Recording audio books

I’m an avid user of audio books. 

Before I signed up I never seemed to have the time to read properly, or I’d fall asleep if I tried. 

Now, I get through books at a respectable rate and my digest of fiction, in particular, has improved significantly.

I know some don’t consider it to be proper reading, but I found it transformative. And it is a growing market.

Which raised an obvious question. Why were none of my own novels available as audio books?

Well, now they are – all four of them.

The first question was who to narrate it? I’m not an actor, but it seemed obvious I should do it myself. I’m probably recognised as much by my voice as I am by my face, even more so in a time when we’ve all been wearing masks.

I read out loud for a living and I thought it would be easily transferrable to narrating books.

Not so.

First of all, announcing the news requires an authoritative tone with some light and shade, depending on the story.

Narration requires a whole different audio spectrum.  All the emotions from laughing to crying, raucous to raging. It has to be a generally softer tone.

Accents.  My range starts at ham American and pretty much ends there as well. So, accents were out, except for a couple of characters.

Stamina. My live broadcasting is usually for around an hour a day with some recordings in between. It’s not a huge strain on my voice. Two hours into reading ‘The Road Dance’ I was beginning to think I wouldn’t be able to finish.  Hot tea and water were invaluable.

Drama.  There are some scenes that require more than just narration.  That’s when I had to delve deep, but I’m not sure my happy experiences of Penilee School musicals really provided me with the depth I required.

There is one scene of childbirth in ‘The Road Dance’. Sound engineer Cy and I never spoke about it at the time, nor since.

You may wish to avoid chapter seven.

Download.  Enjoy.  And let me know what you think.