18 Audiobook Narrators and How they Prepare to Narrate a Book
18 Audiobook Narrators and How they Prepare to Narrate a Book
in Celebration of Audiobook Appreciation Month
Erin Bennett
First of all, I read the entire novel on my iPad. I have an annotation app which lets me make notes, highlight character's voices, write down pronunciations of unfamiliar words, etc. Jessica Strawser's writing is amazing, so I didn't want to stop! I'd get to the end of a chapter and say, "okay, it's late, but one more...." Then we recorded it in a great studio on the Westside in Los Angeles. Basically, I get to the studio, pour a cup of coffee, and off we go! It took about four days to record Not That I Could Tell.
Helen Duff
I generally just read the book, look out for any rogue accents I need to brush up on, and then hit the recording studio. It's fun to keep the preparation light so that the thrills of the narrative still translate into an energy in your voice when reading. This book record fell on my birthday and I felt deeply disturbed by the passages through which I had to give voice to a sadistic killer - my birthday dinner wasn't quite the same!
Tonya Cornelisse
There was not really any samples on Hick but for Eleanor -- I listened to every speech I could and adapted her voice to mine .... it was more of a tone and feel and mannerism then a voice match for me as are all my performances / readings in order to make authentic .... I feel it is much more important to get the feeling of where someone is coming from emotionally then it is the matching of the actual voice sound.... it is not ADR but a book!! The essence and spine of the story wins out always!!
Hick I did a bit of research into her roots and how those folks spoke and related to one another at the time. It was very important for me to never let Hick feel to buttoned-up or over- educated... and god-forbid snobbish! The feel of Hick is no bull-shit and street smarts!
January LaVoy
I prepared for the performance of LOVE AND RUIN as I do for any book, although I have to admit, I was transported by it pretty quickly. Prepping a really good book can be tricky, in that I sometimes forget that I’m supposed to be making notes and technical analysis, and I become just a civilian reading for pleasure! (Sometimes I’ll realize I’ve gone twenty or thirty pages without making a note.) In truth, I try to keep my notations to the bare minimum — I will write in phonetic pronunciations for tricky or unfamiliar words, mark where to take a breath in a particularly long sentence, perhaps underline a word here or there for emphasis if the sentence structure isn’t immediately obvious. But that’s really all I try to do. When I’m in the recording studio, I want to “put the car in drive”, so to speak, and let the text propel me forward. If I make too many notes, I run the risk of getting in my own way, and overthinking my performance.
One additional thing I did to prepare for L&R, was to try to listen to a couple of old recordings of Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway. Not so that I could imitate them, per se, but just to try and get a sense of who they were, what their cadences were like. His voice, especially, was quite different than my imaginings of him, actually. I expected some thing very gravelly and sort of aggressive, and that’s not what he sounded like to my ear at all.
Caroline Lee
To prepare for Nine Perfect Strangers, as with any talking book, I read the book and take thorough notes about the characters including accents or vocal characteristics. I looked up any words I was not sure how to pronounce. I find place names and names of people can be tricky, so sometimes I ring a tourist office in the region to find out how a place name is correctly pronounced, and for people, sometimes I need to contact the author or a library. For Nine Perfect Strangers I checked with Liane Moriarty about the pronunciation of Masha (Marsha or Masha like cat) Frances, and Tranquillum. I recorded a Russian actor friend saying the Russian words in the text, and used her accent as the basis of Masha’s accent. I used IDEA (accent archive) to research Yao’s mother’s accent, and practiced the accents before recording began. Occasionally, if the accent is extensively used throughout the text, I will get some coaching, for example, the Cornish accent in Kate Morton’s book The Forgotten Garden.
Barrie Kreinik
When I prepare to narrate a novel, there are certain steps that I always take and others that I tailor to each book’s requirements. I always highlight character dialogue in different colors, assigning each character their own color so I can tell at a glance who’s speaking. I also score difficult passages by inserting slashes where I want to take a breath or make a change in tone, pace, etc. I do these things on my iPad, in an app called iAnnotate PDF. I generally only have time to read the book once before I begin recording, so I do all my scoring at the same time.
An Anonymous Girl has two distinct features as an audiobook: it has a first-person narrative and two points of view. Since I had to read my chapters as my character, Dr. Shields—as opposed to using a neutral ‘narrator voice,’ as I would in a third-person narrative—I developed a distinct voice for her and practiced switching between that voice and the voices of other characters. I then corresponded with my co-narrator, Julia Whelan, via email. We traded audio samples of our characters’ voices so that our respective readings of them would sound similar. It was also important for me not only to read my assigned chapters, but Julia’s as well, in order to understand how the two narratives fit together. I really enjoy those little collaborations that happen when I share an audiobook with another narrator.
Julia Whelan
I always start with reading the book and creating a list of characters, noting any vocal attributes the author(s) give them. In this case, Barrie and I exchanged notes and character samples before we recorded so we knew we were both on the same page. I'd narrated Greer and Sarah's first book, The Wife Between Us, and it was so much fun to have a partner for this second audiobook.
Therese Plummer
I read the book through and got to know my characters and the story before ever saying a word in the studio. I submitted a word list for proper word pronunciations and accents to be familiar with. The characters felt like friends by the time we were ready to record. Such a beautiful, amazing and inspiring story.
Emily Zeller
First, always, is to read the text and know the genre. While THE BRIDE TEST is definitely a romance, it has a number of elements in it that made it feel a little different and so I chose a performance style that is more understated than you often find in romance. Both main characters have very deep private lives and thoughts and that is compounded by their lives as immigrants/in immigrant communities. THE BRIDE TEST felt as much a book about Vietnamese diaspora as it did a romance with a love interest who is autistic, so I wanted to honor that. I also reached out to the author and a family friend who speaks Vietnamese. I am not a Vietnamese speaker, but I do know that pronunciations between Northern and Southern Vietnamese vary quite a bit and I wanted to be sure I was getting it right.
Dara Rosenberg
For the Wicked Redhead I had the luck of working with the amazing Julie McKay again! Since this was a continuation of Beatriz Williams' first book, The Wicked City, prep was actually a lot easier than it is for most books. I was continuing the journey that my character Geneva " Gin" Kelly was taking us on. The first thing I did was read the book to see everything that happened next and create my idea for voices for all the new characters that we meet. I also went back and listened to a lot of The Wicked City to make sure my interpretation of Gin was consistent with this next book. It was a pleasure to continue this narration!
Maite Jáuregui
First of all I read the book to understand the tone of the whole story and what those characters are like from beginning to end. There are many different characters in this story and some of them have different nationalities & speak with very different accents (and even languages!) so I first created a different voice for each one of them and recorded it on my phone so that I could go back to it whenever needed. I then discussed these with the wonderful Audiobook director, Ali Muirden, and once we were clear about that, we got started!
The Fountains of Silence is actually my first ever Audiobook! I've been working in the voice over industry for over 5 years and have 250+ credits doing commercial, corporate, documentary, video game & animation but I had never done an audiobook until this one came along and I'm very grateful for it. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun as well!
Erin Mallon
Almost Just Friends is the third book I've been lucky enough to narrate for Jill Shalvis. Jill has the wonderful ability to capture such deep and specific family dynamics. The families she writes may not be at all like the family you grew up in, but she somehow manages to make you feel like you are part of them. So my job to prepare was a delight! I read the book and took notes on how she describes the characters' personalities, their voices and what they want most. I make a few decisions about where to pitch their voices, but after that I go into the booth and take the ride and try to live the story out moment by moment.
Ella Turenne
There was quite a bit of prep needed for this book because there were so many characters - somewhere above 30! For any text, I usually go through it and write notes - write out phonetically words that are tricky or underline things I want to emphasize. If there are places where a character is not indicated I might note who is speaking. I had the great fortune to be able to speak with the author, Therese Anne Fowler, to get a sense of what each character was like. Then after reading the book, I tested out various voices for each based on feedback from my audition. We wanted to make sure they had distinct voices even if they were subtle. When it came time to perform, my amazing producer, Callum Pews, put together a list of the characters and we worked through all of them until we felt we were satisfied with the voices. On the narration end, it was very helpful to note from the author that the text was from the point of view of the neighborhood - a kind of Greek chorus. I loved that choice...it felt like the community was so invested in the story. I approached the narration with that mindset. I had such a great time narrating this book. I was able to put all the skills I’ve gained over the years to good use!
Greta Jung
I always read the book once to understand the tone of the book, and to also note any words that I don't know how to pronounce. Then, I skim through it again to flesh out character voices, and notate where the narration needs to be more dramatic. With books that have been translated, sometimes it can be a lot of work trying to figure out what certain words are and how to pronounce them because translations aren't always accurate. Not because the translators aren't doing a good job, but because there are sounds other languages have that aren't in the english language, if that makes sense. However, the translator, Yewon Jung, did such a phenomenal job translating this book, I had no trouble figuring out what certain words were and it was a very smooth process for me.
Marisa Calin
I love to find the naturalism in prose if the style lends itself to that, especially if it’s a book told in the first person. I want the listener to hear the character thinking and discovering along with them. My favorite narratives tend to be streams of consciousness, so I start by getting a sense of the voice of the book, and look for the features in the text that have those naturalistic rhythms - new thoughts, realizations, observations. To me, the narrative can have as much discovery as the dialogue. Using pace, volume and cadence is a big part of interpreting the author’s intent in their word choices. I make few notes in the text, but with one detailed pre-read, I try to memorize the beats so that I always know what’s coming next and can shape the arc of the story.
I highlight every character’s dialogue with a different color to know at a glance who’s talking. We’re trying to live every character, so each scene is a vector of voices and personalities to keep track of as we keep the impetus of the scene moving forward.
Finally, I take a total emersion approach to a book. That was less needful with Who Rescued Who, which isn’t so far from my own world, but most of my books involve a lot of dialects so I surround myself with those, and with influences that contribute to the vibe of the book. I watch documentaries and films with a similar setting every night throughout recording and infuse my mind with tonally similar timeframes and settings as much as possible.
Karen Cass
I love Jenny Colgan’s writing and was chuffed to be asked to record “Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend”. After first reading it through and making a list of all the characters, noting any particular voice or personality traits for each as indicated by Jenny, I went on to focus on Sophie because as the book is narrated from her perspective it’s important to maintain the feel of her all the way through and make her relatable. Not that easy to begin with as she behaves in such a spoilt way! I then moved on to finding voices for her friends (some of whom are deliciously well written!) and the boys whose flat she ends up sharing. It was great fun voicing the glamour model characters and Julian the fashion photographer too! I get a very strong visual image of each character as I am recording - they come to life in my mind as I read and my hope is that the voices I create bring similar pictures into the listener’s imagination too. It’s a bit of a morality tale and Sophie’s journey, although sad in many ways, follows an enlightened path, and her character grows in depth and stature as the story progresses. It was a very satisfying book to work on.
Kimberly Farr
I had a great time preparing to record this title! As I always do on any project, I read the book through carefully, noting any description the author provided for the characters, setting, time period, and so forth, and made notes about possible voices I might want to use. But then, because so many of the characters are actual human beings (and famous, to boot) I had the enormous fun of watching video footage on all of them and getting ideas about how to suggest their real voices. The producer, director, and I decided that trying to imitate the real folks was not ideal. It seemed that we would have more success by reminding the listener of those characters’ energies and cadences, rather than trying to impersonate them, per se. So I got to delve into all sorts of fascinating Old Hollywood lore and revisit some pretty great film performances.
Dorothy Dillingham Blue
I grew up the daughter of a doctor in Columbia, SC and worked in his office for many years, so the unique personalities encountered in the clinic setting were easily accessible. For the special relationship between Georgia & Jonah, I referred to a brother/sister pair from my hometown. I’ve know them FOREVER and their banter was so helpful in establishing the kidding and caring nature necessary for this portrayal.
