Managing Audiobooks

 In addition to my own audiobooks, I have also managed them for several of my clients. They are time-consuming but fun to work on. It is different to hear your words spoken by others. As an author, I often see something unexpected when someone else interprets my stories.

My first venture into the world of audiobooks was Ghost Writer back in 2015. I was fortunate to get a very good producer off the bat. The producer is the narrator of the book. This is NOT just a reader. The person had to have the right tone and be able to act out the story using only her voice. Jean’s audition sounded perfect. We have since worked together on three other books, and I am currently working with her on another. She has agreed to produce the last three of the romance anthologies.

The next audiobook was The Memory Keeper. We actually started this project in 2014 before Ghost Writer and had several people audition for it. The person we chose was a teacher born in Wisconsin who lived in the south. However, we wanted the story told by someone who had a slight Spanish accent. This was also a challenge because we had several Native American (Acjachemen) words. Aaron worked very hard to get them just right. The effort was worth it because we ended up with a terrific audiobook as a result. This one took quite a while to complete.

Aaron went on to record Larry’s short story collection, Lakeview Park, as well as the first two books in his sci-fi series, The McGregor Chronicles.

Our memoir, 31 Months in Japan: The Building of a Theme Park, proved to be a major challenge. It contains Japanese words, and we really wanted two people to produce it. I had worked with a couple on the terrific recording of our friends Leonard and Luanna Rugh’s book, Promises Kept: How One Couple’s Love Survived Vietnam. (They were technologically challenged, so I took care of the production process for them.) We waited for the producers to complete the Rugh’s book before they started on ours.

When they were about thirteen chapters in, I suddenly had no contact from them. They did not answer emails and wouldn’t respond to messages on Facebook. After a year, we gave up and cancelled their contract. (I still don’t know what happened, but the guy got a divorce, and his subsequent posts on Facebook were a bit strange.)

We tried putting the book back out for audition with little success. The couple of people who auditioned could not pronounce the Japanese words correctly. Finally, we found Andrew. He had lived in Japan for a year and aced the language. After a long wait, this one was finished in 2018, and we are pleased with the result.

In the meantime, I had edited an anthology of short stories set in Hawaii called Passion, Paradise, Murder. I worked with a wonderful producer on that audiobook. So, when it came time to turn our mysteries into audiobooks, I turned to him.

Since he lives on Maui, Paul knows how to pronounce all the Hawaiian words. He recorded Murder…They Wrote and Murder in Paradise, and we are delighted with them.

By the time we were ready to record The McGregor Chronicles: Book 3 – Alien Invasion, Aaron was no longer available. So, we hunted for another producer. We found one we liked very much. He did about nine chapters, then we didn’t hear from him for quite a while. When we did, he wrote that he had been in a serious auto accident and could no longer manage the recording. We were sorry for him and wished him well. So, the hunt began anew.

Finally, Dan auditioned. He was truly the answer to our prayers! He had a warm and engaging voice, and we have enjoyed working with him. Our most recent audiobook is The McGregor Chronicles: Book 4 - Kaùsan’s War.

A fun experience was working on the production of our grand-niece’s YA fantasy novel, A Wolf’s Magic. This book was published on her twelfth birthday, so we needed a young-sounding voice for it. We were lucky to get Traci, and she did a fabulous job!

 In addition, I have managed the production on several other audiobooks for my clients, and I’m currently working on two more for them.

 Audiobooks are challenging, both for the author and for the producer, but they are also very satisfying when they are finally completed after all the hard work!

 Do you listen to audiobooks? What do you look for in an audiobook?