How to Compliment an Audiobook Narrator

I had a long walk and then lunch with a new friend today. She recently listened to one of my audiobooks, The Remains in The Rectory, for the first time.

I’ll paraphrase slightly, because I can’t remember her verbatim words, and I didn’t stop dipping my grilled turkey and cheddar sandwich in my tomato basil soup to write them down:

As I was listening, I couldn’t help wondering: Do you record all the lines for one character, back to back, and then go back and record all the lines for another character, and then edit them together…Or do you record them all in order, the way they were written? I re-listened and I just can’t figure it out. The voices are so different, but they seem so consistent. I just couldn’t imagine you going back and forth, and changing the voices so quickly. And all the British accents were so different…How do you do that?

I felt my biggest smile warming my face as I nodded, and nibbled, and she described her listening experience across the table.

“That is one of the nicest compliments you could give me,” I said. “The fact that you even wonder how I do that means I’m doing a good job. The short answer is ‘no.’ I read the books as they’re written. Occasionally I mess up, and I have to go back and fix something that isn’t good enough, but other than that, I read it out loud, doing the character voices, exactly the way you would. Except in a closet. With a microphone. And a lot of notes.”

I proceeded to explain to her a little bit about preparing to record; a little bit about editing; a bit more about finding the voices for characters. It takes a big list of skills and knowledge and most of all practice to voice an audiobook.

Not practicing reading the actual book. I only read the book aloud one time. It is study and practice to know what needs to be done to be ready to make the voices flow seamlessly. To make the “magic” invisible.

I found out later that this new friend’s career was developing material for television…so it was an even BIGGER compliment since she already knew about how all the possible magic tricks are done.

It’s been a journey of several years to get to this point, and I don’t mind saying I’m damn proud of every conversation I get to have like this.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for enjoying my “magic.”