Who chooses the narrator for an audiobook?

[WildFlowerBees]

Referring to the latest Richard Osman book, this is the second audiobook of his that Fiona Shaw has narrated and it's really awful. Accents are terrible sometimes she does them sometimes not they don't sound like the Welsh or Liverpool they're meant to and her whispery voice just ruins the audio version for me.

The last book she narrated was also awful so who chooses the narrator, is it the author or publishers?

I'm glad I asked, thank you @Citygirlrurallife for the insight!

I listened to an audiobook with Julie Hesmondhalgh narrating, she was brilliant. I really enjoy it when the narrator is able to bring the characters to life and give you a good sense of who they are and keep you engaged. Sadly Fiona Shaw for me falls short, it's hard to differentiate between the characters, she's so breathy it's off putting but I do appreciate lots of people will enjoy her style.

There are some narrators who I find impossible to listen to . Generally they are the ones who seem to read each sentence as unrelated to the others. As if each sentence is a statement or a question. I’ve found mainly me so this. One of the best is Stephen Fry and Cathleen Mccorran who narrated Eleanor Oliphant

Worst narration ever was the woman who read ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ by Bernardine Evaristo. She mispronounced about 20% of the words and kept putting emphasis on the wrong places in sentences. It was close to unintelligible.

I could not believe she had got the job.

OP, Ann Patchett tells a lovely story of when she got Tom Hanks to narrate ‘The Dutch House,’ kind of by asking him on a whim. Meryl Streep reads her latest and I am looking forward to that!

@puppywanted they are read in bits not all at once, and the studios are small; there is no audience.

I agree that the author is not necessarily the best narrator. I have tried to listen to Richard Coles' Murder Before Evensong numerous times but his voice just doesn't have the depth and interest for me to listen for about 20 hours. By contrast, I couldn't really imagine anyone other than Michelle Obama reading her autobiography. I bought Lesley Manville reading The Moonflower Murders because I enjoyed her so much in The Magpie Murders. I've not started it yet though.

I like the Elly Griffiths Ruth Dalloway series but was very disappointed with Jane McDowell who didn't sound how I imagined Ruth at all.

I'm going to look at Citygirlrurallife's list. For me, a good narrator makes all the difference.

Being scots, my pet hate is Americans trying to use a Scots-or Irish- accent, 99% of the time terrible.

Love Robert Glenister reading Robert Galbraiths Strike books. Brilliant

Davina Porter reading the Outlander books - she has said she won't be reading the last one as she is now to old. Dreading it being bad. Kind if hoping that they get the show actors to do it.

James MacPherson and Angus King are brilliant.

Stuart McBrides books are usually brilliantly read by Steve Worsley but he did a few himself, so glad he went back to the narrator.

@Citygirlrurallife would love some recommendations please.

I'm quite new to audiobooks, but the series I have now (well, actually DD has but we all listen to) is narrated by Gemma Whelan and agree that she's really good in it.

Just be grateful, VERY grateful, that you're not in the US. I had the misfortune of borrowing The Red Queen, by Phillippa Gregory, from my local library.

It's about Margaret Beaufort, one of the feistiest women in English history.

The narrator depicted her as a simpering, 'woe is me' victim of the men in her life. I could have strangled her!!

I’m sure there’s an interview with Richard Osman at the end of the first audiobook where he says he auditioned to read it but “they” went with someone else. The accents thing drives me crazy. Either have a different voice for every part or just read it in the same voice accent.

ds is blind so listens to everything (textbooks, instructions everything) and he often opts for the robotic computer voice cause at least when it doesn’t know how to say something it does it phonetically so you stand a chance at guessing.

Not when the author chooses to narrate it themselves though presumably? There are a couple of good authors who have awful voices but narrate their own books and it stops me from downloading them. I always wonder why nobody has told them that narration isn't the job for them.

Ooh, this is fascinating @Citygirlrurallife

How many days does it take to record an 8 hour book, say? And how are the voice actors paid, flat fee or royalties?

Thank you for the new Terry Pratchetts!!!!!

LOVE John Culshaws chosen voice for Bloody Stupid Johnson

Jane McDowell has read all the Wimsey books, replacing the brilliant Ian Carmichael ones up before. Sigh.

Good username in the context of Wimsey audiobooks, SheilaFentiman 👍🏻

You can still get the BBC radio dramatisations with Ian Carmichael. There's a bumper edition with all the novels. I love them! There are so many wonderful other performances too.

I get unreasonably irritated by male readers who feel the need to shift into an ever so slightly lighter, breathier tone of voice every time A Woman is speaking. We know it's a woman. You don't have to go all breathy on us. I suppose I should just be glad they don't pitch it up much.

Oh yes male readers doing simpering voices for female characters is awful. I couldn’t get through the Simon Serailler books for that reason

I was fine with Fiona Shaw, I noticed the difference but it didn’t bother me

@maslinpan you can get all the Mr Gum books read by Andy Stanton on audible now! All of them bundled up together in The Complete Mr Gum, it's brilliant. My kids are 15 and 17 now and we still listen sometimes 😂

Maybe female readers should do crappy-man-voice for all male characters, just for a year or so, see if the industry notices how ridiculous it sounds for a woman to voice the women normally and the men in an ever so slightly gruffer, surlier, more monotonous tone. You know, so we can tell it's a man and everything.

About 4-5days

we’re usually given around 80-100 pages a day to complete

re payment it depends - in the US I and the actors are paid what they called per finished hour so an hourly rate depending how long the book is, in the U.K. we’re paid studio hours. None of this takes into account the huge amount of prep we have to do though!!! No royalties or anything - interestingly in the US actors are on a SAG contract but it works more like publishing than like entertainment

I direct a lot of authors through audible and god love them, no they shouldn’t be reading their own books but usually they get their own way!! Very few authors narrate their own fictional work though. One author who sometimes narrates his own fiction is Hari Kunzru and he’s excellent

But the process is very different depending on the publishing house, whether the actor works from their own in home studio or has an engineer, quality of editing, and (obviously I can’t stress this enough) if there’s a director in the room!

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!!

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

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.

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

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

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 😁