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Let me ask you something.
How many of you have listened to part of an audiobook in the last 24 hours?
Maybe you streamed the latest title from your favorite author via Audible, iBooks, or Spotify during your commute. Maybe you listened to a few chapters while walking the dog, working out, folding laundry, mowing the lawn, or making dinner. Some of you might have squeezed in a couple of chapters while sitting in the school pickup line, then resumed the story after everyone else went to bed.
Now, let me ask you a different question…
Would you have spent that same time reading a physical book?
For most people, the answer is obvious. You cannot safely read a novel while driving. You cannot hold a book while lifting weights, washing dishes, or mowing the lawn. A printed, physical book requires your eyes, your hands, and nearly all of your attention.
An audiobook doesn’t.
And that, I believe, is the most important reason audio has rapidly become the fastest-growing segment of the publishing industry.
Look, we live in a country where people rarely give anything their complete attention anymore. We “Netflix and chill” with a phone in one hand, scrolling through social media while another screen (or two) plays six feet away. According to a March 2026 YouGov survey, 76 percent of Americans use another device at least sometimes while watching television or a movie at home. Nearly two-thirds estimated that they spend at least five hours a day looking at screens.
That somehow feels both shocking and not surprising at all.
The truth is, though, that audiobooks fit that reality better than any other book format because they do not ask consumers to stop multitasking. They turn time that could never belong to a hardcover, paperback, or e-book into potential reading time.
And make no mistake, the publishing industry is beginning to understand just how valuable that is.
Below, for my longest-ever research article on Substack, I’m digging into the numbers behind the audiobook boom, why streaming services are changing the business, how audio could affect what publishers acquire next, why thrillers are especially well positioned to benefit—and whether hiring a narrator such as Scott Brick, Ray Porter, George Guidall, or January LaVoy can actually help sell more books.
Let’s get into it!
Audiobooks are no longer a publishing side business
In the beginning, audiobooks began as an accessibility technology. The Library of Congress traces the modern “talking book” to 1933, when recorded books were originally developed for blind readers and distributed on specially designed phonograph records. The Library purchased its first talking books in 1934. Cassettes followed decades later, then compact discs, downloads, smartphones, and, finally, streaming.
For much of that history, audio sales occupied a relatively small corner of publishing. It was important but limited by production costs, the inconvenience of physical media, and the number of stores willing to stock bulky packages containing ten or fifteen cassettes or CDs.
The smartphone eliminated nearly all of those issues overnight.
Today, the latest research from the Audio Publishers Association shows that American audiobook publisher revenue reached $2.43 billion in 2025, an increase of 9 percent from the year before. More importantly, that marked the fifteenth consecutive year of sales growth.
Let that sit in for a moment.
Let’s be real here, that is not a pandemic bump. It is not a temporary fad. It is proof of a decade-and-a-half structural change in the way people consume books. And the rest of the APA’s findings are just as revealing:
- 58 percent of American adults—an estimated 157 million people—have listened to an audiobook.
- Publishers reported more than 750,000 active audiobook titles in 2025, a 43 percent increase from 2024.
- Digital audiobooks generated 99 percent of audiobook revenue.
- Fiction accounted for 71 percent of sales.
- Revenue from audio-first productions climbed 50 percent, from $91.1 million to $136 million.
Digging deeper into additional research, I found that another major industry measure tells the same story. The Association of American Publishers’ 2024 StatShot report estimated digital-audio revenue at $2.4 billion, up 22.5 percent in one year and 78.1 percent since 2020. For comparison’s sake, the same report placed e-book revenue at $2.1 billion, up just 1.5 percent during 2024.
Now, in full transparency…