My Oxford 12 months creator Julia Whelan reveals how she desires to vary the audiobook trade. The romance novel was Whelan’s debut work. It centered on the story of a younger lady named Anna who units out to go to high school at England’s Oxford College. There, she meets a younger man who will change each of their lives.
This 12 months, My Oxford 12 months was developed right into a film of the identical identify. The movie was directed by Iain Morris and was launched on Netflix on August 1. My Oxford 12 months starred Sofia Carson and Corey Mylchreest within the lead roles, with a supporting solid that features Dougray Scott, Catherine McCormack, Harry Trevaldwyn, and Poppy Gilbert.
Talking with The Rolling Stone, Whelan explains how she needs to vary the audiobook trade via the romance style. This stemmed out of her personal work enjoying the voice of Amy within the audiobook for Gone Woman, the place she solely obtained paid $2,500. The creator famous that audibooks are “a multibillion-dollar trade.”
Regardless of the cash within the trade, Whelan feels that narrators will not be being pretty compensated. So, she is taking issues into her personal fingers and attempting to vary the trade via her creation of Audiobrary. Take a look at the complete quote from Whelan under:
“I all the time joke that that’s my villain origin story.”
“Once you’re coping with books about emotional connection, about relationships, audiobooks are unmatched,. However narrators will not be a part of the system of success. We’re to this point past it’s not truthful. It’s truly unethical.”
“[Audiobooks are] a multibillion-dollar trade with double-digit progress 12 months over 12 months for the final decade, [but] the audiobook narrator’s charges haven’t adopted that type of progress. It was attending to the purpose the place I used to be so resentful of that, I used to be having a tough time getting within the sales space and doing my job. So I needed to really feel like I used to be doing one thing. Audiobrary is simply actually popping out of righteous rage.”
What This Means For Julia Whelan
Whelan got here at authorship from an attention-grabbing angle, as a result of she truly obtained her begin as an audiobook narrator. This consists of her studying for Gone Woman, in addition to the hit Tara Westover memoir Educated. Her expertise has earned her a number of Audie Awards nominations and wins.
In 2024, earlier than the discharge of My Oxford 12 months on Netflix, Whelan launched a service known as Audiobrary, which she talked about in her quote. Extra akin to a mannequin that will be discovered on streaming, Audiobrary pays voice artists royalties based mostly on their books’ performances. She has used the romance style to catapult this service, which additionally consists of different genres.
Now, Whelan will probably have an much more elevated voice due to My Oxford 12 months. Whereas the movie is getting combined opinions from critics, the film is discovering a big viewership base. It was the no. 3 film worldwide for the week of July 28 to August 3, regardless of solely being on the platform for half of the info interval.
Our Take On Julia Whelan’s Audiobook Plan
Whelan is responding to the wants of an trade that’s not deeply understood by many. As a result of creation of available sources like Audible and Spotify, audiobooks have gotten a extra widespread technique to learn. The romance style can also be more and more widespread, so the My Oxford 12 months creator has chosen the suitable style via which to assist enhance the medium.
My Oxford 12 months
3/10
- Launch Date
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August 1, 2025
- Runtime
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112 minutes
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Sofia Carson
Anna De La Vega
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Corey Mylchreest
Jamie Davenport