Big-name talent proliferates in list of 2021’s top audio titles
Audible’s top 20 for the past 12 months demonstrates how publishers are throwing more resource behind audio editions of their ‘event’ publications
Tom Tivnan @tomtivnan
Osman had the surviving Chuckle Brother could probably have read The Thursday Murder Club and it still would have hit number one. But bringing an Oscar-calibre actor to the title shows the higher stakes that are demanded of publishers’ big projects. Stephen Fry is 2021’s narration king with four titles in this chart—one of which was his own Mythos—but that is a bit of a fallow year by his standards: in 2020 he narrated nine of the Audible top 20. This is down to a slight releasing of J K Rowling’s grip on the audio charts: in 2020 all seven of the Harry Poter original series (which Fry narrates) were in the top 20, while only Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was represented in 2021. Last year’s big backlist boost was for Frank
Herbert’s Dune, thanks to Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation, with its audiobook originally published in 2007. It counters the celeb-heavy top 20 as the multi-cast recording is led by Scot Brick, an American actor who primarily makes his living in audio narration.
LESLEY MANVILLE NARRATED THE TOP AUDIOBOOK OF 2021
The Audible Audio Download Chart
The Audible Audio Download Chart uses data which is provided to The Bookseller by Audible, and
reproduced with the company’s permission. Date Range 1st January–31st December 2021.
Title
STALWART STEPHEN FRY NARRATED FOUR OF LAST YEAR’S TOP 20 AUDIOBOOKS
T
he importance of narrators and what a famous person can do for an audio- book’s initial sales, and for keeping the
title in the charts, has been driven home by the 2021 Audible chart. Fourteen of the top 20 downloads of last year were all read by famous folk—including Carey Mulligan, Jodie Comer and a number of celebrities reading their own memoirs such as B arack Obama, Mathew McConaughey and Bob Mortimer. In that number I have included Richard Osman narrator Lesley Manville: she may not be a bonafide A-lister (despite being a recent Oscar nominee), but is well-known in art house circles for her work with Mike Leigh, and will play Princess Margaret in the next two seasons of “The Crown”. Sure, given the year
TheBookseller.com
1 The Thursday Murder Club 2 Harry... Philosopher’s Stone 3 The Midnight Library 4 Atomic Habits 5 A Promised Land 6 Dune
7 Windswept & Interesting 8 The Man Who Died Twice 9 Greenlights 10 And Away...
11 This Much Is True 12 The Storyteller 13 Mythos
15 Orwell Collection 16 Project Hail Mary
Author
Richard Osman J K Rowling Matt Haig
James Clear
Barack Obama Frank Herbert Billy Connolly Richard Osman
Miriam Margolyes Dave Grohl Stephen Fry
14 Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive... Arthur Conan Doyle George Orwell Andy Weir
17 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 18 12 Rules for Life 19 Can’t Hurt Me
Jordan B Peterson David Goggins
20 The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson 01 02 Narrator/s
Carey Mulligan James Clear
Barack Obama
Brick, Cassidy et al Billy Connolly
Manville, Osman Bob Mortimer
Miriam Margolyes Dave Grohl Stephen Fry Stephen Fry Stephen Fry Ray Porter Jodie Comer
Jordan B Peterson Goggins, Skolnick Roger Wayne
03 Imprint
Manville, Osman, Keyes Penguin Stephen Fry
Pottermore Canongate Penguin Penguin
Macmillan Two Roads Penguin
Matthew McConaughey Matthew McConaughey Headline Bob Mortimer
S&S
John Murray S&S
Penguin Audible Audible Audible Audible Penguin Lioncrest
HarperAudio
Physical Top five*
01
02
03
04 *Physical audio sales for 12 months to 1st January 2022, less the first 10 lockdown weeks of 2021. 09
05
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