As we celebrate the return of double-digit growth to audiobooks, it might seem strange that there is still really only one big audiobook award. The Audies, run by the Audio Publishers Association, is a huge affair with nearly thirty categories. And of course, it’s open to indie authors. Well, now there’s another contender: the Speakies (surely to become known as the Speakeasies—and if there’s not a Bugsy Malone feel to the first staging, I will be hugely disappointed).
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
A Broader Take on Audiobook Excellence
The seventeen categories are designed to celebrate “all who bring stories to life through sound.” As you would expect from that, and as you would expect from a collaboration between The Bookseller and The Stage, there are performance-facing awards as well as more regular audiobook headings.
Getting into the nitty-gritty of the eligibility, there is nothing that excludes indie authors from competing (the criterion for entry is publisher or rights holder). I phrase it like that advisedly to differentiate the way the awards present themselves from those that might actively encourage indie entries.
Entry Details and Costs
Whilst this is a UK-based award, you do not need to be based in the UK to enter, but your work must have been first available in audio form for listeners in the UK between July 2024 and July 2025.
There are some caveats, though. Like many high-profile awards, there are some fairly steep costs for success. Smaller outfits (like us) will be exempted from the £1,500 contribution shortlisted publishers are expected to make.
But everyone on a shortlist will be expected to buy tickets to the awards—a move sadly reminiscent of the Brit Awards for books I remember from over a decade ago, which earned themselves a very shady reputation despite protestations of legitimacy for precisely this reason.
I am not, of course, suggesting bad faith or unusual practice, but this is another aspect of our industry that makes things easier for those already in the spotlight to gain more of that sparkle.
If you want to enter, you have until the close of the working day on 7 July to do so. Full entry criteria are available online.
Thoughts or further questions on this post or any self-publishing issue?
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