NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Audible Studios, the production arm of Audible.com, the world’s largest seller and producer of digital spoken-word entertainment, seeks the perfect voice to capture the late Helen Gurley Brown’s shrewd, sophisticated, audacious sensibility in a first-ever audio production of the iconic 1962 book Sex and the Single Girl. Audible invites actors to participate in an online audition for the work by submitting a recording of Sex and the Single Girl’s introduction at www.acx.com/singlegirl. Audible will produce the audiobook immediately upon announcing the chosen actor.
Among the acclaimed actors who have recently recorded audiobooks for Audible are Alan Cumming, Anne Hathaway, Colin Firth, Dustin Hoffman, Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, Kate Winslet, Kenneth Branagh, Nicole Kidman, Samuel L. Jackson and Susan Sarandon.
“We were all saddened about the legendary Helen Gurley Brown’s recent passing, but we welcome this opportunity to keep her voice alive and to bring a new audience to her most significant work,” said Audible EVP and publisher Beth Anderson. “Sex and the Single Girl has sold millions of copies in print, and its influence continues to reverberate throughout the culture, from ‘Sex and the City’ to ‘Mad Men.’ Audible is committed to finding the perfect actor for this book, and we look forward to hearing from many talented actors who want to be part of this exciting audio edition.”
The audition text for Sex and the Single Girl can be found at www.acx.com/singlegirl. In order to upload an audition, actors will be required to create an acx.com account. The Audiobook Creation Exchange (www.acx.com) is an online audiobook rights marketplace and production platform launched by Audible in 2011. Actors who visit ACX to submit auditions will find over 1,000 additional titles they can audition for; an average of 50 new titles a week are produced via ACX and added to the Audible store.
“Sex and the Single Girl is a ball to read,” said renowned sex writer and longtime Audible.com podcast host Susie Bright, who acquired the audio rights for Audible. “It’s the most radical work Helen Gurley Brown ever published. The right actor, with the right sass and wit, will make Helen’s voice even more captivating.”
Bright added, “Helen Gurley Brown had a very sexy voice. No wonder she always got her way on the phone.”
Acting in her Editor-at-Large role at Audible, Bright negotiated the deal, for world audio rights, with Carole Stuart at independent publisher Barricade Books, which brought the book back into print in 2003. Audible Studios’ acquisition efforts continue to revitalize backlist gems in audio, from the acclaimed 2009 production of John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany to forthcoming recordings of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Audible, which invented and commercialized the first digital audio player in 1997, has been at the forefront of the explosively growing audiobook download segment. In 2011, downloads by Audible members increased by more than 40% over 2010, with individual members downloading an average of 19 books over the course of a year. More than half of current Audible members are first-time audiobook buyers. Audible Studios produces over 150 audiobooks every month, and recently garnered a record 37 Audie Award nominations for its audiobook productions. This year, Audible launched Audible’s A-List Collection, which showcases tour-de-force audio performances by Hollywood stars. With Audible Studios, Audible.com has become the largest producer of audiobooks in the world.
ABOUT AUDIBLE, INC.
Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment on the Internet, offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible’s mission is to establish literate listening as a core tool for anyone seeking to be more productive, better informed, or more thoughtfully entertained. Audible content, which includes more than 100,000 audio programs from more than 1,800 content providers that include leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers, is digitally downloaded and played back on over 500 popular devices. Audible is also the preeminent provider of spoken-word audio products for Apple’s iTunes® Store.