Who chooses the narrator for an audiobook?

I cannot believe no-one has yet mentioned The Gilgamesh experiment (John Finnemore) 😁

I can't remember what the book was, but one that annoyed me was the narrator pronouncing La Jolla as if it is English - like Jolly

I think I was finding the book boring anyhow, so was probably nitpicking more than usual 😀

"Reply" is a dastardly trick; all it does is take you to the "add post" box.

Assuming you're on the mobile site, you need to click on the three dots at the top right of the person's post and click "quote".

I’m pleased someone has started this thread and I knew before opening exactly what would have prompted it. Fiona Shaw’s scouse accent is truly truly woeful and really dampens my enjoyment of the whole thing. The reason she took over from LM - who I thought did a fabulous job was LM was too busy to fit number 3 in. Disappointed they didn’t go back to her for 4 though. I’ll still listen but I will continue to seethe each time a ‘scouse’ accent is murdered.

What I have found annoying recently is when different narrators are used for books in a series, and consequently some characters sound completely different from one book to next.
This was recently the case when I was listening to the Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley. The character of CeCe came across sometimes as very annoying, and other times as quite pleasant! It was a bit confusing!

You need to keep going with it! That was in reply to the post saying they couldn’t get on with Angus King.

my reply doesn’t work

I find it really annoying too, cheap publishers cutting corners and not paying for directors 😉 I have worked with engineers who will query if they think something has been mispronounced but it’s not their job to do it and they have other stuff they’re supposed to be keeping an eye on

I used to get more annoyed about typos in written text but have had loads of instances where both actor and I only discover a typo when reading aloud, despite a book having gone through multiple editors and then an audio producer and then both myself and the actor reading it before recording!!

I love podcasts, but as soon as the person starts talking, I know if I can listen to it or not. Some have the gift, some don’t. It’s your own personal preference

I find it really annoying too, cheap publishers cutting corners and not paying for directors 😉 I have worked with engineers who will query if they think something has been mispronounced but it’s not their job to do it and they have other stuff they’re supposed to be keeping an eye on

I used to get more annoyed about typos in written text but have had loads of instances where both actor and I only discover a typo when reading aloud, despite a book having gone through multiple editors and then an audio producer and then both myself and the actor reading it before recording!!

Iirc in the Strike books they cocked up by accidentally changing Ilsa to Isla in one of the book recordings. I have a feeling they corrected it

My Mum uses a lot of RNIB Talking Books and she is full of praise for the readers, they have e consistently high standards.

Danielle Vitalis is perfection as a narrator. Also really enjoy Adjoa Andoh and Angus King.

Very interesting thread, thanks @WildFlowerBees and @Citygirlrurallife

Names, though — names are tricky. I've never quite got over the first Harry Potter film coming out, and discovering it wasn't pronounced "Haygrid" 🥲

Also annoying when there's mispronunciation and I've often wondered why there isn't someone present to stop them and ask them to do it again.

I feel much the same way about spelling errors in properly-published (written-word, obviously) books. These days they must use spell-check like everyone else, but that doesn't stop things like "chronical" for "chronicle", which turned up half an hour ago in a library ebook I'm reading. To be clear, I don't give a crap about people's spelling in a text message or a birthday card or a MN post, as long as I can reasonably easily tell what they mean. But in a properly edited, professionally published novel, I feel I should be able to almost forget I'm reading at all, which I generally can, if it's in a version of standard English I'm familiar with.

Errors jolt me right out of that smooth, cognitively-automatic information flow state, reminding me that it's all being mediated by letters printed on a page, written and typeset and copyedited by ordinary, fallible humans. Same with a mispronunciation — it suddenly reminds me I'm listening to an ordinary, fallible human, just reading a book out loud.

For the sake of my pleasure, is perfection really too much to ask?!

Interesting thread! I listen to quite a lot of audiobooks, generally thrillers, and I am very fussy when it comes to the narrator. I dislike ones that try to add suspense to every sentence or female narrators who are very breathy.

Also annoying when there's mispronunciation and I've often wondered why there isn't someone present to stop them and ask them to do it again.

@HangingByYourFingernails Do you remember the thread with JD Kirk? I love his books! Also like Angus King narration - I think on some of the books it states 'performed by Angus King' which I think is accurate. More of a performance than a narration. He also does some of the Chris Brookymyre ones and I think he's great.

I absolutely love Stephen Fry as a narrator especially the Harry Potter books. I’ve given up on so many books because the voice jars and just sounds wrong. Some American accents are ok and some are really hard to get on with. I used to love detective novels like Dalziel and Pascoe but there are two narrators and one of them just sends me to sleep.

Yes that’s the producer’s job though sometimes an author might have a different idea

It’s not a job for anyone with claustrophobia is it

Here it is - I found it really interesting!

Art Malik reading The Beekeeper of Aleppo is one that sticks with me. Judged to perfection.

There's a video on YouTube showing the full process of narrating an audio book. She talks about the hours of prep work as well as the recording and editing processes. It sounds absolutely gruelling!

@Citygirlrurallife do you try and match gender of reader and protagonist? This seems v logical to me and is another reason I don’t like Jane McDowell reading Wimsey

I've bought a couple of Neil Gaiman books on Audible. He reads them himself and although I love his books, I cannot take to his narration/voice.

I started listening to Game of Thrones audio book, but the narrator...
Pronouncing names wrong (as in, one minute it's CATlyn, next it's CAITlyn) accents changing as he goes back to a character, Tyrion sounds welsh by the end 😂

I get it's a hard book with a lot of characters but still. Suppose I'm comparing it to the TV show and I assume the show wasn't out when the audio book was recorded, he pronounces Petyr Baelish as Pea-tyre

I love Michael Palin and Natalie Haynes reading their own books, but they are professional presenters as well. Also good is any actor involved in the adaptation eg Derek Jacobi and Cadfael, as they have already lived with the character.