Audio book company enters NZ market

Leading entertainment publisher Bolinda has just entered the New Zealand market. 

Bolinda is an independently owned, international media company based in Australia that has been in operation for 15 years. In that time, they have become Australia’s number one audiobook publisher, a feat achieved by focusing their efforts on publishing sure-fire bestsellers and niche product ranges, namely unabridged audio books – one of the fastest growing segment in today’s publishing industry. And now they have brought their audiobook range to New Zealand.

The main driving force behind Bolinda New Zealand is co-CEO and former international model Rebecca Herrmann. After six years of doing catwalk and photographic work in Japan and Europe, and with a Bachelor of Arts from Latrobe University and a postgraduate in Marketing/ Publishing from Stanford University, Herrmann turned her sights to audiobook publishing. There, she made her mark and helped to create a thriving entertainment business.

Herrmann is passionate about creating quality audio entertainment and educational experiences for busy people on the move. Whether they’re in the car, at home or in transit, Bolinda is right there with them; anywhere, everywhere. “Some of our biggest purchasers’ are people who travel for work – truck drivers, sales reps, business people” – she says. “And then there are all those time poor, avid readers out there – mothers, business people, children, travellers, retirees – running to catch up with themselves and never having enough time to actually sit down and read. With Bolinda audiobooks, they are free to listen and learn as they go about their lives.”

Bolinda publish in excess of 1,000 audiobook titles across a wide range of genres, including: fiction, non-fiction, adult, young adult and children’s literature. Bolinda audiobooks are unabridged recordings of entire books, read aloud by professional narrators or the authors themselves. Bolinda love telling stories and bringing books to life, and were the first audiobook publisher in the world to have created audiobooks for the highly sought after Young Adult/Teenage market. Their audiobook programme boasts many illustrious New Zealand and international names, including: Janet Frame, Elizabeth Knox, Kate de Goldi, Witi Ihimaera, Alison Wong, Jodi Picoult, Tim Winton, Stephenie Meyer and Andy Griffiths. 

Bolinda has also attained global recognition for their innovation and high quality production values in the making of their MP3CDs; their MP3 ready capability means that they are fully compatible with all MP3 players, including the ever popular iPod, and make ideal travel companions.

In the time that Bolinda has been in the audiobook market they have collected a number of local and international industry gongs, including Best New Publisher Best Fiction and Best Unabridged Non Fiction at America’s prestigious Audie Awards.

Herrmann is personally very excited to be working with New Zealand writers, publishers’ and booksellers’, and to be rolling out a comprehensive audiobook range over here. Initially, Bolinda has released 50 popular adult and children’s fiction and non-fiction titles on audio CD, including Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling Twilight series and works by Edward de Bono, Richard Branson and Bryce Courtenay. This range has just been released across Whitcoulls stores; to be followed by selected Paper Plus and Dymocks stores in the near future.

Rebecca Herrmann was born and educated in Australia. Her main role at Bolinda has been in developing the content strategy and audiobook brand at Bolinda audio, where she has attracted stellar line-up of Australian and international authors.