Writers Tricks of the Trade VOLUME 10 ISSUE 1 | Page 35

P RODUCING A S UCCESSFUL A UDIO B OOK
M ORGAN S T . J AMES
The popularity of audiobooks has steadily increased. In fact six of my own books
have been produced in that format. So the question arises, what makes a good
audiobook?
I
am a great fan of audiobooks. For years
I drove between Los Angeles and Las
Vegas about once a month, and
audiobooks
were
my
constant
companion. Now I always have a few in
the car and am always on the lookout for
books that are well produced.
W HAT M AKES A G OOD A UDIOBOOK ?
Is it the content, the narration or
both? Well, a good narrator can spice up a
so-so book, and a bad one can torpedo a
good one. I was very interested in an
article I found in The Guardian - 'Your
throat hurts. Your brain hurts': the
secret life of the audiobook star’ by Tim
Dowling.
The following are some excerpts from
that article accompanied by my own
W INTER 2020
comments. To read the full article, click
on the link above.
The pairing of narrator and text is a
very specific kind of casting. “The most
fun bit of my job is getting to cast
things, and there are lots of
considerations,” says Fionnuala Barrett,
editorial director of audio at
HarperCollins. Research suggests that
for newcomers to audiobooks, the
quality of the narration is central to the
success of their first experience. “If that
is not the voice of Lizzie Bennet as far
as you’re concerned, you’ll just throw in
the towel,” Barrett says. The right
narrator, on the other hand, can lead a
listener to other authors. “There are
definitely people with a following.” She
mentions Cathleen
P AGE 30
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE