An Audie Award (or Audie), bestowed annually in the United States, recognizes outstanding audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment. The Audies have been granted by the Audio Publishers Association, the not-for-profit trade organization of the audiobook industry, since 1996. The nominees are announced each year in February, and the winners are announced at a gala banquet held in May, usually when the BookExpo America fair is happening. The Audies are sometimes promoted as "the Oscars of the audiobook industry" and serve as a way to promote audiobooks.