HighBridge Audio, and Trond Knutsen from L.A. Theatre Works for an enlightening discussion of audiobook trends and titles. Learn about the latest audios and where audios are heading in the future. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with audiobook experts and get a heads up on summer listening titles.

The archived event has the PowerPoint slides, a complete list of suggested titles, and the audio of the webinar. And be sure to check out ALL the past Booklist webinars by clicking  here- great ideas for book lovers, audiobook fans, adults, teens, kids, librarians, teachers – something for everyone!

Step one: grab great Get Caught Listening promos – sound clips of favorite authors to incorporate into a radio Public Service Announcement, posters to highlight your library’s audiobook downloads or physical collection, YouTube videos to add to your website – all highlighting the pleasures of listening to literature. Teachers can use the audiobook fact sheet in summer reading packets to provide parents with the benefits of listening.  Summertime is here and the time is right for listening! Tune in tomorrow for more June is Audiobook Month ideas…

The 2011 Audies Awards featured on Talk of the Nation today, with Arnie Cardillo (Live Oak Media), narrator George Guidall, and Janet Benson, president Audio Publishers Association, the guests. Cardillo spoke about about his production Here in Harlem, by Walter Dean Myers, the winner of this year’s Distinguished Achievement in Production award, and mentioned ALA’s Odyssey Award. Guidall shared his opinions on the value of listening and how he became a narrator. Benson spoke about current challenges facing publishers with the transition to digital, and mentioned synced text & audio – the toggle effect I am SO waiting for!!

And here’s a conundrum – NPR uses the term “audio book.” The Audio Publishers Association has championed the adoption of the single-word name audiobook. And just recently I picked up a flyer in a local public library where both terms were used! Of course, there are plenty out there that still call CDs & digital downloads “books on tape.”

Recordings for the Blind & Dyslexic requests your support by signing an online petition – it’s a simple fill-in-the-blanks form that lets you join your voice to those of the hundreds of thousands of individuals who use audiobooks to provide accessible materials every day to achieve their highest potential in school and life.

Here’s more from RFB&D’s petition:

For more than 30 years, Congress has supported these services, including Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D), for students who are blind, visually impaired, or who have learning disabilities that prevent them from reading standard print books.

The future of that support is uncertain as Congress is considering significant cuts in education funding levels for FY 2011.

RFB&D has a long-established relationship with the United States Department of Education and has had broad, bi-partisan support in Congress for its programs.  In the near future, Congress will be making critical decisions on funding programs like RFB&D.

Curious about the FREE audiobook resources available to those with print challenges? Here’s a a link to my article  “That All May Read” that will provide information about many programs that exist to serve students with disabilities—at no cost to the child’s school or parents, as well as adults who cannot access materials in print format.

Good news for libraries looking for cost-savings and cutting edge digital content. OverDrive Media’s 15,000 titles from Project  Gutenberg are free to add to your collection. This large addition of adult & children’s  classics boost the digital content available to your patrons. OverDrive has released this eBook Device Cheat Sheet for libraries & patrons, noting eReaders that are compatible with the OverDrive download software – with the notable absence of the Amazon Kindle. One plus for the Sony & Nook eReaders is that both allow multitasking – you can both listen to an MP3 audiobook file downloaded to the reader while reading an eBook text, unlike the Kindle. This functionality allows the creation of a do-it-yourself enhanced text+audio eBook!

A commonly-touted benefit for the Kindle 3 is the robotic text-to-speech function. With a little tech-savvyness, users can combine free Project Gutenberg titles with a HUMAN voice from LibriVox’s free audiobooks for a text-to-TALK enhanced eBook on the Sony Reader or Nook. I’m not sure about the other digital readers on the OverDrive cheat sheet, but I think the notation of listen-while-reading functionality would be an important addition to the cheat sheet. The combination of LibriVox+eBook expands resources for the print-disabled, English language learners, those with learning disabilities, as well as users who just like to toggle back & forth from text to listening. Of course, patrons can also combine listening to an MP3 audiobook downloaded from the public library’s OverDrive collection with the eBook as well – but if funds are low, and the library can’t purchase an audiobook for every free Project Gutenberg title, the LibriVox collection of volunteer-read books equals no-cost content. A short how-to sheet or link to the LibriVox how-to videos plus promos on the library website and at the circulation desk will alert your digital patrons to a new way to enhance their reading – especially those plugged-in high school students in British Lit classes! And soon I’ll be able to listen to LibriVox while I read on my multifuction Android phone, with the OverDrive app demonstrated in the video below! But I suspect the biggest fans of LibriVox + OverDrive Project Gutenberg classics will be the the largest category of eBook readers – those who read on their computer – sure to be a popular option for students & seniors alike!