Physical Book, Ebook, or Audiobook?

As text delivery methods, physical (paper) books, ebooks, and audiobooks each appeal in different ways. But which provides the best reading comprehension and recall?

Of the three types, which one embeds the text more firmly in your memory? Perhaps there’s no difference at all, or perhaps the answer is different for each reader.

Few have researched this vital question. The only studies I could find compared two of these media, not all three, and they reached contradictory conclusions.

A 2010 study found students comprehended the written transcript of a podcast better than those who listened to it. In 2016, another study (funded, in part, by Audible.com) noted no difference in comprehension between those who listened to an audiobook and those who read the ebook version. A statistics-laden article by Rob Errera claimed that college students retained information better from physical books than from ebooks.

Confused? Me too. If we think about the factors that help us comprehend and remember things, perhaps those factors will guide us to the best of the three media.

  • Oral Story Hard-wiring. Before written language, our ancestors told stories orally. We evolved to listen to the cadence of words, the emphasis, the flow. That embedded preference might give audiobooks an edge.
  • Quick Review. As we read, we stumble at times. When that occurs, we go back over what we just read to understand it better. That’s much easier with printed text than with an audiobook, so that should favor physical books and ebooks over audiobooks.
  • Our Wandering Minds. Sometimes, while reading, we just zone out for a while. Getting back to the point before stopped paying attention is easier for ebooks and physical books than for audiobooks.
  • Multitasking. This can lead to the mind-wandering problem mentioned above. Multitasking is far more common while reading audiobooks than with the other forms, and is likely to reduce comprehension and recall.
  • Individual Learning Style. Breaking news: each person is different. Some prefer a story read to them (audiobook) and others prefer to see the text (physical book or ebook). To eliminate bias, any study should include people of both types.
  • The Story Itself. If we focus on fiction (my specialty), the vividness of the imagery, our identification with the characters, and the quality of writing—these all help us comprehend and remember good stories. This factor, of course, is independent of the delivery mechanism, but may override all the previous factors.

Considering these factors and the contradictory study findings, I’ll conclude (as all scientific studies do) by saying more research is necessary.

As a personal note, I read books by all these methods, in roughly equal proportion. The books I recall and comprehend best are those I believe are written the best, or that say something provocative and memorable. As for you, the books you’ll love and cherish most—in whatever medium—are those written by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

February 13, 2022Permalink

Should Your Book be an Audiobook?

What’s the deal with audiobooks? The market for them seems to be rising, with improvements in delivery technology, reductions in price, and increases in reader’s demands to enjoy books while multitasking. Today’s question: are audiobooks a good thing for authors, like you?

From the Reader’s Perspective

There’s something different about listening to a story, isn’t there? Something olden, even ancient. People told stories verbally for millennia before developing writing. When Edison invented the phonograph, he thought its primary use would be for books, not music. President Franklin Roosevelt understood the power of the spoken voice as he radioed his fireside chats.

Printed words are sterile by comparison. They sit there on the screen or page until your mind gives them substance. But the narrator of an audiobook breathes life, drama, tension, humor, horror, etc. into those same words. A good narrator gives the characters different and distinct voices that help conjure a picture of each one.

In addition to the difference in the audio reading experience, readers can multitask while listening, in ways they can’t do with print books. They can read while driving, showering, cooking, exercising, gardening, or performing similar tasks.

From the Author’s Perspective

We can see why readers might like audiobooks, but what’s in it for authors? Creating an audiobook is a more labor-intensive process than creating ebooks or print books, making it both slower and more expensive.

The process goes like this. You submit your novel to an audiobook publisher. If they accept, you wait for interested narrators to send you audition tapes. If you don’t like any of them, you start over and resubmit your manuscript again. Once you choose a narrator and arrange payment (see Costs below), send the narrator a pronunciation guide to your story including character names and descriptions of character voices. Listen to the chapters as the narrator sends you each recorded tape in turn. If there are mistakes, send have the narrator that chapter. (Perhaps you forgot to send that pronunciation guide.)

Note: it will likely sound strange to have your words read to you by someone else. The narrator will emphasize different parts of your sentences, give characters different sounding voices than you imagined, etc. You’ll need to get past that.

Costs

Did I mention audiobooks are expensive? First, you pay the audiobook publisher. Then you pay the narrator. The best narrators can demand payment up front. A narrator may instead offer you a 50-50 split of the remaining royalties (after the publishing company’s slice). Some narrators charge an hourly fee, calculated based on finished recording hours; you’ll only pay of the duration of the completed recording, not for the narrator’s mistakes.

Audiobook Industry Outlook

At present, there’s strong competition among audiobook publishers, and many from which you can choose, including Audible, Inc.; Beacon Audiobooks; Blackstone Audio; Caedmon Audio; Deyan Audio; and Recorded Books. You can also record your own book very inexpensively at home. Some books are being produced solely in audiobook form, without a print version being published.

There are numerous devices for listening to audiobooks now, including cell phones; desktop and laptop computers; compact disk players; MP3 players; and intelligent personal assistants such as the Amazon Echo, Cortana, Siri, and Google Home.

With retirement of the baby boomer generation, many expect the audiobook market to continue to grow.

 

Should you have your novel, or short story collection, published as an audiobook? Perhaps you can now make that decision yourself, thanks to the information provided by—

Poseidon’s Scribe