Midwest Tapes the vendor we use for DVDs and CDs recently entered the audiobook market repackaging the consumer editions of the audiobooks we had been purchasing direct from the publisher. The repackaged consumer editions (same readers) enable us to purchase significantly more copies of titles as well as choose a wider variety of titles since the cost savings is significant over library editions from the audiobook publisher. Library editions can often cost upwards of $120 per copy, while the average price of a Midwest Tapes consumer edition is $39.00.
These consumer editions will not include original cover art, but rather will be color coded by material type (fiction green, non fiction blue, Spanish red, children’s gold). Given the popularity of this format Collection Development staff feel that the greater purchasing power represented by the repackaged consumer editions serves our customers better than library editions. Consumer editions from Midwest Tapes should begin appearing on your shelves soon.
If you have questions about this change please contact Jim McCluskey, Marin Younker (adult talking book selector) or Lorraine Burdick (teen/children’s audio book selector).
2 responses so far ↓
Kathy Smargiassi // May 6, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Will Sno-Isle be adding cover art? As we all know, people DO judge a book by its cover, at least when choosing a book to read (listen to)
Jim McCluskey // May 6, 2008 at 10:03 pm
No, Sno-Isle doesn’t own the rights to the images, for book covers.
The MWT consumer editions will include book blurbs and descriptive information to help browsers. And don’t forget that with audiobooks, attractive covers are a relatively new phenomenon.
A close look at your audiobook shelves will show you just how ugly some of the old editions were–making the MWT editions seem attractive by comparison.
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