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French audio book joint venture

22.02.08 Barbara Casassus

Hachette Livre, Albin Michel and book club France Loisir have launched a talking book joint venture aimed to widen the market beyond the partially-sighted and elderly and to appeal particularly to adults between the ages of 25 and 45.

Audiolib, which is owned 75% by Hachette Livre and Albin Michel and 25% by Bertelsmann subsidiary France Loisirs, released its first 12 titles on CD in mid-Frebruary and aims to boost the market share of audio books in the French book market from less than 1% now to 3% within three to five years, Audiolib director Valérie Lévy-Soussan said. This compares to a 10% share in the United States and 6% in Germany.

Plans are to produce 40 titles this year, 60 next year and reaching a cruising speed of 80 a year in 2010. Of the first 12, eight are fiction and four non-fiction, and include Neither Adam’s nor Eve’s, written by best-selling writer Amélie Nothomb and read by well-know actress Sylvie Testud. Next will be The Woods by Harlan Coben in March. "We should have 25 titles on the market by the summer holidays," Ms. Lévy-Soussan said.

The CDs are priced at between 14 euros and 24 euros each, about the same price as a hardback book. They are expected to appeal to a younger clientèle partly as a result of the spreading use of MP3 players and a choice of titles beyond the French classics. Rather than substituting for print, Audiolib should expand the book market, Ms. Lévy-Soussan added.

International Barbara Casassus Hachette audio book

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