When the audio book of All the Ugly and Wonderful Things went on sale, Audible sent me the ten promotional copies that were promised in my contract. “Use one for yourself and the rest to promote your book with giveaways” their overly cheery email suggested. I promptly did a couple of little giveaways and passed out a handful of the promotional codes.
I didn’t plan to listen to the audio book, but then people kept asking me if it was any good. Writer friends were curious how the narration of sixteen different narrators turned out. So I downloaded it, intending to listen to a few snippets. Instead, over the course of the last week, I listened to the whole thing.
It is weirdly compelling. The narrator, Jorjeana Marie, did an amazing job, particularly in light of the fact that the sixteen narrators span from a five-year-old boy to a seventy-year-old woman, and include college girls, old men, drug-dealing heavies, and half a dozen random strangers. She makes it compelling. Nothing weird about that.
The weird part is to find myself compelled by my own work. I have been over this book so many times, I couldn’t give you an accurate count. A few hundred at least. I’ve read it aloud at least a dozen times, because that’s one of the best ways to do revisions. Read it out loud and really listen to the rhythm of it. I was sure that at this point in time there weren’t any surprises for me, but I was wrong. Hearing someone else read it reminded me of details I’d forgotten and introduced me to beats I didn’t even realize I’d written. Weird.
All this to say that I still have some promotional codes to give away, and if you’re willing to take my biased opinion, it is weirdly compelling. To enter to win, leave me a comment with your favorite audio book. Now that I’ve taken the plunge, I’m curious.
(Because Audible is world rights, this is open to international folks, too.)
Bryn Greenwood 
This is a hard question, but the two that come to mind are, Kristen Ashley’s, The Golden Dynasty and Katja Millay’s, The Sea of Tranquility!
Oh, I’m curious about Sea of Tranquility, so that may go on my list of further adventures in audiobooks.
I don’t listen to audible books. Yours is actually the first one I bought because I couldn’t buy the kindle version in Australia. I loved it. Like you I couldn’t stop listening. The narrators did a fantastic job with each of the characters. Whoever wins the giveaway audible version will be very happy.
Thanks, Jodie! Yeah, the situation with the world English rights not being sold has been unfortunate. I still have hopes that a publisher will pick them up so the book can be published outside of North America.
The reader read by Campbell Scott was an excellent listen as was the help.
My two favourite books to listen to were The reader and The Help.
I have such conflicted feelings about both those books, it’s tempting to reconsider them at the slight distance of hearing someone else read them to me.
I cannot imagine the amount of sheer labor that goes into getting a book written and published.
I don’t listen to audiobooks, either. I’m totally visual.
It is very labor-intensive, and this weird sort of effort that is mental, emotional, AND physical. (I have permanent nerve damage to both my hands from the work of writing.)
As for the audiobook, I found that I had to wear headphones to pay attention. If I simply played it, I quickly lost focus and wandered away.
My favorite is still the Myth of You and Me by Leah Stewart