Do you like to listen to audio books? I have become a fan of them both as a writer and a listener.
I just finished the second book in Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s , Thora Gudmundsdottir series. They are classified as suspense, but I really enjoyed the humor that makes the suspense/ supernatural undertones not so real. LOL I know, I’m a wimp when it comes to scary. But I have to say the first two books in the series were really good.
I think what made them so good was the narrator. I loved her pauses and attitude when narrating. She had the right amount of “drama” for lack of a better word to make the books really come to life.
That’s what I’m hoping to find on my quest for a narrator for my Gabriel Hawke books.
I have been making audio books with the talented Ann M. Thompson. You can find the first 9 books in the Shandra Higheagle Mysteries in audio book.
I’ve requested auditions from two male narrators to begin putting the Gabriel Hawke novels into audio. This will probably be harder to find a narrator than the Shandra books were.
Ann had the warm tone I envisioned as Shandra’s, but of all the men who were suggested from my description of what I wanted for Hawke’s voice, there were only two who seemed close to what I was looking for. I’m interested in hearing their auditions of the first chapter of Murder of Ravens to see if they capture how I see him and the tone of the books.
Making an audio book isn’t hard, but it is stressful and time consuming. Stressful in hoping you pick the best representative of your book to narrate it and at a price you can afford.
Time consuming is going through the book to make sure it will read well, then picking out words that the narrator may need guidance with pronunciation. Then it’s listening to the chapters as the narrator sends them to you and making sure your book is well represented without you driving the narrator nuts with changes. But you are paying them and they should be willing to work with you to make your book its best.
Do you enjoy listening to books on tape? What makes a good audio book for you? Narrator or how well the characters are portrayed?
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Ladies of Mystery 
HI, I’m glad you enjoyed Murder of Ravens. I hope you find the Shandra books enjoyable to listen to. Thanks for commenting!
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I love listening to books and have had an annual membership with Audible for years.
I loved “ravens” and can’t wait to hear it read.
Character portrayal is important, but the most important for me is the reading. It is an AUDIO version after all. Annoying sounds, pauses, breaths, OVERLY dramatic impressions will keep me from buying the book. There is one male reader that I find so unlistenable that I will NEVER buy or rent one narrated by him.
Eager to try your Shandra books!
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I listen to audiobooks from the library on long drives. I’m not too hard to please with narrators, unless they do poor job of creating distinctive voices for the characters. Because I’m less absorbed than when I’m reading, I tend to study the plotting and pacing and the techniques authors use for making transitions more with audio. Overused words really jump out when I hear the narrator say them, which is one reason I’ve started reading my WIP aloud as one of my revision tools
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Amber, It was the repetition of words that I noticed right off in the first couple of books in the Shandra series that had me going back through the books before I had them put in audio. Now I am very cognizant of not repeating words as I write.
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