Writers Tricks of the Trade Issue 1 Volume 8 | Page 22

T HE N EW Y ORK
T IMES ’ NEW AUDIO-
BOOK BESTSELLER
LIST WILL FEATURE THE
TOP 15 FICTION AND
TOP 15 NONFICTION
AUDIOBOOK LISTS ,
BASED ON SALES FROM
THE PREVIOUS MONTH .
T HE LISTS COMBINE
DIGITAL AND PHYSICAL
AUDIO SALES .
“T HE VIBRANT
GROWTH OF AUDIO-
BOOKS IN THE INDUS-
TRY HAS CREATED A
NEED FOR AN IMPAR-
TIAL , RELIABLE
SOURCE FOR TRACK-
ING AND REPORTING
THE TOP - SELLING AU-
DIOBOOKS ACROSS
THE COUNTRY ,” SAID
P AMELA P AUL , EDITOR
OF T HE N EW Y ORK
T IMES B OOK R EVIEW .
“T HE T IMES RECOGNIZ
ES THE INCREASED
READER AND LISTENER
INTEREST IN AUDIO-
BOOKS , AS WELL AS IN
THE B OOK R EVIEW ’ S
INCREASING DEPTH OF
COVERAGE OF AUDIO-
BOOKS , AND WE ’ RE
THRILLED WE ’ LL BE
ABLE TO PROVIDE
THEM INDEPENDENT
DATA THEY CAN RELY
ON .”
S PRING 2018
A UDIO B OOKS (C ONT ’ D )
audio books to cheating is like meeting a friend at Disneyland and saying “you took
a bus here? I drove myself, you big cheater.” The point is getting to and enjoying
the destination. The point is not how you traveled.
Learning to read is certainly important, no one is saying that it isn't, but in
some cases, listening to the story can encourage students to read more, something
high school English teacher Michael Godsey discovered using podcast audio with
transcripts. And let's not forget the role of speaking in the writing of books. Nu-
merous classics, including the "Illiad," were based on the spoken word, and some
authors dictated their stories. In reading Henry James' "The Golden Bowl," Henry
James Scholar Greg Zacharias told the Wall Street Journal:
“I was not really successful in reading James until I slowed down my reading
speed to almost-speaking speed,” he says. That way, “we can sort of mimic the dic-
tation.”
Ki Sung is the senior editor of MindShift. Prior to joining MindShift
in 2014, she was a digital news trainer at NPR.
P AGE 14
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE