PRH Audio to work ‘hand-in-hand’ with authors as it trials AI recording methods

In her new role, D’Acierno will work to grow PRH Audio’s publishing across territories, while continuing to oversee the publisher’s audio business in America. She will work with PRH Audio teams across the world as they acquire rights to more books, growing the publisher’s list in new languages, while also investing in new production facilities to grow its recording capabilities.

The publisher already has 32 recording studios in New York, Los Angeles and London, among various other cities, and D’Acierno explains that being able to record in-house makes audiobook production more flexible and efficient. Renovations are also currently underway in the New York and LA studios, which will be ready for recording early next year. “Even with robust in-house studios, we’ll always need to supplement with booking external studios as well and will continue to record worldwide anywhere individual productions require,” she adds. As “consumers expect simultaneous global availability of many forms of entertainment”, the goal is to get audiobooks to as many listeners—and in as many languages—as possible.

Spotify has played a key role in helping audiobooks reach new audiences, according to D’Acierno, especially “the casual book consumer” who can now access audiobooks on the same platform on which they listen to music and podcasts. “What Spotify users are choosing to listen to is distinct from what we’re seeing at other retailers—in particular, romance and mystery titles overperform among these listeners,” she adds. “More options for consumers are healthy for any marketplace. Listeners’ habits, preferences and budgets are different and there is plenty of room for multiple retail platforms and lending platforms to coexist.”

I’m a firm believer in working closely with our print colleagues to reach the broadest possible audience for an author 

However, there is still a way to go when it comes to reaching audiences old and young. She sees “an enormous opportunity” in the children’s audiobook business and stresses the importance of working with partners who “bring more stories to little ears in a kid-friendly way”. The Yoto and Tonies devices, for example, allow children as young as three years old to listen to audiobooks by inserting physical cards into the players. D’Acierno is “bullish on fast-growing alternative audio formats”, and says that these “provide a new way to consume audiobooks”.

When it comes to reaching adult readers, the emphasis is on “producing the audiobooks people want to listen to, with quality recordings that will keep them coming back for more”. D’Acierno’s goal is for all books to be available both in print and audio, and she says that there is still “plenty of room to grow” globally. “We’ve made huge progress towards that goal as a company and as an industry,” she adds, “but still have work to do and are actively looking to acquire more audio rights and to exercise those publishing rights in more languages.”

Digital marketing and social media have also expanded the publisher’s ability to connect with readers, and D’Acierno says that PRH Audio has allocated an “unmatched” level of resources to running advertising campaigns, developing its audio influencer programme and sharing content from recording studios with listeners.

The global president says that the growth in audio has not been at the expense of print sales, as the two “have grown in tandem”. She argues that audiobooks increase overall reading levels and that publishing titles in various formats unlocks access to time-poor readers who can listen to audiobooks while also going about their daily activities. “I’m a firm believer in working closely with our print colleagues on complementary promotional campaigns including all formats to reach the broadest possible audience for an author,” she explains.

D’Acierno will feature in a keynote interview at The Bookseller’s FutureBook Conference on 25th November. For more details, thebookseller.com/events/futurebook-conference