The popularity of audiobooks over printed books increased manifold during the lockdown.

Post lockdown, visiting bookstores or shipping of printed books remains a problem.

Hence listening to audio stories or taking audio lessons continue to be convenient and popular options.

Power Publishers & Motion Pictures, a Kolkata based publishing and film production company, had started the first Bengali audiobook app in India, called Power Talking Books, with 53 Bengali audiobooks from contemporary writers, in 2017.

Later they produced audiobooks for Storytel, Galpowala, and a host of authors, publishers, and educational institutions, and the works were not limited to Bengali.

To convert a book to an audiobook, according to the company, they get the book recorded in their audio studio by established voiceover artists.

This is followed by proof listening and corrections, audio levelling, editing and enhancement, adding background music, and cover designing.

In October 2020, Power Publishers tied up with Amazon Audible for distribution of audiobooks.

This was followed by tie-ups with several other leading audiobook apps across the world, where audiobooks produced by Power Publishers have been made available to listeners, and the copyright holders will earn royalty from them, the company said.

Addition of the distribution angle makes it now possible for authors and publishers to not only get their books produced into audiobooks but also resolve the problem of finding listeners (which ultimately translates into earnings).

The company believes that with this national and worldwide distribution arrangement, publishing audiobooks may become a futuristic alternative to publishing printed books because listeners anywhere in the world can now access the books, even those written in regional languages, through multiple audiobook apps.

Printed book publishing industry is likely to see a major change with digital audiobooks capturing the market of printed books, which has already started and is likely to get more evident, according to Power Publishers.