Dosdoce’s “audio industry map,” published in January, cites 30.7-percent growth in audiobook production in Latin America last year, while Dosdoce said the Hispanic market in the United States grew by a more moderate 11.3 percent, and represents 15.7 percent of the total number of Spanish-language audio entities.

But while the figures point to growth in audiobook output, they do not necessarily reflect an equal growth in demand for the format.

Audiolibre’s co-founder and head of content Álvaro Ortiz tells Publishing Perspectives, “We’re very interested in the Latino market in the United States—in the second and third generations which speak English and Spanish and want to be connected to their roots and listen to stories in their own language. We’re interested in placing the culture of the audiobook in their daily lives.”

“There’s a long tradition of listening to audiobooks in the US,” Ortiz says, “dating back to vinyl and CDs.”

He says that audiobook sales have cooled in Mexico over the last year, while Spanish-language audiobooks are showing stronger growth in the United States.

Ortiz is a former audiobook producer at Penguin Random House, and opened Audiolibre in August 2023 in partnership with editorial production director Elena Bazán, formerly of Bookwire.

“We wanted to do something more than just convert texts into audiobooks,” Ortiz says, “and to make something richer. And so we use texts written for audio, and add multiple voices, original music, and sound effects, to create a bigger experience.”

One of their productions, Amor tumbado, is a seven-chapter musical drama based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, authored by Alejandro Carrillo and César Gándara, and set in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. It tells a story of two criminal cartels vying for power. The piece has a cast of 15 and a script peppered with Mexican street slang.

“Our approach is audio-first,” Ortiz says, “seeking out authors and coaching them to write for audio, which is more of a close-up experience for the listener. The idea is that people who are new to the format fall in love with it, and want to listen to more.”

He says the biggest demand among listeners in Mexico is for nonfiction, many consumers searching for content “about how to live a better life, and how to approach the day-to-day problems in the country.”

Audiolibre was established with the help of investors, who Ortiz declines to name but describes as “people who know the format and believe in it,” both from inside and outside the publishing industry.

A Bid for Rights

Audiolibre has partnerships with two Mexican independent publishers, Elefanta and U-Tópicas, to acquire audio rights to various written works because larger publishers tend to buy rights as a package, with a view to creating audiobooks further down the road.

“Such deals,” Otiz says, “often include clauses stipulating that if an audiobook is not produced within a certain time frame, the audio rights revert, making it more advantageous for an author to separate the rights and have an agent sell the audio rights to an audiobook producer.”

Elena Bazán says that Audiolibre currently distributes through Bookwire, “acting as our audio agents in Mexico, enabling us to also distribute audiobooks that aren’t produced by us. Telling agents that we have our own distribution channels gives them a lot of trust in us.”

Local or Regional?

Bazán says that with the company’s audio-first approach, an audiobook is a work in its own right, and not just the sonic version of a printed book, and the audiobook publisher must make a decision regarding whether to use a neutral or a regional accent.

“With Amor tumbado, for example,” she says, “it’s a story that demands a local accent, as it’s set in a particular region of Mexico, whereas some stories are more neutral, and aimed at readers in general, as in nonfiction.”

Ortiz says that by August, when Audiolibre will have been in existence for a year, its catalogue will total 24 audiobooks, and growing that number is seen as a priority to gain ground in the market. “If you don’t have a catalogue of a certain size, you won’t be heard,” he says.

However, he says the key challenge still remains the need to create awareness of the audiobook format and interest in it among publishers and authors.

“We’ve had more refusals than acceptance,” he says in approaching both. “But those who have rejected us will, in time, come around to audio. “The growth is there. We’re seeing growth in audio in the United States, and we feel that Latin America will follow suit.”

Bazán says the intention is to grow the world’s Spanish-language audiobook catalogue, but to do it in Latin America while growing the number of listeners.”

And while the big publishing houses make the most noise in audiobooks, smaller independent presses are beginning to gain traction in audio.

“In the United States,” Ortiz says, “Pushkin is pursuing the audio-first model, offering productions with additional content, and that’s something that inspires us at Audiolibre.

“The challenge,” he says, “is finding authors and involving them in audio, and as their audiobooks are listened to by other authors, they, in turn, seek to publish their own works as audiobooks.” More hurdles include persuading small publishers to enter the audiobook market, as well as a need to showcase the format, at book fairs, for example. That requires local, public-facing book fairs to open a space for the audio format.

“Patience is also required,” Bazán says.

More from Publishing Perspectives on the international audiobook industry is here, more on the Mexican market is here, more on independent publishing is here, and more on digital publishing is here.