My bedtime routine

Each night I tuck the kids into bed and read them a story.
 
Yet lately … I’ve been cheating.
 
When the kids are listening with their eyes closed, I pull out my phone and press ‘play’ on my brand-new audiobook – Barefoot Kids – and then sneak out to spend some quality time with Mrs Barefoot.
 
They don’t know the difference!
 
Well, until they open their eyes, and then come searching for us.  
 
(And the game is really up.)
 
Seriously, though, audio is so hot right now. Yet I was shocked to learn that the fastest-growing segment isn’t podcasts … it’s audiobooks.
 
Yes, the hottest thing in book publishing is … books you don’t read!
 
That explains why streaming behemoth Spotify recently launched its own audiobook service. Founder Daniel Ek has suggested that the market could grow from its current $US10 billion to as much as $US70 billion in a few years’ time.
 
And it also explains why Apple is trying to beat other audiobook publishers to the punch by releasing its own AI audiobook narrator, complete with voice inflection.
 
However, I didn’t go with the robot.
 
I decided to go all in with my audiobook because of the sheer number of people who wrote to me saying their kids couldn’t or wouldn’t read.
 
So I spent hours and hours in the recording studio. I even got some child actors to narrate the kid bits, and hired a voice actor for the dog (which ended up sounding a bit woofy, so we gave it the chop).
 
I’m super proud of the audiobook we’ve created, and I think it’s going to provide some awesome family listening for long car trips. And I think the parents in the front will get as much out of it as the kids in the back. It’s available in Audible today. Happy Easter!
 
Tread Your Own Path!