蜜芽传媒

"Audio books used to be the poor relation in the book world," says author Ian Rankin, "but their image is changing."

As audio book sales soar, going from from 拢5m worth of download sales in 2011 to 拢12 million last year, writers and publishers are trying to appeal to listeners as well as readers.

Ian Rankin whose new audio book Rather Be The Devil is coming out in November, told the World at One's Chris Vallance that "with the increase in downloads, publishers are changing their opinion of the audiobook."

(Photo: Ian Rankin in a record shop Credit: Hamish Brown)