Charles Stross
Imminently. (The US audiobook is due on June 20th; not sure when the UK edition is due out, but it'll be similar).
The reason the audiobooks don't drop at the same time as the paper and e-book editions is that recording can't start until the narrator has a copy of the final, as-published text, which isn't available until quite late in the day—right before it goes to the printers. To add to the complexity, the audio version is prepared by another company, so you can add editorial/workflow delays to the pipeline. An audiobook typically runs to something like 10-15 hours, so it takes a multiple of that time for the narrator to record it (think in terms of re-takes, time off to avoid a sore larynx, and so on: nobody records a novel in a single session!). Then it has to go to a sound engineer to mix down. So it's actually a few weeks work, at minimum, which can't start until after the ebook/paper book is done.
The reason the audiobooks don't drop at the same time as the paper and e-book editions is that recording can't start until the narrator has a copy of the final, as-published text, which isn't available until quite late in the day—right before it goes to the printers. To add to the complexity, the audio version is prepared by another company, so you can add editorial/workflow delays to the pipeline. An audiobook typically runs to something like 10-15 hours, so it takes a multiple of that time for the narrator to record it (think in terms of re-takes, time off to avoid a sore larynx, and so on: nobody records a novel in a single session!). Then it has to go to a sound engineer to mix down. So it's actually a few weeks work, at minimum, which can't start until after the ebook/paper book is done.
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