The day Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman came out, a book by Jackson Pearce
hit shelves. If you're a blind Pearce fan, you know she's a mid-list YA author and
therefore doesn't have many audiobooks, professional or otherwise, so there's no
reason to check Audible or BARD. Bookshare would be your most likely provider,
especially as it has all eight of her prior works. Lee's hyped novel was on Bookshare the
day it came out in July; blind Pearce fans are still waiting for her spy thriller five months
later.
There are times when this sort of thing doesn't happen: BARD or Audible might
get books months ahead of Bookshare, or if all three are on the ball, you would have the
luxury of choosing between reading braille, or listening to two different narrators. When
the title you've been craving never becomes available on any of these sites, or you can't
afford Audible's membership when a title appears solely in a professionally recorded
format--a far too common reality--well ... that's the end of the story. Unless you want to
beg/bribe sighted family members/friends to read a print copy to you.
And now you're probably asking, "But can't you contact these providers and tell
them about the books you want?" We could, but if for whatever financial or interestbased reason a book didn't warrant a studio's favor, all the asking in the world won't get
you an audiobook. BARD doesn't really allow reader requests; you can let your regional
librarian know what you would like, but it's a fifty-fifty chance as to whether or not you'll
get it. Also, there's no consistency in whether a book will be brailled or recorded,
meaning one may encounter the private irritation of reading the majority of an author's
work, only to find the last volume is solely available in, either poorly performed or
disliked, audio. (The reverse may also occur for audiobook lovers, and either way is a
prime example of why it is necessary to utilize all three resources, as implied in the
opening paragraphs.) It would be tremendously useful if BARD were to provide some
form of "coming soon" list, yet if someone has suggested this notion, they have yet to
incorporate or imply that it