I wrote an article for The Buzz magazine about
The Growth of Spanish Audiobooks

I am in love with the world of audiobooks. I am a bilingual narrator and luckily for me the audiobook market is spreading. As more and more local-language content comes into play, so audio is blossoming worldwide.

The publishing industry’s audio section is growing year on year and the subcategory of Spanish-language audio is starting to create its own space within the market.

In her 2017 report Michele Cobb, Executive Director of the Audiobook Publishers Association (APA) acknowledged a rise in interest and output by the organisation’s membership and also a rise in consumer queries regarding Spanish audio. 

According to Jolene Barto, marketing manager, audiobooks at HarperCollins Christian Publishing, they began offering Spanish-language audio in 2007.
“But as the format continued to show exponential growth, we began strategically increasing production of our Spanish titles … Now, we are offering titles from three different imprints: Grupo Nelson, Editorial Vida, and HarperCollins Español.”

With the growth of Spanish language within our societies this was an inevitable next step in foreign language publishing and a tremendous opportunity worldwide.

Keeping up with our children

Smaller independent companies such as Live Oak Media, specialise in producing English-language recordings of children’s picture books as a read-along with the print books.
The company has produced Spanish-language titles since the 1990s, and publisher Arnie Cardillo estimates that those Spanish titles, and some bilingual ones, comprise approximately 10% of his list. Live Oak “looks for Spanish titles that fit our general publishing program,” which means recording a Spanish translation of an English edition or producing an English and a Spanish edition simultaneously. Demand for such titles has remained strong.

With the continued shift in the US demography, people are looking for more diverse books for children and Cardillo has again observed “increased output of Spanish books from small and large publishers alike.”
“The focus of the small publishers, as always, was to create more Spanish content, that is, books about figures in Spanish history, historical events in Spanish-language countries, holidays, and so on and the large publishers have followed suit.” 

Scholastic Audio produced its first, school middle grade, Spanish-language audio title in summer 2018, with “plans to release more in upcoming seasons.”

I have seen our world population grow and diversify and the publishing industry grow with it. Demand in the market dictating the availability of audio is an exciting and welcome shift and I am glad we are rising to meet the challenge.

Branching out to our audience of listeners

In 2019, MICHELLE COBB from the APA gave a report on ‘Global Audiobooks Data: Steps Toward Understanding the Size of the Market’ with Italy’s BookRepublic, and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
Among many other things, Cobb commented on the areas of growth worldwide, noting the audio strongholds, developing and emerging audio markets.
She quoted the rise in audio interfaces and smart-speaker penetration in our homes, like Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant, which “… can only increase the desire for audio products.”

So, how do we get this audio to the people?
OverDrive is a key distributor bringing Spanish-language to the market “… delivering the industry’s largest catalog, of ebooks, audiobooks and other digital media, to a growing network of more than 43,000 libraries and schools in 75 countries”. Offering Spanish-language content they have found a “steady and very significant increase in the availability of Spanish audiobooks.”

Much of the growth is coming from Spanish producers and distributors, but also in the form of an expansion of high-quality, high-interest titles from publishers like Penguin Random House and HarperCollins, and titles from smaller, independent publishers throughout Latin America. Content is improving as more titles from the U.S. bestseller lists are in translation, as well as titles from the bestseller lists in Spain and Latin America. 

“Classic Spanish literature and the works of very well-known authors are very appealing to library users”  comments Overdrive’s digital collection adviser, Elissa Miller “We’re trying to build a quality collection we can really stand by and that is of interest to a really broad range of public and school libraries.”

Making the audio garden grow

Many of the major publishers partner with Deyan Audio for Spanish audiobook production, whether it be for start-to-finish projects, or individual aspects, like quality control. 

Audio Producer, Jorge Reyes began in audio at Deyan, as their Spanish producer.
Reyes studied editing, casting, recording, directing and producing, absorbing everything Deyan had learned, in their more than 20 years of experience, and adapting it into the production of Spanish audiobooks. 

Jorge says that in his time in the industry, he has seen Spanish audio grow in the mid-2000s followed by a brief lull, but that since 2012, “It’s been increasing, maybe doubling year on year.”

And he points to a trend within all that growth. “We were doing mostly children’s books early on,” he says, “but now we’re doing a lot of books for adults, many longer 8-10 hour recordings.” 

“In English, audio publishers are doing backlist titles or new releases, because all the classics have been done,” Reyes comments “But in Spanish, they are not done yet.” He mentions such authors as Junot Díaz, Mario Vargas Llosa, Isabel Allende, Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortazar and Jorge Luis Borges“

JORGE REYES is now Audio Producer, Latin American Spanish at Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, S.A.U and Reyes considers PRH, with a digital department based in Barcelona, to be a pioneer in pushing audiobooks in Spanish over the past five years.

“In the same way that Mexico has become the epicenter of dubbing in Spanish for Latin America, we have seen an increase in the production of audiobooks.

Mega productions are being made like the complete Song of Fire and Ice series by George R R Martin.

One of the most significant advances is the simultaneous release of titles in all formats in English and Spanish. The most important example was the release of Becoming (My Story) by Michelle Obama.

With the demand for, and the supply of, audiobooks in Spanish rising, audiobook casting is crucially important because there are different Spanish-language accents to consider for a diverse listening audience.” 

Pairing a narrator with a project depends upon the origin of the language of the text, according to Reyes, who says that he is personally building a pool of talent from different countries. If the text is a translation, there are two options. “If it was translated in Spain, with Castilian Spanish, we get Castilian actors,” says Reyes. “If the book was translated to Latin-American, we get what we call ‘neutral’ Spanish, and use actors with Mexican, Colombian, or Guatemalan accents.”

Also, if a book is originally written in Spanish, the story itself often dictates the narrator selection. As in the case of Chilean author Isabel Allende. “Not all her books are based in Chile,” Reyes notes. “If the book is set in Venezuela we use a Venezuelan accent, and if it’s set in the U.S. we use the ‘neutral’ accent.”

“We understand that casting the right narrator for each project is key. We keep an open mind to our international talent and we don’t limit ourselves only to great local actors. We have recently worked remotely with studios in countries like Chile and Guatemala with great results. We’re committed to finding the right voice for our next book anywhere in the world.
Today, I’m very happy to have produced and directed some of the most important Spanish audiobooks published to date. The learning is endless, but I’m thrilled to continue this journey and help create THE BEST Spanish audiobooks.”

I got in touch with DEBRA DEYAN, President of Deyan Audio,  who was awarded the Life Time Achievement award from the APA in 2013 for her efforts in helping pioneer the audiobook industry, and asked her for her thoughts. Debra owns two Los Angeles recording studios with 9 recording booths. At Deyan they have built up a fantastic team of Spanish speaking directors, editors, and proofers and a constantly growing pool of narrators. She says that she is regularly asked this question from publishers, who are beginning to enter the Spanish market:

“Should I translate my titles to Castilian or Latin American Spanish?  What is best?

“Right now it’s an even split – 50% of all Spanish books are being recorded in Castilian and 50% are being recorded in Latin American Spanish.  

Based on the sales orders I am receiving currently from many publishers, I predict that there will soon be a shift to 40% Castilian and 60% Latin American Spanish.

The current bulk of Spanish sales worldwide are made in the US. Those US sales are primarily made to first generation Americans of Spanish heritage (Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican), which is why it is shifting to Latin American Spanish.

Another reason would be because Latin American Spanish is more prevalent in Spanish speaking countries around the world; and as each country starts to develop audiobooks, their consumers will want the recordings in Latin American Spanish.”

The audiobook Goliath and Davids

In February this year, 2019 Audible launched Audible Latino, an integrated, multicultural destination for U.S. Hispanic customers to access a robust content catalog of Spanish-language and culturally relevant English-language spoken word content.
They are producing the entire Harry Potter series written by J.K. Rowling in Spanish, performed by acclaimed Puerto Rican artist and actor, Carlos Ponce. 

Produced by Audible and Pottermore Publishing, Harry Potter y La Piedra Filosofal has been released on Audible, with the subsequent six Spanish-Language titles available for release later in 2019.

With so many narrators working independently throughout the industry, I took the opportunity to speak with two independent producers within the industry to find out their thoughts on this emerging market.

STEVEN JAY COHEN www.SPOKENREALMS.com
“My business is aimed at being a service to the working narrator. It is a bit different from ACX or Findaway, which see the Rights Holder as their client. So, a bilingual narrator can use my business to serve their customers. That said, although there are 5 languages spoken by our production team, none of us are truly native Spanish speakers; and, without that, we couldn’t possibly offer quality control services.

To do an audiobook properly, the entire team (the narrator, the proofer, the director, and the engineer) need to be native speakers of the language in question.

Regardless of where in the world you produce an audiobook, the United States is still the place that will likely be the source of most sales. This applies to audiobooks recorded in Spanish as well. And consumers will expect the same high-quality production whether the language is Spanish, English or any other language.

In my opinion, if a Spanish speaking rights holder would like a book that will sell in the American market, I would recommend Deyan Audio because Debra Deyan has already spent years building a multilingual staff and roster of talent. She saw this trend long before anyone else did. And her company is well placed to handle increasing demand from the Latin American market.”

SANTIAGO A. RAMIREZ www.AUDIOBUK.com Chile
Audiobuk was born with a calling to produce audiobooks from Latin America, for Latin America, with Latin American voices.
We work with a team of 24 outstanding narrators as actors and dubbers, from seven different countries, who send us their audios from their home studios. Then the narrations go through a rigorous process of quality control and post-production.
We have produced a large number of audio stories to date and we are about to publish two books by Chilean authors.
We are very excited and full of expectation for this beautiful acting technique and literary revolution that is coming to our continent.
Our studios and editorial team are in Santiago, Chile. Email: contacto@audiobuk.com

I watched the world shift into computing during my childhood, the introduction of mobile phones, the shift to text, social media, and the rise of the vlog. Now I am watching with interest as audio takes its rightful place again within our societies.

The publishing industry is becoming aware of the importance of audio listeners and how this demand from the market is proving to be another option for author content consumption.

Thank you to the wonderful contributors who made this article possible. The audiobook industry is a wonderfully friendly place and for that, I am very grateful.
I am passionate about storytelling and thrilled to be involved in the opportunity that is audiobooks. I hope our choices continue to evolve with us. Enjoy!

Ana Clements is a narrator based in England, producing audio in English and Spanish. She is excited about audiobooks, happy to chat about them with anyone who will listen and enjoying every minute. www.anaclements.co.uk @anaclements

Spanish by birth, British by nature.
Bilingual, so … twice as much to say!