So now that you know how to review an audio and you get an idea of how flexible an option audiobooks are for getting more reading into your busy life, how do you promote audiobooks to the non-listener? Here are a few tips and ideas for spreading the audio love.

For me, promoting audiobooks is easy: whenever I talk a book I listened to, I make sure to emphasize that I listened to the book. I highlight some of the things that worked really well in the audiobook and sell that. Sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised to discover how many audiobook listeners there are, especially among teenagers (that’s the age group with whom I work a lot). If I can model that listening is perfectly acceptable reading, then others will see it the same way. Sometimes, I like to play an audio clip, too, and it was a clip from M. T. Anderson’s Feed that turned many of the teens onto a book that had languished for a long time on the shelf. My audio copy got a lot of play for a couple of months after that.

Likewise, I try to always have an audiobook going. It keeps me fresh and helps me quickly talk an interesting title to those who are new or are looking for something different. I had a family, for example, who exhausted many of the titles in the children’s area and needed a family-friendly, lengthy series of audiobooks. Redwall was my first instinct, and they’ve been making their way eagerly through that series.

Other ways I personally promote audiobooks involves including them in displays and putting them out within the book stacks. In Illinois, there are two sets of award books for teens: The Abe Lincoln Awards and the Read for a Lifetime list. I intershelve my audio copies with the print copies, and I see both moving quite a bit. I think too easily that readers can overlook audiobooks, and when they see them right there with the print titles, they remember that those can be just as enjoyable (and it helps the titles on these lists include family friendly reads, adult titles, classics, and teen classics). I’ve also made sure that teens know during summer and winter reading club, audiobooks are DEFINITELY considered books, and they should be counted toward meeting their reading goals.

Perhaps the biggest promotion tool is right here on the blog. We make an effort to review for a reason, and Abby (the) Librarian and I developed AudioSynced for this precise reason: to get the word out about audiobooks. It’s important to review them, to talk about issues such as readers and production, and to emphasize that listening to a book is an easy way to increase your reading. Many people ask how I read so much, and it’s easy to say audiobooks have helped me carve out more reading time in my daily life.