More than half of Americans have now listened to an audiobook, according to the latest data from the Audio Publishers Association. “That means we still have about half of America to get to,” says Lance Fitzgerald, vice president of content and business development at Penguin Random House Audio. “But it’s an impressive number. And I think the accessibility—the fact that you can download an audiobook from your library—makes a huge difference.”

In fact, nearly half of current audiobook consumers had borrowed a digital audiobook from their library in the last year, according to the survey. “The BookTok/Bookstagram space has changed discoverability,” says Jolene Barto, marketing director of Dreamscape Media. “And with Spotify entering as a retailer this year, we’re seeing new opportunities. People who would not typically be regular audiobook listeners have been getting them and talking about them, and that’s translated all the way down into the library space, too.” She theorizes that some music and podcast listeners are discovering audiobooks for the first time through their monthly subscriptions and getting hooked.

Most publishers say that what does well for them in print is what also does well in audio. And fiction continues to trend. However, Yen Press, known primarily for its graphic novels and manga, is a bit different. “What makes Yen Audio especially successful is the LitRPG genre,” says Mark de Vera, sales and marketing director. “Successful as LitRPGs may be in print, they’re that much more successful in audio.”

Here, five publishers share the fall titles most likely to rack up lengthy hold lists.

Naxos AudioBooks

Established in 1987 as a classical music label, Naxos was an early pioneer of audiobooks back in the “books-on-tape” era. This year marks its 30th anniversary of audiobook production. The focus has always been on literary classics, beginning with Dickens, Austen, and the like. Naxos’s catalog is still 80 percent public domain texts and 20 percent copyrighted texts.

In August 2024, Naxosreleased its production of 28 of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 19th-century feminist short stories, The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories,read by Laurel Lefkow, ISBN 9781781985298. Many of the stories hadn’t been previously recorded. The best-known one, the titular story, is about a woman whose husband locks her in a room, which triggers her psychosis. “There’s a bit of zeitgeist around a realignment,” says Anthony Anderson, managing director. “I think the satire, social commentary, critique of hypocrisy—part of which is anti-patriarchal—is long overdue. I think it’s not a bad time to record and release these stories.”

Going back to the 12th century, Tales of the Elders of Ireland, read by Gerry O’Brien, July 2024, ISBN 9781781985267, is a compendium of Irish myths and legends. Written in both prose and poetry, originally in middle Irish, this translation dates to 1999. Saint Patrick, Fionn Mac Cumhaill (from Neil Gaiman’s American Gods), and a host of Irish kings populate the stories. “There are recordings of some of the stories, because some of the myths and stories are fairly well known, at least in the Irish community,” Anderson says. “But no one has recorded this actual work. It’s a world premiere.”

Originally published in 1881, The Black Robe by Wilkie Collins, November 2024, ISBN 9781781985380, is another long-overlooked title. “Collins is a really good writer and actually a bit underrated and overshadowed by Dickens, who’s probably a bit overrated, but that’s my opinion,” Anderson says. Naxos took a multi-voice approach to the epistolary thriller. Nicholas Boulton of Game of Thrones fame performs the third-person narrative voice. He’s joined by a large cast of actors, including David Timson, Gunnar Cauthery, David Rintoul, Lucy Scott, Penelope Rawlins, and John Foley.

Penguin Random House Audio

Penguin Random House Audio’s behemoth catalog—currently about 20,000 titles deep—is always growing. The division publishes under the Books on Tape imprint and averages nearly 2,000 new audiobooks a year both from within the company and from outside publishers, who partner with the company to produce the audio editions of their print titles.

“Everything narrative that Penguin Random House publishes also publishes in audiobook day and date, same time as the print,” says Lance Fitzgerald, vice president of content and business development. “Everyone wants to access books at the same time.”

That policy illustrates the company’s prioritization of audio, which has paid off not only with listeners but with awards committees. The team took home a GRAMMY Award, the Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production and seven Audie Awards this year, including Audiobook of the Year and Best Fiction Narrator. Here, Fitzgerald shares five unmissable audiobooks for fall.

Jodi Picoult’s latest, By Any Other Name,August 2024, ISBN 9780593948064, is read by a full star-studded cast, including the author and Tony Award-winner Laura Benanti. A young playwright is struggling to get a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano produced in the male-dominated theater world. Her friend submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym, paralleling Bassano’s use of the name William Shakespeare centuries before. “Jodie did deep research,” Fitzgerald says. “Her author’s note, which she reads in the audiobook, [talks] about how Emilia Bassano did potentially write many of Shakespeare’s plays.”

Fans of Sapiens will want to hear the New York Times bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari’s newest, Nexus, narrated by Vidish Athavale, September 2024, ISBN 9780593948965. Harari dissects the information networks that have shaped our world from the Stone Age up to today by exploring how societies and political systems through history have wielded information. “I think what Harari does so well—what he did with Sapiens—is present these really big, massive scope, well researched ideas in an extremely readable, narrative way,” Fitzgerald says.

Ina Garten is no publishing rookie, but Be Ready When the Luck Happens, October 2024, ISBN 9798217012299, is her first memoir. It spans Garten’s difficult childhood, her college romance with her husband-to-be Jeffrey, and numerous unexpected career twists and turns. “Because everything else Ina has done is a cookbook,” Fitzgerald says, “this is our first time getting to hear her read her own book for everyone in audio format.”

In Liane Moriarty’s, Here One Moment, September 2024, ISBN 9780593948279, a mysterious woman tells a plane full of passengers when and how they will die. And a few months later, events start to play out exactly as she predicted. This story of free will and destiny begs the question: what might you do differently if you knew exactly how much time you had left to live? The recording features narrators Geraldine Hakewill and Caroline Lee, who are both Australian like Moriarty.

Another New York Times bestselling author, Matt Haig, brings us The Life Impossible,September 2024, ISBN 9780593910474. Famed actress Joanna Lumley reads Haig’s story of a widow whose quiet life changes when a deceased friend leaves her a house in Ibiza, Spain. Embracing the chance of a new beginning, she buys a one-way ticket and finds herself caught up in a quest to uncover answers about her friend’s life that force her to come to terms with her own past. “Our audio listeners love Matt Haig’s books,” Fitzgerald says. “They do very well.”

Dreamscape Media

Dreamscape Media, founded in 2010, was acquired and became an imprint of Maryland-based audiobook publisher RBmedia in August. “We’re going to grow and are definitely looking forward to finding opportunities in a lot of different spaces, including with indie authors,” says Marketing Director Jolene Barto. Dreamscape publishes 1,000 audio titles a year and plans to expand that by 20 percent in 2025. In addition to acquiring, producing, and distributing audiobooks in over 60 countries, Dreamscape also offers audiobook support services to independent publishers and self-published authors.

 

Dark Restraint, narrated by Zara Hampton-Brown and Alex Moorcock, August 2024, ISBN 9781666668346, (Sourcebooks) is the seventh title in New York Times-bestselling author Katee Robert’s popular “Dark Olympus” series. Dreamscape has published all the audiobooks in the series. “They’re romance novels with a very strong world-building fantasy vibe to them,” Barto says. “Each one retells a different Greek myth in this urban Olympus that’s been created with all the different characters from classic mythology.” In this installment, Ariadne is at the mercy of Olympus, which means an undesired marriage to Dionysus when she’s only ever wanted the Minotaur.

Kiersten Modglin is one of Dreamscape’s self-published authors; she’s sold over one million copies of her books. “She’s just kind of that independent author powerhouse,” Barto says. “The first book we did with her did very well—especially in the library space. People were excited because it hadn’t been available in audio before.”

Modglin’s latest, The Guilty One, September 2024, ISBN 9781666676785, takes us on Celine’s journey to get to the bottom of her husband’s disappearance. Told from four points of view, the novel is narrated by Mia Hutchinson-Shaw, Chad Ackerman, Evan Sibley, and Melissa Kay Benson.

Another Sourcebooks title, Truly, Madly, Deeplyby L.J. Shen, narrated by Lila Winters and Teddy Hamilton, September 2024, ISBN 9781666670066, is the first book in the “Forbidden Love” series. In this new adult romance, a woman and a Michelin Star chef both move back to the small town they came from and get reacquainted when she takes a job in his new restaurant. “L.J. Shen does a great job including all the tropes that people want to see,” Barto says. “So, this one is enemies to lovers, second-chance romance, and grumpy/sunshine.” They don’t want to fall in love, but of course they do.

“We launched Dreamscape Lore last May. It’s our sci-fi, fantasy, and LitRPG imprint,” Barto says. “These books just continue to get more and more popular.” The latest in the “Iron Tyrant” series from Aethon Books, Chain of Feathers by Seth Ring, narrated by Ramon De Ocampo, ISBN 9781666674620, comes out October 2024. To use the lingo, this is a “crunchy” LitRPG title, Barto says, meaning it involves stats and levels, and it feels like a game. Mateo is put in a situation where he’s powerless and needs to become a Duelist to take fate into his own hands, but he must build up the skill set.

Finally, A Father’s Fight,narrated by the author, November 2024, ISBN TK, (Diversion Books) is a memoir by Robbie Parker, the Sandy Hook father who brought the lawsuit against Alex Jones and won. “It talks a lot about issues especially pertinent during an election year—misinformation, gun control, children's safety—all the things that are going to be pertinent debate and campaign topics,” Barto says. “And it’s just a really heart-wrenching and heartwarming story at the same time.”

Yen Press

Yen Audio, the audiobook division of Yen Press, has published over 100 audiobooks since its 2021 launch. “People typically think of Yen Press as a graphic novel and manga publisher,” says Mark de Vera, sales and marketing director. “But since the company’s inception, we’ve also been publishing prose.” The list of prose imprint Yen On is heavy on Japanese light novels but also includes general fiction, providing a deep backlist for audiobook production.

your name.,read by Stephanie Sheh and Andrew Grace,July 2024, ISBN 9781975397975,is director Makoto Shinkai’s novel adaptation of his popular 2016 animated film of the same title. The story follows two teenagers, a girl in the mountains and a boy in the city, who trade places in their dreams. Yen Press’ manga adaptation of your name.ranks as one of its top-selling manga series of all time.

“Makoto Shinkai has become one of the most well-known filmmakers from Japan,” de Vera says. “He makes a lot of heartfelt stories that often have elements of magical realism in them. And we’re happy that by making his works part of our audiobook program, those who love this film can now enjoy it in the form of audio.”

Bungo Stray Dogs, Vol. I: Osamu Dazai’s Entrance Exam by Kafka Asagiri, translated by Matthew Rutsohn, read by Patrick Seitz, June 2024, ISBN 9781975393892, kicks off a new-to-audio prequel novel series, set two years before the eponymous manga series. The story revolves around two factions—a superpowered detective group and a superpowered mafia group—each of whom is named after famous authors like Osamu Dazai.

“It’s a beloved manga series with so many characters that not all of them could get as much storytelling and as much time as one would like,” de Vera says. “Which is why it's so great that there is this spinoff novel series.”

Simon & Schuster Audio

Launched in 1985, Simon & Schuster Audio has grown with the market. The 500–600 new audiobooks the company currently publishes per year represent a cross-section of genres. “Our primary mission is to make sure we represent an author’s work faithfully in the audio format, bringing their audiobook to life with an excellent production, and distributing that audiobook to the widest possible audience,” says Sarah Lieberman, vice president and associate publisher.

One of those authors is TikTok star Clare Brown, whose book New Nigeria County,June 2024, ISBN 9781797170626, is narrated by a full cast, including the author. “It was immediately clear to me that the satire Clare was doing on TikTok – which is both laugh-out-loud funny and incredibly insightful – had room to grow beyond shortform videos,” says Lara Blackman, Senior Acquisitions Editor. “So, building out the world in audio was the perfect fit for her.” That world is the affluent Black community that a white family moves into. When a “misunderstanding” between neighbors escalates, the entire town is swept up in the drama in this whip-smart satire tackling race, gender, and nationalism in today’s world.

Know Your Newlywed by Heather Taylor and Hillary Nussbaum, December 2024, ISBN 9781797170657, is executive produced by Elena Armas and features a full cast led by Mary Mouser (Cobra Kai) and Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf). In this rom com, when two super-fans hear their favorite dating game show is being rebooted, they decide to fake a marriage and compete. ““Bringing together Elena Armas, a beloved S&S author, and this incredible story by writing partners Heather Taylor and Hillary Nussbaum has been a dream come true. This fresh and fun take on the fake dating trope will be the perfect next listen for rom-com fans,” says Blackman.

In Twenty-Four Seconds from Now, October 2024, ISBN 9781668118689, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds tells a classic coming-of-age story about two teens’ first time, from the guy’s stream-of-consciousness perspective. “Jason’s books are meant to be spoken aloud and take on a whole other life in the audio format—particularly when voiced by Jason’s close friend and longtime narrator, actor Guy Lockard,” Lieberman says.

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