Audio books bought on disc

Question

Hello.
i listen to loads of audio books (I review them for a newspaper). when i download them from a site, itunes puts them into audiobooks, and gets the cover image and info which it then displays on my ipod.
however, when i am sent them from the publisher on discs (the same disc packages that can be bought in the shops), it doesn't put them into 'audiobooks'. instead it keeps them in my library and i have to make a playlist for them. it also has no cover images.
am i doing something wrong?

Answer 1

Angela,
I'm not sure anyone has really answered the question for you, so I'd like to give it a try. This is what I've learned to do; perhaps it'll work for you. I don't know why you'd want to import as ACC and not MP3 since the files are bigger (10 minutes in AAC was 16.1MB vs. 10 minutes in MP3 was 11.5MB), and I don't see any improvement for listening to spoken words.
When you import from the CDs, hit 'no' when you are first given that option. (you can also set the Preferences in General so that 'When you insert a CD: Show CD' is chosen in the pull-down menu rather than 'Ask To Import CD')
Next, choose all of the tracks by selecting one and use Command-A, then under the Advanced menu, select 'Join CD Tracks'. I do this so that each disc is just one track in my library. I then bring up the 'info' box by choosing Get Info (Command-I) and give the 'Album' a name - usually the name of the book and 'disc 01'. There is also a place where you can identify this disc as number '1' of '7' (if there's a total of 7 discs, for example). I also check the bottom box that says 'Part of a Compilation' so that iTunes keeps all the discs together in Grid view or Album view - but this may not be an issue if you don't use those views. This one track will be the length of the CD, but I'll tell you how I create a setting that allows me to stop listening and then pick up where I left off in a moment, and I'll tell you how all the discs imported will end up in the Books area of your iTunes and iPod. That will happen after you import the discs.
After the each disc has been imported, the one track for each disc (of the combined tracks) is in my Music area of the iTunes library. I find them by clicking the 'Date Added' column heading, and they appear at the top of the list. Then I select all of the tracks I just imported, and bring up the use Get Info by using Command-I. In the Info section, I put the name of the book in Name, and the name of the author in Artist. Most important, for your question, is to select the Options button and check the Media Kind: Audiobook. I also check the 'Remember playback position' and 'Skip when shuffling,' and I use the Equalizer Preset pulldown to choose 'Spoken Word.' When I hit OK, this disc ends up in the Books section of iTunes.
Now, when you Sync your iPod, you should find this book, as the different discs, in the Books section. I always use List view because I can see the different disc names (disc 1, etc).
I hope this helps. It's the system I've been using to do what you described. I found this tip in iPod the Portable Genius (I believe - I had borrowed it from the library when I was trying to deal with this, so I'm not 100% positive).
I wish you well. Let me know if this worked for you.
Rob