Sound Judgment: An Audies Judge Reflects
Apr 15, 2011While many of my teen peers were making mixtapes, I was popping audiobooks like potato chips. In 2003, during my first official audiobook-reviewing stint, for the now-defunct AudiobookCafe.com, the managing editor there invited me to apply to become a judge for the Audies. Naturally, I jumped at the chance.
Having now judged the competition every year since—in categories including adaptation, audio drama, sf, classics, and humor—I have seen firsthand the effect that the growth of the audiobook industry has had on judging criteria and procedure as well as the ways in which it has shaped the nature of the competition overall.
Market growth
To wit, today there are twice as many judges (200) as when I first began. There are also now twice as many titles to listen to; not only has the number of titles submitted by publishers for consideration increased (over 1000 this year), but so, too, has the number of titles doled out to the individual judges.
For some of the bigger categories, like fiction, semifinalist judges are split up in order to cover all the material, since each category often contains well over 30 titles (many unabridged, making for 200-plus hours of listening).
The growing prestige and recognition of the Audies, too, is clear. Libraries, bookstores, the blogosphere, and many others recognize the Audies as an established and valid measure of quality audiobooks through special displays, sales, and interviews with those involved in the award-winning productions.
Digital upshot
Digital audio has been a real boon to the Audies, too, lowering overhead costs. Rather than receiving physical audiobooks, most judges now get the titles delivered digitally instead. The ability to download over 20 unabridged audiobooks for the semifinalist round onto an MP3 player has been a great convenience and makes getting through them all much easier. Unfortunately, this means that my local library no longer receives its usual major contribution of audiobooks at the end of judging season.
Personal picks
Speculating on this year’s winners is a challenge, not only because I haven’t listened to all 140 titles across the 28 categories but also because some of my favorite releases from the previous year aren’t listed; namely, “Harrison Geillor’s” Zombies of Lake Woebegotten (Brilliance Audio), with Phil Gigante doing an uncanny impersonation of Garrison Keillor. I’m also surprised that GraphicAudio isn’t a contender, given the publisher’s consistent output of high-quality full-cast productions.
That said, there are definitely audios I’m rooting for in this year’s competition, among them The Importance of Being Earnest (L.A. Theatre Works), up for best multivoiced and best audio drama; Ken Follett’s Fall of Giants (Penguin Audio), narrated by John Lee and up for best fiction; and the Grammy Award winner Earth (The Audiobook), by the Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Hachette Audio), up for best humor.
Priceless perks
Regardless of who wins, judging is always an absolute honor and pleasure. It grants me the opportunity to listen to some of the greatest audiobooks produced in the previous year, allows me to be involved in an industry that has added significantly to my life, and broadens the breadth and quality of titles I can recommend to people I may never meet but whose lives will be enhanced through listening.
| Author Information |
| Lance Eaton, Peabody, MA, is an LJ audiobook reviewer and contributor (see “Books Born Digital,” LJ 5/15/09, p. 26–28). Read his Behind the Mike interview with narrator Simon Jones, p. 60 |
