The audiobook and sound narratives have taken a place at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL), which for the first time will open a forum with a view to consolidating these formats in the region, professionalizing them and expanding them.
“It is time to have a forum, it is the first in Spanish not only in the FIL, but in all of Latin America,” Álvaro Ortiz, one of the organizers of the AudioFIL section, told EFE.
In previous years, the audiobook had a sporadic presence at the fair, considered the most important in Spanish, either with talks or isolated presentations, but now the program includes a thematic block that brings together 18 specialists in conferences and workshops.
The space was possible not only because large fairs such as those in Frankfurt, London and Bologna have included these formats, but also because there is a growing interest in audiobooks in the Latin American market, said Ortiz.
Expanding market
In the Anglo-Saxon market, large publishers have also published all their titles in sound format for 40 years, but in Latin America this is a consumption that is just taking off, Javier Celaya, founding partner of the firm Dosdoce, told EFE.
Spain leads the consumption of audiobooks with 40% of the market, followed by the Latin public in the United States and Mexico, although there is not a very extensive catalog, Celaya noted.
“In the Latin world we have about 30,000 audiobooks in Spanish, if we had had this conversation 5 years ago there were less than 1,000 and one of the things we see in the book world is that for a reader to find their book, there has to be a great offer,” he said.
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He highlighted that in Latin America, unlike Europe, non-fiction dominates audio consumption, with categories such as personal development, mental health and biographies occupying the first places.
Elena Bazán, editorial production leader at Editorial Audiolibro, assured that the number of titles in Spanish has grown, which responds to the demand and availability of technological platforms and production studios in the region, which is why it is necessary to increase the number of books. available in this format.
“We aspire for it to grow a lot (by 2030). So why is it important to talk about audiobooks from Mexico? Number one: the market that we are and what Mexico represents, the publishing industry in general is important and in the sound industry it is a country that is already very specialized in creating sound content,” said Bazán.
A new way of connection
Javier Celaya stressed that, far from what one might think, the audiobook generates an equally or more intimate form of connection with the readers compared to a paper or digital version, due to the sound effects and narrations that transport the listener to the described scenarios.
“When people listen to an audiobook, they feel that the author is speaking directly to them; this intimacy is unique to the audio format and evokes the experience of reading aloud from our childhood,” he considered.
The new generations are becoming the largest consumers of this format because they are used to searching for content from their cell phones and audiobooks are an alternative to integrate reading into their daily routine.
“The audiobook allows you to read when you are walking the dog or driving to and from work or doing housework, so new readers have a way to read at times when the paper book is not the best format” said Celaya.
The power of sound narratives is such that some authors are adapting their creative process to the format and from the moment they write the story they review their texts in voice to guarantee an adequate rhythm for the sound narration, the specialists said.
For this reason, the AudioFIL forum aims to grow the format and promote its professionalization, said Ortiz.
“Let small and medium-sized publishers approach, which are those that are not producing, the large ones are already producing, but let them know about the format, know the people who are within this world,” he explained.
With information from EFE
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