Books-on-tape

Americans may be reading fewer books, but they are listening to more. The books-on-tape business is booming. The audio industry, as it likes to be called, used to amount to little more than the odd stand in a book-shop; most customers assumed they were for the blind. As an American publisher puts it, books on tape give people a chance to utilize their downtime Statistics are vague, but Americans probably spend around $500 million a year on audio books, ranging from self-help guides to fiction.

Publishers say the market is growing by at least 10% a year. Purists prefer to rent books unabridged from mail-order firms like Recorded Books and Books on Tape. The latter boasts a library of 2 700 works including a 40-tape version of War and Peace. The average book is on ten tapes and costs $18 to rent for a month.

Yet the biggest growth has come in the abridged market—where the book is cut down to two tapes (or three hours of listening) and sold for around $15. Most of the new buyers are commuters or joggers. Lorry drivers are keen buyers; there are small books-on-tape stalls in pit stops.

The abridged books are usually read by well-known actors—or by the authors themselves. Tapes by Richard Nixon and

Oliver North have all appeared in bookshops at the same time as their books. Literary agents, who used to cede the audio rights for a good lunch, now haggle

Despite the huge potential, the big bookshops tend to hide away their audio sections. One reason may be that selling hardback books at $30 is more profitable than selling tapes at $15.

This should change. Already a few specialist stores have sprung up. An audio shop close to Los Angeles airport, carries 6 000 different tapes of books. Nearly all its business comes from selling tapes rather than renting them. It will soon open another branch in central Los Angeles.

Smarter shops and commercial success will probably never convert those in the publishing industry who think that books should be read—and certainly not abridged. In private, though, publishers admit that many non-fiction books are too long anyway; they should have been cut by their editors in the first place.