Nonfiction in Audio Format: Great Potential and Untapped Opportunities
Nonfiction books have long since stopped being dull walls of text. Today, they are often entertaining works that engage readers through storytelling, playful presentation and visual design. But what does that look like in audiobook form? This article explores the opportunities and still largely untapped potential of audio in the nonfiction segment.
Chris Kling
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The audio market is gaining momentum, and the audiobook boom is also reaching nonfiction. More and more authors and publishers are experimenting with communicating knowledge in audio format, especially with successful guides and popular science titles.
Yet when it comes to developing and shaping the format itself, there has so far been relatively little fresh thinking or creative experimentation. In most cases, an audiobook is still understood simply as a spoken version of the printed book, usually read by a single narrator.
While other industries are already taking full advantage of audio as a medium, the book market still seems to overlook some of its greatest strengths.
Over the past few years, we have gained extensive experience with audio-based knowledge communication, particularly for clients in industry. We have also been able to incorporate new approaches into selected parts of projects for book and publishing clients. Below, we would like to share some of the insights we have gained.
But while the hype continues, it is also important to acknowledge the limitations of the format from the outset.
Not every type of content works as an audiobook
I often tell the story of a well-known German publisher that produced an extensive business compendium — essentially a reference work — as an audiobook.
Unsurprisingly, it remains the publisher's only audiobook to this day.
I also remember an audio adaptation of a language-learning book that consisted simply of reading out example sentences, grammar rules and vocabulary lists.
Although I do not have any figures for it, I am fairly certain that both the students' learning outcomes and the audiobook's overall sales success were rather limited.
Audio can't do everything either: reference works, encyclopedic titles, compendiums and similar types of books generally do not work particularly well in audio format.
Audio can do a lot, but it cannot do everything.
Reference works, encyclopedic titles, compendiums and other similar types of books generally do not work particularly well in audio format.
Of course, converting them into audio is technically straightforward. But the value they provide to listeners tends to fall behind that of print and e-books.
Quickly finding a particular passage is still difficult, and simply "flipping through" a book is not possible either.
With the current forms of distribution and consumption, an audiobook is designed to be experienced in a linear sequence over time.
In addition, the density of information in these types of works is often so high that it is not well suited to auditory comprehension and may overwhelm listeners rather than support them didactically.
Another limitation applies to books or content that rely heavily on a visual layer.
In nonfiction, this mainly concerns works that depend significantly on graphics, images, diagrams, flowcharts or tables.
However, these elements are often only one supporting part of the overall learning experience — which brings us to the next point.
Good adaptations are necessary to fully unlock audio's potential
It is actually relatively rare for an entire book to be completely unsuitable for audio.
More often, individual sections cannot be transferred directly without adaptation due to a number of factors.
Charts, diagrams, tables, footnotes, questionnaires and similar elements are often things that cannot simply be read aloud — but should not necessarily be omitted either.
A creative approach that makes use of the strengths of audio can solve this problem, provided we remember that listeners usually have different expectations and requirements from readers.
As mentioned above, auditory comprehension works differently.
Readers can look at complex tables and diagrams, underline passages, look things up and make notes in the margins.
Listeners, however, are usually not in a position to do any of those things.
Statistics show that audiobooks, much like podcasts, are largely consumed in the car, on the train or while doing other activities.
It therefore makes sense to reduce tables and charts to a few clear, memorable facts, or to simplify certain aspects strategically so that they are better suited to auditory comprehension.
The goal is to find creative solutions that make use of the strengths of audio. At the same time, it should always be remembered that listeners usually have different expectations and requirements from readers.
The complexity of the language and the writing style also play an important role.
Long, nested sentence structures are still popular in German academic writing, but they are not particularly well suited to audio.
Listeners have little opportunity to hear a sentence twice or pause to process it, and they cannot adjust the pace as individually as they can while reading.
The information density should therefore not overwhelm the listener.
Even with very dense titles, however, there are proven ways to maintain attention.
Audiobooks can offer more than just speech
When adapting books, we are often focused on finding ways around the limitations of audio and creating solutions that compensate for them.
But it makes just as much sense to focus on something a book simply cannot do:
Make sound.
By adding another layer, an entirely new range of possibilities opens up.
Sound design, acoustic transitions, short music beds and immersive soundscapes can help trigger empathy and emotion, allowing information and insights to become more firmly embedded in memory.
These are crucial strengths that are much harder to communicate with the same immediacy through visual media alone.
Sound design and soundscapes can help generate empathy and emotion, allowing information and insights to remain more firmly in our memory. We need to remember that audiobooks compete for listeners' leisure time — and that competition is intense.
We also need to recognize where nonfiction audiobooks are actually consumed.
They are not usually listened to in lecture halls, classrooms or at a desk.
Instead, people listen on trains, in cars, while doing housework or relaxing on the couch.
Broadly speaking, audiobooks compete for people's leisure time.
And audiences have become increasingly demanding.
Today, we are surrounded by high-quality on-demand media from providers such as Netflix and Blinkist, as well as thousands of podcasts.
As a result, people increasingly expect content to be concise, direct and, ideally, entertaining.
Storytelling has long since become a buzzword in branding and design.
In audio, however, there is still a huge amount of potential that has not yet been fully explored, particularly in nonfiction.
That is actually surprising when you consider that communicating information through stories in an auditory form is one of the oldest forms of human communication.
Outlook: Audio is more than just audiobooks
Since the much-discussed audio boom began, the media and publishing industries have increasingly explored the possibilities of audiobooks and podcasts within the mainstream, while looking for new use cases and monetization opportunities for these formats.
But neither format itself is new.
Our definitions and expectations of what they should be are often already firmly established.
The widespread mobile availability of longer-form audio content only truly became possible once mobile internet and smartphones were accessible to the majority of the population.
Compared with printed books, this is a relatively recent development.
It is therefore understandable that much of the thinking has focused on converting visual content into audio.
However, this mental model often restricts creative product development.
Because of its immediacy and ease of consumption, audio can do much more than is often assumed.
The communication of educational and nonfiction content through audio, in particular, offers significantly more opportunities than are currently being used in the audiobook market — for companies, publishers and self-publishers alike.
Audio content can also be distributed and marketed through entirely different models.
Many entrepreneurs outside the traditional book and publishing industries are already implementing fast and creative solutions away from established structures.
The trend in knowledge communication is increasingly moving away from screens.
For example, a thoughtfully designed audio-learning series can create a strong USP and can be integrated very easily into existing platforms and funnels — entirely independently of traditional distribution structures such as Audible and similar services.
I can easily imagine a future in which strong "audio-first" content is produced, perhaps accompanied by a supporting document in e-book or print format.
Here is one useful analogy.
When Google announced at the end of 2016 that its upcoming mobile-first indexing would begin penalizing content that was not optimized for smartphones, the impact was immediate.
Web agencies and designers quickly adopted a mobile-first approach and began designing websites that worked well on mobile devices first, only then considering how those designs should translate to desktop — rather than the other way around.
There were, of course, early adopters and late adopters, just as there are still people who do not particularly enjoy browsing on mobile devices.
Ultimately, it remains a question of audience.
Nevertheless, we see significant potential in thinking about content as audio-first.
Especially in nonfiction and educational content, we see audio-based knowledge communication as an exceptionally strong format.
After all, we all already know this form of communication:
From school.
I can easily imagine a future in which increasingly strong "audio-first" content is created, perhaps accompanied by supplementary material in e-book or print format.
I am curious to see how this development evolves in the future, because demand is clearly there.
According to the annually published Audible Audio Compass 2022, 56% of respondents expressed enthusiasm for stories by well-known authors that had been written specifically for listening.
In addition, around three quarters of respondents believed that providers of audio products should include at least some audio-first content in their portfolios.
