Introduction
In the past several years, a new generation of readers have turned to the digital space for media consumption. Although one might assume that this draws readers away from literature, it has returned much of the pass-time’s popularity through the increasingly successful audiobook medium. Whether it is through purchase, pirating, libraries, iPhones or CDs, the accessibility of audiobooks allows many readers to indulge in all kinds of literature through an alternative medium. While audiobooks may have begun as a tool for those who have difficulty reading physical text, their popularity allowed creators to transform them into a modern art form. Their status as a form of book is debated amongst passionate page readers and advocated for by those who enjoy the accessibility and presence of the audio form. That public discourse of readers, writers, publishers, professors, and other literature lovers make up a community that controls the rhetoric of advances in the book industry. The recent increase in audiobook listeners and production quality has changed how the literary world understands modern reading and writing. To break down the audiobook industry’s effect on the future of the literary community one should focusing on the origin, intentions, and creation of the audiobook itself.
A Condensed History of Auditory Stories
The audiobook’s story began long before the technology for voice recording existed with the original form of storytelling: oral tradition. In prehistoric times many ancient people groups across the globe told stories of folktales, memories, or legends. The public act of recalling historical events, reciting musical ballads, and speaking poetry heavily impacted the creation of world cultures. Listeners recognize that the orators voice, experiences, and proximity will undoubtably have some effect on the story itself making the tradition a form of artistic expression. Academics in the world of oral tradition call these discrepancies “variations within limits” or “flexibility within the rules” (Garner, 2016). Interpretation is a part of any tradition, and the diversity in oral storytelling brings personality to the genre that makes stories unique to each storyteller. The slight variations in all storytelling are the root of “verbal art” which has impacted oral narratives throughout history (Garner, 2016). As more forms of writing were invented, performers began a new version of the oral tradition by reading texts aloud to eager audiences. At this time, verbal artistry transitioned to a matter of inflection and presentation rather than alterations to an author’s work.
The tradition continued to adapt with advances in technology, perhaps most importantly when Thomas Edison invented a little thing called the phonogram and recorded “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” thus creating the first ‘audiobook’ in 1877 (Thompson, 2021). Audiobooks are now a common mode of digital reading. In the U.S., the Library of Congress has worked with public libraries to make “talking books” readily accessible since the Pratt-Smoot Act passed in 1931 (Dali & Brochu, 2020). Congress originally funded the project for adult books and eventually expanded it to all books in 1952. By 1966, Public Law 89-522 mandated that all public libraries make talking books available to readers with print disabilities (Dali & Brochu, 2020). At the time of these projects, multiple public institutions, such as the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, intentionally set out to record many different books for library use. From cassettes to CDs and iPods to iPhones, audiobooks are available through the vast majority of public libraries, and, while they are specifically intended for those with visual or mobility impairment, many non-impaired library goers use them. The oral tradition continues to be a sough after medium even in the digital form—an artistic expression as old as language itself.
Defining Audiobooks as Books
As this research currently understands audiobooks, it refers to them as an audio medium that is any recorded and verbalized form of a published book, both AI and human. Additionally, the resources and data used to make the following analysis are based on audiobook’s presence in the United States.
Technological advances have made books more accessible throughout much of history. In the past, especially before the Gutenberg printing press, owning a book and being literate were qualities generally reserved for the very wealthy and powerful. After the printing press, reading allowed many people in the lower classes to educate themselves to advance their social standing and career possibilities. It was only fairly recently that the rise in entertainment technology stole our attention away from reading. In fact, research now shows that reading for personal interest declines about 3% every year in the U.S. since 2007 (Bone et al., 2025). The invention of audiobooks combines modern entertainment culture with literary consumption. Although this may be a good thing for the prosperity of literature in modern society, it puts a foul taste in the mouths of those who disagree with the equation of listening to reading.
Therefore, the necessary first step of analyzing the effects of the audiobook form is to address the rather heated debate within the literary community: are audiobooks books? The unspoken, and perhaps overemphasized, crux of this argument, is that part of the modern purpose of books is to distance oneself from technology given its numerous negative effects (ie: shorter attention spans, “brain rot,” doom scrolling, etc.). However, a reader may simply not adhere to this goal, and the argument is rendered null. While there may be merits to the argument that listening to an audiobook is not by definition reading, the debate is unimportant if the consumer’s only goal is to understand the story. Purchasing an audiobook provides royalties to the author and the purchaser still enjoys the words the author crafted whether they are looking at ink on a page or listening sound waves. There is also the belief that print and publication legitimizes a story because, especially in the Western world, that is how readers recognize quality and value; however, many classic authors, such as Homer, were originally oral storytellers. (Dali & Brochu, 2020). Those authors are certainly given respect in the literary community.
Furthermore, listening to audiobooks is a matter of accessibility. The application of judgment on audiobook consumers often overlooks the tool’s necessity for some individuals. Overall, it is a conversation of checking privilege. Librarians Dali and Brochu (2020) raised this question in their research in support of libraries advocating for audiobook inclusivity. They prompt other librarians to consider body ability, lifestyle, Western culture, literacy, citizenship, and language as forms of privilege in the argument against audiobooks. Therefore, the large audience of audiobook lovers occupy a valid space within the literary community because they are still absorbing and engaging with literature. It is reasonable to define audiobooks as books and listening to them as parallel to reading.
The Increasing Popularity of Audiobooks
In all, audiobooks invite both previously proclaimed non-readers and adamant readers to consume more books quicker. According to the Audio Publishers Association (2025), audiobook sales revenue reached a record $2.22 billion in revenue in 2024 which was 13% higher than the previous year. In a 2025 Consumer Survey, the APA (2025) noted that 51% of 18 aged and older Americans have listened to an audiobook. The same survey found that General Fiction makes up the largest portion of audiobook revenue with Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Romance being the most popular sub-genres. Those statistics suggest that their may be a recent increase in leisure readers, at least in the audiobook world. These genre preferences also illustrate the current culture’s purpose for books: entertainment and distraction. Rather than reading for the primary purpose of education, enrichment is a passive consequence.
Of course, newer technologies, such as AI narration and YouTube make pirating audiobooks incredibly easy for readers that want to avoid any cost. Popular audiobook narrator Julia Whelan started her own company, Audiobrary, simply to supersede this issue by offering affordable rental audiobooks with a high quality that she believes AI can never meet (Peterson, 2026). Whelan’s philosophy revolves around using comparison as an argument. Audiobook narrators study the books they perform and bring the stories to life in the way a robots will never fully understand. Fully produced audiobooks can also implement multi person casts, music, and sound or voice effects to advance their quality against AI narrators. For readers that prefer audiobooks, the choice of where and how to acquire them primarily comes down to price and convenience. Oftentimes the quality is secondary. For example, Whelan, in a podcast interview with Anne Peterson (2026), mentioned her distaste for listening to audiobooks at faster speeds than their original recordings; however, she acknowledged that many neurodivergent people need to listen at the speed their brain processes information. In that case, the verbal art of audiobooks is displaced by the medium’s inclusivity and accessibility for readers that may struggle with reading quickly due to conditions such as Dyslexia or ADHD.
Changes for Authors
Although the vast majority of books are not written with the intention of an audio adaptation, the emerging patterns of genres and authors that prevail in audiobook sales is notable. As many contemporary authors write new books, knowing that many of their readers will be listening, is their writing affected by the possibility of audio adaptation? One author, Lucinda Berry (2025), has written two books with the full intention of them being audiobooks. She wrote these two projects in a script-form, similar to that of a radio drama, and her choices and writing style changed to fit the medium. For example, Berry considers audiobooks to have a certain confessional-like quality, so she structured her latest audiobook through therapy sessions.
Despite the lack of major contemporary authors speaking up about any effects the promise of adaptation has had on their writing, there are a litany of articles and blogs available online explaining how authors might alter their writing style to better suit the audiobook market. These recommendations include various ways to eliminate any misinterpretations in the narrator performance or reader listening through clear, simple sentences. Authors like Lucinda Berry testify that writing for audiobooks has improved their overall writing by making the text more focused and easier for listeners to multitask to. While this may be an improvement in the accessibility and ease of the medium, readers that choose to primarily listen may find that their stamina for more complex prose or analysis decreases as they continue to patron the audiobook industry.
Conclusion
The origins of all storytelling are auditory, but as technology has advanced, the literary community’s expectations for story and book quality have shifted to physical text. As audiobooks gain popularity and respect from many readers, the definition of “reading” has changed. It is no longer bound by the physical act of interpreting symbols into sounds and words. As an adjective, “reader” implies so much more than “one who reads books.” It describes a person that might engage with media platforms or fan bases or takes time to react to reviews of new publications. People that describe themselves as readers exist outside of printed pages on e-reader screens and absolutely in audiobooks. Although these books are perhaps less tangible and would shock the 15TH century monks that hand copied texts or the printers that composed one sheet at a time through movable block print, they are an adaptation of reading for the next generation. Just as each adaptation to book creation has compounded on its predecessor, audiobooks are a combination of contemporary print and the origins of storytelling. They meet the needs of current readers and allow them to engage with literature in a manner that suits 21ST century needs.
Despite debates on the merits of audiobooks, they have nevertheless changed the way many readers engage with stories by both providing more accessibility and presenting the possibility of simpler narratives exclusively in audio form. There is an interesting subcategory of reader that Don Katz, the CEO of Audible, calls a “media agnostic”—that is, those who do not recognize a difference between the visual text and auditory listening experience (Dali & Brochu, 2020). Although this is not every or even most readers, it presents a significant addition to the literary community. Going forward, research from the literary community needs to continue to explain the impacts, both benefits and possible detriments, of audiobooks. One aspect that particularly needs attention is the possibility that the promise of adaptation changes the way authors write stories. This applies to audiobooks but should be examined from the perspective of any audiovisual adaptation that an author knows will take place as they write their novel.
Sources
Audio Publishers Association. (2025, June 2). The Audio Publishers Association Annual Survey Shows Audiobook Sales Grow to 2.22 Billion Dollars. https://www.audiopub.org/surveys
Berry, L. (2025, October 22). Audio Storytelling: How Writing Fuly-Produced Audiobooks Has Changed the Way I Write. Writer’s Digest. https://www.writersdigest.com/audio-storytelling-how-writing-fully-produced-audiobooks-has-changed-the-way-i-write
Bone, J.K, Bu, F., Sonke, J.K., Fancourt, D. (2025). The decline in reading for pleasure over 20 years of the American Time Use Survey. iScience, 28(9), 113288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.113288
Dali, K., Brochu, L. K. (2020, July). The Right to Listen: A Not So Simple Matter of Audiobooks. Public Knowledge Project, 64(3). https://doi.org/10.5860/lrts.64n3.106-119
Garner, L. A. (2016). Stories Which I Know to Be True: Oral Tradition, Oral History, and Voices from the Past. The Oral History Review, 43(2), 263–291. https://doi-org.libproxy.library.unt.edu/10.1093/ohr/ohw050
Kosch, L., Stocker, G., Ahrens-Schwab, A. & Boomgaarden, H. (2025, August). Media, modality, and motivation in literary-aesthetic experience: exploring auditory and visual reception of literature. Poetics, (3). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102021
Peterson, A.H. (Host). (2026, January 28). How an Audiobook Gets Made (with Julia Whelan!) [Audio podcast episode]. In Culture Study Podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-study-podcast/id1718662839?i=1000746994280
Thompson, J. B. (2021). The Remarkable Rise of the Audiobook. LOGOS: The Journal of the World Book Community, 32(2), 10–19. https://doi-org.libproxy.library.unt.edu/10.1163/18784712-03104013
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