Clinton audio sales speak volumes
The sound being heard inside bookstores all over the land isn't just the ka-ching of cash registers ringing up sales of "My Life," Bill Clinton's autobiography, which is being released today. It's also Clinton's voice. The audiobook of "My Life," with Clinton as reader, is on its way to becoming a bestseller in its own right.
"My Life" has a first printing of 1.5 million books. There are 350,000 copies of the audiobook. The industry rule of thumb for audiobook sales as a portion of overall sales is 8 to 10 percent. "My Life" is shaping up to more than double that. Yesterday the "My Life" CD was the No. 7 best-selling title among all books at Barnesandnoble
.com and No. 8 at
The all-time best-selling audiobook is "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."
Part of that success is attributable to the overall popularity of "My Life," and part to the growing strength of the audiobook market as a whole. Sales last year grew by 15 percent, for a total of $800 million. This year sales are up 4 percent, with an expectation that sales of "My Life" will provide a significant additional upward bump.
Other factors are specific to the Clinton audiobook. "This is one of the rare cases in publishing where people will want both versions," suggests Amanda D'Acierno, director of publicity for Random House Audio Publishing, which is publishing the audiobook. "It's an abridgement, so they'll want the whole thing but also want to hear the highlights in his voice." The audiobook is 6 1/2 hours long.
In addition, most audiobooks are read by actors. Getting to hear it read by the author enhances the appeal. Getting to hear it read by an author-president further enhances the appeal. And getting to hear it read by this particular author-president may be the biggest factor of all.
"He is a very good speaker," Maughan notes. And Clinton's voice is a major component in the promotional campaign for "My Life." Clinton-read audio excerpts are being carried this week on Infinity Broadcasting stations and are available at America Online.
More than a gifted public speaker, Clinton has a track record as a performer. The candidate who knew how to "feel your pain" also knows how to play to an audience. Clinton shared a Grammy Award this year in the spoken-word category with Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren for their recording of "Peter and the Wolf."
Clinton recorded the audiobook on May 18 and 19 at a studio in Westchester County, N.Y. Dan Zitt, who helped produce and direct the sessions, notes that Clinton was able to read up to nine pages without an error. Even with professional actors, there's usually a retake once every page or two.
"As for Mr. Clinton's ability to read," Zitt says in a statement, "I can say that if every reader we had on our Random House Audiobook list was as good as Mr. Clinton, my job would be extremely easy."
Clinton isn't the first president to do an audiobook. Ronald Reagan did the audiobook version of his presidential memoirs. The readers of George H. W. Bush's book on his administration's foreign policy, "A World Transformed," are Bush; his coauthor and national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft; and current national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (a Soviet expert in the senior Bush's administration).
Richard Nixon didn't do the audiobook for his memoirs, "RN," but he did read his book "In the Arena." Jimmy Carter is the reader for six of his books.
"There's nothing like hearing someone's memoir or autobiography read by them," D'Acierno says. "It's almost like hearing a storyteller."
Mark Feeney can be reached at mfeeney@globe.com.
