A year ago, if anyone had said that I would be a published author of an audiobook, read by me, I wouldn’t have believed them. Nah, you’re kidding. It’ll be too hard, too expensive. Paying a pro will cost a packet – 5-10$k, on top of the same or more for studio costs, and, what’s more, I couldn’t possibly read it myself.
I’ve never known anything about audiobooks, never listened to one. Nevertheless I first had the idea of an audiobook of my novel The Fossilarchy, since April 2022, soon after publishing the paperback (which I also couldn’t possibly do -see blog 1). Actually, it was Luke the Canadian partner of my niece Jessie in Vancouver who suggested it. With training in acting, he reads audiobooks professionally and did a sample. He was awesome, but I didn’t feel a North American accent was right, although the US is apparently the biggest market for audiobooks. Maybe I’d do it, sometime in the future.
Time passed and then in 2023 the audiobook idea reared its head again. Sales of the paperback and e-book were still slow in spite of promotional efforts, good reviews and the growing popularity of climate fiction. You may know that the book market is tough and a lot of otherwise potential audiences not having time to read. Maybe an audiobook would do the trick and also help with the paperback.
But I didn’t feel confident about reading it. I’m not posh, have a working class background, UK state school (although having four degrees at last count). I grew up in the west of England where many people talk like pirates, and in spite of 20 years in Australia, still have a slight English country bumpkin twang.
Then I did a few library and other talks on the book, which included reading extracts. People said the reading was good and a friend said I should read the audiobook. Guidelines on audiobooks all say it’s better if the author reads if possible – for obvious reasons of understanding, feeling, etc. I did a sample for Linda Lycett at my publishers Aurora House and she was most encouraging, inspiring actually.
AH ha adlready published some audiobooks and provided technical guidelines and specifications. I set about finding a recording studio – unless you have quiet conditions and professional equipment it’s best not done in your bedroom. As often happens in life, at least in mine, I met a bloke down the pub (my local is the Northbridge Hotel in Perth – more about beer and pubs in another blog) who works at Soundbyte Studios in Leederville. They do all sorts of recording, from music and commercials to audiobooks.
I went along and did a test. They were happy to work with me, I liked them and their facilities. and we agreed a deal and contract. An excellent young sound engineer Lachy was assigned to me and together we produced the whole book of 45 chapters.
Sitting in a booth with earphones and a mike, I read from a tablet – there’s too much page rustling with paper books or sheets – and we worked through each chapter, section by section, line by line, replaying to check for flaws, and doing retakes as necessary. Lachy was always painstaking, patient, professional and attentive to fine detail -like me, too. As a choral singer for many years I’m used to rehearsing until things are right.
It took around an hour to do each chapter, with one or two chapters per session. To keep consistency in quality, longer sessions are not recommended as the voice tires – nor possible, depending on studio and my availability ( I was combining it with working). We started in August 2023 and the last session was in January 2024.
It was a serious undertaking, but we had a lot of laughs. It took a few goes to say certain phrases like “she suggested’’ while keeping a straight face. The oft-occurring simple phrase ‘was the’ got me every time – you have the teeth together for the ‘s’ and then you quickly shove your tongue between the teeth for the ‘the’. English is tough. I always tripped over long words. If I do another novel and audiobook I’ll avoid words with more than two or three syllables. Like Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids, really.
Doing all the voices was challenging but also a source of laughs. I was determined to attempt mimicking, rather than just reading, all of the many different voices – male, female and children – and accents, from the US President and Australian politicians to ex- British and South African Special Forces and Albanian gangsters. I can only apologise if I cause anyone to wince.
I was heartened to learn that even top pros can have difficulties. The actor and writer Stephen Fry was reading Harry Potter and simply couldn’t articulate ‘he pocketed it’. Stephen finally rang JK Rowling to ask if he could say ‘he put it in his pocket’. ‘Absolutely not!’ was her reply. Under pressure and extra scrutiny from the author, he eventually nailed it.
