Audiobooks discussion

Hi, Not sure if this is the right place for this post, but as a newbie to the group I thought it might be interesting for any authors considering an audio version of their books to read about my own experience and thoughts.

The link below is to an article which goes through my thought processes and what I was looking for during the production of a recent audiobook. I learnt a great deal and most importantly why I've come to regard audiobooks not as simply 'read aloud' versions of a story but important performance arts in their own right. if you'd like to know why then the article may be of interest and, by the way, I'm not a narrator.

https://www.bluescalepublishing.co.uk...

Hello Paul,

Having produced 2 audiobooks myself I found your article extremely good. You have clearly and succinctly covered what an author would need to consider and I really like the way you incorporated Colleen's expertise and advice into the overall information. I particularly noticed how you decided to allow your narrator freedom to interpret for herself. I did this and the result was unexpectedly wonderful.
I would like to share this valuable post with other authors on Twitter if I may?

Hi, thanks for your comments. Please feel free to share. I feel lucky to have the benefit of Colleen’s experiences and talent and hope to encourage authors to see narration as a proper skill. Best wishes, Paul

Jim Lowe

I have just published a blog on audiobook's, funnily enough, it's from an author's perspective! I examine current developments and have a playful look into the near future.
https://jimlowewriting.com/

A very useful perspective Jim - thanks for sharing these thoughts.

It seems to me that Fry's voice cannot be forgotten or changed. He is a great speaker and book lover.

Paul wrote: "Hi, Not sure if this is the right place for this post, but as a newbie to the group I thought it might be interesting for any authors considering an audio version of their books to read about my ow..."

Hi Paul, I read your article on working with a narrator and discovering what making an audiobook was all about. I agree it's easy to think you just need someone with a nice voice to read the book aloud. But indeed there are tons of other considerations and questions that will arise.

I am an author who also narrated his first audiobook novel. It was a daunting task but very rewarding. I also hired a good tech guy to make sure the levels were good for ACX. One bonus of narrating my own book, it allowed to to re-experience my novel emotionally and in terms of the arcs of characters. It also helped me catch typos I hadn't caught before. I too believed in my book and wanted to find new ways to give the book life and larger audiences. Am in the process of marketing now. www.dwightokita.com

Jim wrote: "Jim Lowe

I have just published a blog on audiobook's, funnily enough, it's from an author's perspective! I examine current developments and have a playful look into the near future..."

Hi Jim, I took a listen to one of your audiobooks. Nice voice. We Americans are often impressed by British accents. But that aside, there is an authority to your voice. I also narrated one of my novels which is also sci-fi like yours.

Dwight wrote: "Jim wrote: "Jim Lowe

I have just published a blog on audiobook's, funnily enough, it's from an author's perspective! I examine current developments and have a playful look into the..." Thank you, Dwight, your kind feedback is very much appreciated! I hope your audiobook, The Hope Store is a success - I know how much work it takes to get a book to Audible. I will check it out myself as a fellow Indie audiobook producer (assumed because it was self-narrated). I'm working on my next quartet of books which will be much deeper into the Sci-fi genre, but that will take a year of writing and then another 6 months of recording - it's just as well that I enjoy all parts of the process. Good luck with all your creative works! :-)

Thanks, Jim. It's fun to network with other authors who are exploring the audio world. Yes, I'm a proud Indie based in Chicago. It would be good to keep in touch. A quartet of books sounds like a full plate!

For my next project, I want to finalize or expand my reincarnation novella Before I Disappear. I'm tempted to want to write a memoir as I've been listening to audio memoirs -- James Taylor, Tanahesi Coates, Ocean Vuong. [Another excellect speculative audiobook is The Age of Miracles by Karen Walker.] I'm a slow writer. Takes me about 5 years to write a novel (that's what it took while doing a full time job; I'm recently retired now). So I'm looking into pitching personal essays/articles for national magazines. Wonder how many of us will write a pandemic novel or memoir.

Paul wrote: "Hi, Not sure if this is the right place for this post, but as a newbie to the group I thought it might be interesting for any authors considering an audio version of their books to read about my ow..."

Albert Cory here.
hi Paul, I have one book out ("Inventing the Future") and a second that's done but not out yet. I got a hugely negative reaction from my mailing list on serializing it, but now I'm thinking of putting out the whole book as text, but serializing the audio, one chapter per week. The hypothesis is, some people just want it as audio, and they don't read (much).

I would narrate it myself, rather than paying someone. I've been told that my voice is not irritating, at least. I'm sure there are better narrators, but "narrated by the author" is a selling point. Or so I hope.

Since I have a lot of dialog, I'm concerned now with voicing the dialog so that the characters are clear. What books do you think are the best at that?

Albert wrote: "I'm sure there are better narrators, but "narrated by the author" is a selling point. Or so I hope.."

Actually, most of the audiophiles I know (including myself) are very skeptical of books narrated by their authors (with the exception of autobiographies). There are a few authors who can pull it off well -- see for example Neil Gaiman -- but most of the time, seeing "narrated by the author" mostly signifies a bargain-basement production of poor quality and little appeal.

That's interesting, but how much of that is a function of its being a current book, as opposed to an older classic where the author is dead?

Here is a counter-example, from my point of view anyway:

https://audiobookstore.com/audiobooks...

Albert wrote: "That's interesting, but how much of that is a function of its being a current book, as opposed to an older classic where the author is dead?

Here is a counter-example, from my point of view anyway..."

It doesn't have anything to do with the age of the book -- but you're right in that I should have added an exception for nonfiction books as well as the autobiographies. Many audio listeners still look on self-narrated nonfiction with skepticism, but it is at least less of an issue there than with fiction. Fiction is much more demanding in terms of characters, accents, dramatic delivery, and so on.

Aside from the money: I would worry that a professional narrator would not "get" my characters. How much time are they going to give me when I'm still not satisfied with how they read a line after the 5th take?

I've done some community theater, and I know that the director often has to work with the actor almost word by word to get it the way he wants it (and of course that may not be the way the playwright would want it).

As for the age of the book: that would only matter if it's a new book destined to be forgotten, whereas an old book has at least survived to the present day.

Albert wrote: "Aside from the money: I would worry that a professional narrator would not "get" my characters. How much time are they going to give me when I'm still not satisfied with how they read a line after ..."

That's always going to be a risk -- but that's why you audition narrators as much as you are able to.

And hey -- if you've done theater, give it a try. Narrate a section of the book and send it around to people who aren't your friends and family. See what they think. You may have a talent for it!

Resolution: I hired a professional voice actor (Maxwell Glick), and my audiobook ("Inventing the Future") is up on Amazon. He's much better than I would have been.

I am in agony right now, trying to choose the right voices for my audiobooks in Serbian and English!

For the Serbian version, I hired a company. They sent me a demo that wasn’t bad, and I approved it. But later, they recorded the entire book — and I don’t like it!
My book is a memoir, very emotional, but the actress adds her own emotions in all the wrong places — and they just feel wrong. I don’t know what to do.
I already paid something in advance and approved the demo, so it feels unfair to back out now — but I honestly don’t like the final result.

I’m thinking of proposing to the company that I try to narrate it myself, and hire someone to coach me a bit with my voice maybe.
What do you think of that idea?

As for the English version — I first found a voice I liked on Bodalgo, but she was too expensive. So, I turned to Freelancer.com.
One man produced a very nice demo, and I hired him, but with following records I realised that he was using AI for that voice!
Luckily, I wasn’t happy with the quality, so I cancelled the cooperation and instead hired the more expensive, native American narrator.

Now I’m happy I did that — I later found out that all platforms only accept audiobooks made with their own AI, so I would’ve been limited even if the freelancer’s version had been good.

But now I’m scared the same thing will happen with the English version as with the Serbian one — that I won’t feel emotionally connected to the narration.

Please, give me your advice.
How do I deal with this? Any experience will be valuable!

And one more thing. I noticed that when you hire a narrator for your book, some of them just read it normally, and some turn it into a big theatre performance, trying to really act. I hate it! I prefer normal reading.
Is my expectation OK? Am I going against the industry standard? Does everyone think it’s OK to impose the narrator’s feelings instead of letting the listener decide how they want to feel themselves?
How should I react to this? Can I say I want someone just to read it normally?
My Serbian voice is turning my book into a big theatre performance — and I hate it!

When I listen to normal reading, I feel something, but when I listen to someone trying to make a theatre of it, I feel anger towards the actor, and it disturbs me from connecting to the book! What are your thoughts and experiences on that? Maybe others don't feel that, and I shouldn't express it — or should I? I am not sure how to react.

HELP

Thank you!
I read through audiobooks a lot so this helps :)