Books of the Year AUDIOBOOK
WINNER BECOMING MICHELLE OBAMA (AUTHOR AND NARRATOR) PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE AUDIO
The success of Becoming at this year’s awards reflects not just the rapturous reception it received, but the new level of professionalism and popularity that the audiobook sector has now reached. This was an audiobook that got the same five-star treatment as the
text version. Penguin Random House Audio—for which this is a second successive Audiobook of the Year, after Philip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage in 2018—pulled out all the stops, giving the spoken version sales, marketing and publicity strategies of its own, while synchronising with other formats. PRH started with in-depth research of the book’s likely markets,
including two key segments: people whose print or e-book buying had lapsed, and those who had never listened to an audiobook. That led on to activity including effective partnerships with audio retailers including Audible, extensive Apple, radio, podcast and social media advertising, and placements including a spot on Radio 4’s “Book of the Week”. Obama herself proved to be a superb narrator of her own work—far
from a given in the world of autobiographical audio. Her smooth delivery was immensely popular, and added new dimensions to her writing that couldn’t be experienced on the page. Production of the audiobook—handled by PRH’s US team—was impeccable too, as was the management of embargoes and the security of audio files. “The story is as interesting and revealing as you’d expect—but
what really impressed is how well she read it,” said the British Book Awards judges. “There’s an intimacy and a real engagement—it was a flawless performance.”
SHORTLIST
MILKMAN ANNA BURNS (AUTHOR),
BRÍD BRENNAN (NARRATOR) FABER & FABER Pitch-perfect narration of the Man Booker winner
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THEIR LOST DAUGHTERS JOY ELLIS (AUTHOR), RICHARD ARMITAGE (NARRATOR) AUDIBLE STUDIOS A major hit for Audible right through 2018
LETHAL WHITE ROBERT GALBRAITH (AUTHOR), ROBERT GLENISTER (NARRATOR) HACHETTE AUDIO The narrator enhances the tone of Cormoran Strike
BRIEF ANSWERS TO THE BIG QUESTIONS STEPHEN HAWKING (AUTHOR), BEN WHISHAW (NARRATOR) JOHN MURRAY Big themes sensitively told
FIRST MAN IN ANT MIDDLETON (AUTHOR AND (NARRATOR)
HARPERNONFICTION Over 50,000 downloads for the all-action hero's memoir
THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS WINNERS 2019
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