Who chooses the narrator for an audiobook?

😊

They’ve been produced by Tantor Audio who don’t use directors…..

part of my job is being absolutely diligent in making sure all pronunciations are correct. It’s funny though how many words it turns out I’ve been mispronouncing all my life myself!!

So now if all you audiobook lovers could please help the industry by only buying and borrowing books narrated by real actors that would be amazing

Because what Apple and others are trying to do is really shit
https://www.techspot.com/news/100211-project-gutenberg-releases-5000-free-audiobooks-using-neural.html

I’ve been listening to Faith Martin books narrated by Gemma Dawson and she keeps mispronouncing words. I see from the reviews that readers are complaining about it

digital audiobooks have made such a huge difference to my life. I always loved reading and I find it impossible to fit reading physical books around work and small children, but I manage to get through about one book a week with snatches here and there and a few commutes - it keeps me in touch with the book-lover inside me and I hugely value the work that goes into them - thank you!

The nice thing is audiobooks are growing so quickly that sometimes authors actually think about that side of their book being published!

I do think in the decade I’ve been working in the industry it has improved exponentially on every level and I love it when people enjoy the work we do. And it’s not a bad job being paid for listening to someone read you a book 😉

Oh I remember that thread. He made a lot of friends/potential fans there.

I love Timothy West too (he reads most of the Anthony Trollopes I think)

Re rivers of London series that is

I absolutely get how hard audiobook narration must be. The one that always comes up is Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and how the author now puts obscure accents in new books in the series to test him (and the production team I guess!)

How funny , I listened to the sample narration of a JD Kirk book in audible, and decided not to download it because I couldn’t stand the narration. It’s a shame because I’d been following a thread about JD Kirk which he then came onto and he seemed to be very likeable

Such an interesting thread. To add to the recommendations, The Stranger Times series by C. K. McDonnell are read by Brendan McDonald and he's completely fabulous, absolutely makes the books.

So glad you started this thread OP! Sometimes I can't concentrate on an audiobook as I'm thinking about how the recording takes place and how difficult it must be! Thanks for the inside info @Citygirlrurallife.
One of my favourite narrators was Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with her narration of Americanah. She was amazing.

Great thread. Can I just say Angus King narrating the JD Kirk books and Shuggie Bain is excellent

Fair enough Any audiobook I narrated, people would have to be happy to assume that every character was vaguely industrial-northern and permanently mildly pissed off, unfortunately (I never realised about that second part until DP bought Alexa devices, and I had to hear my own unintentionally impatient/frustrated-sounding announcements repeated at me several times a day).

I think Sarah Winman who wrote Still Life is also an actress so her narration of her own book was superb.

Yeah fair enough the actual authors aren’t professional! I’ve been shocked when working with authors who are public speakers reading a non fictional book in their subject or a memoir and it sounds terrible, they need a LOT of coaching bless them

I’m sure I’ve had audiobooks where the author was narrating. I think Wilding was one and another about Trees by a ?Canadian author -monotonous to listen to, they don’t have the range of an actor.

Oh I was totally agreeing with you!! Side bar about how difficult it was wasn’t in response to you liking or not liking it

its def part of my job to help the actor make it not shit by trying to impersonate someone their voice just isn’t suited to

Sure @Citygirlrurallife, but I'm talking about every time, the same way every time, with every woman character, because that's how women speak, because they're women. Slightly breathy, slightly light, little bit of singsong. All women. Otherwise we might get confused 😒

And no, I'm not going to try narrating anything, with any number of characters 😅 I'm sure it's very difficult, even more sure that I couldn't do it, and absolutely certain that I'm still allowed to dislike how some professionals do it 😁

Yup. Theatre director then started doing audiobooks on the side when I moved to a theatre backwater, started making short films and moving into tv then the pandemic etc etc so now mostly direct voices. Penguin is especially keen to get directors who have actual directing experience of actors

How did you get into it @Citygirlrurallife? Were you/are you a stage director first?

Is it possible to hire Simon Vance to follow me round and narrate my life? I could listen to him all day. Also love Juliet Stevenson.

I listen to around 250 audiobooks a year and the narrator really makes or breaks it.

Lol no and it’s very boring to watch!!

Absolutely, they do need to shift tone but unless the text specifically says something about the character of the voice I always err on the actor being as subtle as possible. The experience for a listener should be akin to that of a reader, lots of room for your own imagination.

having said that try narrating a YA novel with 15 characters all of the same age and gender and trying to differentiate long conversations with barely any narration in the middle.

it’s a really, really tough job on the narrator in general. I do laugh a bit when people say they’d love to narrate an audiobook - it’s 8hours in a dark sound proof booth reading constantly, having to perform subtle tiny nuances, concentrating while reading off an iPad that has all your notes covering half of the words, saying every single word exactly as written (we have to go back if even they substitute a for the for example), sometimes switching between accents, making sure your voice isn’t too dry or wet, no mouth noises, pops or plosives and if you’re in your own studio listening for outside noises and making sure your levels stay steady. Then taking good care of your voice so it doesn’t sound different when you pick up recordings the next day - so no drinking, smoking, caffeine, late nights, Kareoke etc etc

i think they’re more like athletes than actors to be honest!!