AAP Launches "Get Caught Listening" Audiobook Campaign

by Kevin Howell -- Publishers Weekly, 5/19/2008 2:10:00 PM

The AAP’s high-profile “Get Caught Reading” campaign is being expanded to include audiobooks as the organization introduces “Get Caught Listening” during audiobook events at BEA, and  prepared for spots during National Audiobooks Month in June.

The new “Listening” campaign will model its print PR after the original campaign, which launched in 1999, and will include posters of authors, celebrities and personalities being shown listening to audiobooks. It will also feature pre-recorded voiceovers of the subjects waxing about the joys of listening to a book. The AAP is enlisting pro bono support for the program from radio and print media and Internet outlets. XM Radio is already airing the voiceovers on Sonic Theater, XM’s book and contemporary theater channel.

Videos of selected authors recording their voiceovers will be available for viewing on the Get Caught Reading Web site. Book Sense members will receive kits with posters and other materials to help them enlist support from local radio stations. Others can visit the site to order posters, download messages and information.

Authors who have committed to provide either voiceovers, photographs, or video include: Valerie Bertinelli (Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time, Simon & Schuster Audio); Chelsea Handler (Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, S&S Audio); Jackie Collins (Married Lovers, Macmillan Audio); Garrison Keillor (Pontoon, HighBridge Audio);  Brad Meltzer (The Book of Lies, Hachette Audio); Lisa Scottoline (Lady Killer, HarperAudio);  and  L.L. Cool J (Platinum Workout, Rodale).