出版与作家生涯2019thebaffler.com
Audible 与有声书：出版业增长最快的板块
Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing
导读
这篇文章讲有声书如何成为出版业增长最快的部分，以及 Amazon/Audible 对这一市场的支配。对写作者来说，它值得一读，因为它揭示了一个内容市场被单一平台重构后，会怎样反过来影响写什么、怎么写、以及作者能拿到什么。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
渠道决定生态：当有声书被单一平台垄断，作品会向更适合收听（而非更适合阅读）的形态倾斜，写作时要意识到媒介本身在塑造内容。
- 02
不要指望平台替你经营作品：作者理论上可以自己找配音演员、在自己的网站上直接卖有声版，中间商并非必需，但真正这么做的人很少——分发能力是写作者自己的功课。
- 03
价格体系会改变读者的选择：Audible 的积分制从不给老旧冷门作品打折，长尾因此被切断；写作者应关心自己的作品是否还有被后来读者发现的通道。
- 04
新的分发方式先扩大读者、再收窄选择：有声书早期价格高昂、选择极少，平台化让它普及，但普及之后往往走向集中——享受便利的同时要保留跳出的可能。
- 05
为自己保留多个出口：图书馆借阅（如 Libby）、自有网站、去 DRM 等渠道，都是让作品不依赖单一平台的方式。
HN 评论精选
Amazon 正像对待杂志那样摧毁出版生态，Audible 的优势建立在一个它自己会瓦解的纸书生态之上。
Amazon 之于图书出版，就像 Facebook 和 Google 之于杂志——这个类比不幸地非常准确。我喜欢有声书，Audible 也确实方便，但我确信不久的将来 Amazon 会彻底摧毁美国的整个出版生态，这会严重损害作品质量和可读之物的可得性。Audible 之所以好，正因为它不可持续：它受益于一个只有在书为纸而写、而非为音频而写时才存在的基础设施。如果 Audible 真正流行起来，它就会变成一个集中的长音频播客服务——它已经在用「原创」内容往那个方向挪了。过去几十年里这套流程反复上演，人们却仍然无法在又一个行业开始时预测到它。严格来说，没有谁阻止作者自己雇配音演员、然后在自己网站上直接卖成品，这不需要中间人；可你认识几个真这么做的作者？
gambler查看英文原文
>Amazon, is to book publishing what Facebook and Google are to magazines Unfortunately, this is a very accurate analogy. I like listening to audio books and Audible is definitely very convenient, but I am 100% sure that in the not so distant future Amazon will completely destroy the whole publishing ecosystem in US and that will have horrendous effect on the quality of what is being written and on the availability of things to read. Audible is good, because it's not sustainable. It's good, because it benefits from the infrastructure that would not exist if books were created for audio instead of paper. If Audible get really popular, it will just become a centralized long-form podcast service. They're already edging that way with "originals". It's amazing that after seeing this process repeated again and again in the lat couple decades, people still can't predict when it starts to take pace in yet another industry. Technically, no one stops any book author from hiring a voice actor and then selling the result from their website directly. This doesn't require a middleman. Yet, how many authors do you know that actually do it?
在批评之前应看到 Audible 之前的有声书市场又贵又稀缺，它确实把市场做大了。
抱怨的人忘了 Audible 之前这个行业是什么样：非常糟糕。有声书贵得离谱，可选的也极少。20 世纪末的有声书，大概就像 18 世纪的纸质书，是大多数人负担不起的。我听有声书很久了，也很喜欢，Audible 过去是、现在仍然是一股清新空气。再加上它对 DRM 的态度和 Amazon Kindle 一样宽松，去掉 DRM 很简单。Audible 创造了一个出版商要么完全忽视、要么极端抬价（或两者兼有）的市场。
steve19查看英文原文
People complaining forget what the industry was like before audible. It was terrible. Audiobook cost an absolute fortune, and selections were very limited. Audiobooks in the late 20th century were, I imagine, simular to paper books in 18th century. Something most of the population could not afford to own. I have been listening, and loving, audiobook for a very long time audible was, and still is, a breath of fresh air. Combined with the similarly lax attitude to drm as the amazom kindle, removing drm is simple. Audible has created a market that publishers were either ignoring completely or extreme price gouging (or some of both) .
积分制不打折让老作品失去长尾，损害了读者发现旧书的机会。
我很喜欢有声书，但我不认为 Audible 让这个媒介充分发挥了潜力。我最担心的是，Audible 缺少任何价格敏感市场里自然形成的长尾——在那种市场里，老产品会逐渐贬值，直到找到买家。买纸质书时我能便宜地找到一本旧书，这对爱文字的人来说很棒。Audible 用积分制度扭曲了有声书市场：据我所知，他们从不对更老或更冷门的作品打折，切断了潜在读者的长尾。何必把宝贵的积分浪费在一本实体成本已经只占定价零头的有声书上？希望能有更多市场竞争，以及价格/需求敏感的商业模型。
OscarTheGrinch查看英文原文
I really enjoy audiobooks, but I dont think Audible is letting the medium flourish to its full potential. My main concern is that audible is missing the long tail which naturally forms in any price sensitive market, where older products tend to depreciate to the point where they find a buyer. With paper books I can find an old book for cheap and that is great for a lover of words. Audible distorts the audio-book market with its credit system: as far as I can tell they never discount older or less popular works, cutting off the long tail of potential readers. Why waste a precious credit on an audiobook who's physical cost is now fraction of its cover price? More marketplace competition, and price / demand sensitive business models would be welcome.
图书馆的 Libby 提供了免费、方便的替代收听渠道。
与其用 Audible，我建议从你当地的图书馆免费下载有声书。旧金山公共图书馆用的是 Libby 这个应用（我想美国大多数主要图书馆都支持）。免费、方便，没什么可抱怨的。
dfabulich查看英文原文
Instead of Audible, I recommend downloading audiobooks for free from your local library. The San Francisco Public Library uses an app called "Libby." (I think most major US libraries support it.) It's free and convenient. No complaints.
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