It's still reading if it's listening
Learning to love audiobooks in a world of printed prose
Welcome to another issue of A Lens Unclouded. In a change to the scheduled programming — because life just gets in the way sometimes — today I’m talking about audiobooks.
‘Talking books’ have been around since the 1930s, originally intended for blind readers and as a resource for school children. It wasn’t until until the 1970s and ‘80s that the publishing industry really paid attention to this alternative format, and the term ‘audiobook’ was formally coined.
Jump ahead a couple of decades and audiobooks are big business. In 2023, 28 million audiobooks were sold in the UK, a number that is growing year on year. However, it’s still the least favourite format among readers: paperbacks sell the most units, followed by eBooks, then hardback, then audiobooks.
As an avid reader, I’m no exception to this rule. Prior to 2025, I’d only ever attempted one audiobook, which I didn’t finish, and listened to snippets of a few others that my husband had bought. But since I’m a big fan of podcasts as audio entertainment, when I saw an advert for a low-cost audiobook trial, I decided to challenge my preconceptions and see whether I’ve actually been missing out…
My audiobook trial
I signed up to a three-month Audible1 trial earlier this year, paying £1 per month2. That gave me 1 credit per month that I could spend on any book.
Month 1 (April)
For my first audiobook, I chose one I’d read in print before — The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman — so that I could see how it felt to listen to a book I was already familiar with. At first, I wasn’t convinced. I liked the voice actor (Lesley Manville) but struggled with narration speed and how the book actually translated from written to spoken word. However, by the fourth or fifth hour in, I found myself putting the audiobook on at every opportunity. Driving? Audiobook. Can’t get to sleep? Audiobook. Boring chores? Audiobook. And so on.
So maybe it was no surprise that I ended up buying an extra credit to listen to the second book in the series, The Man Who Died Twice, in the same month. I hadn’t read this before, so this was the first real test of whether I’d enjoy an audiobook from scratch. The answer was largely yes, but I did notice that I struggled to follow the plot in a few places, and there were two or three occasions where I had to repeat a chapter. Not something that happens often when I’m reading a paperback or eBook.
Month 2 (May)
Another month, another credit, and onwards to book three, The Bullet That Missed. Here I came across another hiccup in my journey, as the voice actor changed (to Fiona Shaw). It didn’t sound right at all. Narration speed was better, but there were issues with volume (more on this later) and how the characters were being voiced. Still, after a few chapters, I was back to enjoying myself so much that I bought yet another extra credit so that I could get the fourth book in the series, The Last Devil to Die.
It’s worth noting here that at the start of May, Audible was also running a ‘use three credits, get one free’ offer so I ended up with an extra credit.
Month 3 (June)
Going into June with two credits, and no further books in the Richard Osman series, I had to broaden my horizons. I chose Ice Town by Will Dean, a book I hadn’t already bought because I didn’t want the hardback and the eBook was still expensive. For £1, the audiobook was an absolute bargain. I loved it from the first page. The narrator was sublime; no issues with speed, volume or how the book translated into spoken word — I’d read the rest of the Tuva series so knew what to expect — and the fact that the voice actor (Maya Lindh) was Swedish added a real richness to the story. When this book ended, I knew two things: that I couldn’t wait for the next one, and that I would get it as an audiobook.
What happened next caught me off guard. With my freebie credit, I bought The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths. Now, I love Elly to bits; her Ruth Galloway and Harbinder Kaur series are some of my favourites, so I thought this would be a sure fire hit, but I couldn’t get into it at all. I listened to the opening four chapters two or three times and, for some reason, it just didn’t work. At time of writing (July) I still haven’t finished it. In fact, I haven’t even moved on to chapter five.
In summary:
I bought six audiobooks at an average of £3.16 each; much cheaper than a paperback or hardback, although this was on a deal. Normally an audiobook credit is £7.99.
I listened to about 55 hours of spoken word; roughly 11h per book (I haven’t counted book six here), whereas a book normally only takes 4 or 6 hours for me to read.
Five out of six books were new reads, 1 was a repeat read, and I experienced four different narrators. One book was, sadly, a DNF in audio format.
How I feel about Audiobooks now (as a reader)
My experience with audiobooks was largely very positive.
What I liked:
Audiobooks are brilliant for keeping me company when I’m on my own, when I’m doing something boring and need non-visual entertainment, or when I’m too tired to read but too awake to sleep.
Getting the right voice actor — especially one from the same country/region as the narrator/main character — made listening to the book richer and more immersive. And it meant I couldn’t mess up pronunciation.
At £7.99 each (normally), the audiobooks were cheaper than hardbacks and often cheaper than eBooks (especially in the first few months after publication).
What I disliked:
Some narrators varied their volume too much, like when you watch a poorly sound edited movie on TV and you can’t hear the voices but the explosions are deafening. I found this distracting, especially when listening at night.
Dialogue tags were overused and often unnecessary when different voices distinguished between characters. This pulled me out of the narrative on so many occasions.
What surprised me:
When I read a book in print, I often get distracted by how I would have edited it. This didn’t happen with the audiobooks. I didn’t notice it at the time; it was only when I was talking about this blog that I realised.
When the voice actor changes mid-series, it’s really distracting. You do get used to it, but there’s a real strength of feeling online that readers/listeners do not like it when it happens.
You can tell when a voice actor does their homework — reads the book in advance, discusses intonation and pronunciation with the author, etc — compared to voice actors who narrate books on a first read. The latter might be quicker and cheaper, but it’s definitely not better.
How I feel about audiobooks now (as a writer)
In a few years time there will be an audiobook of my Anna 1 story, but I’ve never heard it read aloud by anyone else. So having listened to these audiobooks (plus a lot of samples!) I now have a much better idea of what I want:
I need to make sure that my book is written well in the first place. By reading it aloud during editing, I can get rid of excessive dialogue tags and make sure there is an audible flow to the prose.
As a Welsh author (albeit with a very anglicised accent), I want my Cardiff-based cold case crime series read by a Welsh voice actor, preferably one from South Wales. Any other accent just won’t sound right to me.
Choosing the right voice actor isn’t just about their voice, it’s about working with them. I’m happy to provide extra character notes, an annotated manuscript, answer questions, etc; whatever they need for us to get it right.
And where possible, I want the same voice actor for the whole series.
I know this might be beyond my control but if I can make it happen, I will.
Future listening habits
While this trial wasn’t a complete success, I found that I enjoyed audiobooks much more than I anticipated. I think I’ll always prefer to read printed words rather than listen to a narrated story, but if I’m looking to read a book set in another country/region or if I’m going through a period where I’m struggling to find time to read, I’ll definitely consider getting an audiobook instead.
This would normally be the point where I’d leave a few suggestions on what to read next, but since I’m an audiobook novice, I’ll turn to you instead.
If you have a favourite audiobook, or a favourite narrator, please do let me know as I’d love to listen to them…
That’s all for today.
Join me on 1st August for the next instalment of my Path to Publication series, where I’ll be talking about how to prepare a submission to publishers, and why there’s a lot more to ‘going on sub’ than just writing your manuscript.
See you then!
Other audiobook providers are available, including Libro.fm (which supports local/indie bookstores), Libby/Overdrive (working with local libraries), Bookbeat, Kobo and Spotify.
To be clear, I paid for this myself. This is not an ad, nor a sponsorship. I also purchased the extra credits myself. The only credit I received for free was the one on offer to all existing subscribers.