AudioBook SYNC Blog

AudiobookSYNC has been a staple in a variety of teen summer reading programs where listening to books is (rightfully, we think) accepted as good summer reading engagement. We always work to get some titles onto the annual roster that reflect popularly assigned books from required summer reading lists, too.

As veteran participants know, our SYNC program targets the interests and some academic needs of teenagers. Each summer we offer free-to-keep audiobooks to individuals (not institutions) and takers may well fall outside that specific target age range. One such participant group we’ve heard about, and celebrate, are the graduate school instructors who share SYNC with their students as a way to encourage their broadening of their own reading tastes and preferred format choices to include new titles of high teen interest presented in authentic voices.

We're continuing to thank all the publishers who make the AudiobookSYNC program possible with great listening selections for teens. One of our generous returning publishers is Brilliance Publishing, who again this year is providing audiobooks they’ve produced from a couple different book publishers, including Candlewick. Oasis Audio, another longtime SYNC supporter, is also returning for another summer of SYNC audiobook giveaways.

Two publishers who have been generous with SYNC participants over the years return for our eleventh season with some particularly great titles.

It’s January, the depths of winter. That means just four months until “summer” returns with SYNC’s 11th season of free audiobooks! We’re delighted to have well known publishers returning as well as some who join us for the first time.

It's that time of year when bookworms, publishers, title selectors, and gift givers welcome and harvest retrospective praise. Happy Season of Best of the Year Lists!

Our decade-old summer program providing teen listeners (and others) with the opportunity to build a personal audiobook library may seem like it lasts only about three months each year. As those of you who do any kind of work that involves delivering a complete project can imagine, we work on AudiobookSYNC-related programming all year long.

While celebrities and authors often receive a lot of publicity related to audiobook narration, professional narrators bring deep skills to performing most of the quality audiobooks available to us. Often trained (and regularly working) as actors in other venues as well as behind the audiobook recording mic, they also tend to be inveterate, curious, and serious readers. That translates into quality performance.

In recent weeks, we have been hearing increased concerns from SYNC fans about how recent changes in technology may affect your previously downloaded SYNC audiobooks, and/or affect future access to our annual summer program. To address your concerns, we bring you this update which contains information pulled from a variety of relevant sources.

While many people consider audiobook listening to be a sidelight of a physical activity to which they are giving priority in their planning--whether the mundane tasks of cleaning house or the aspirational ones of training for a marathon--a lot of times audiobook listening happens when we're sitting around.