interview by Freya Green. Transcribed by Natasha Baldwinson.
What inspired you to work in audiobook production?
Ooh, well, I did an English Literature degree, so I feel like I’ve always really enjoyed books in general- particularly literature. And then I worked in radio for a long time. So, audiobooks were a good meeting point for my love of books and my abilities in radio production, in terms of recording something well and making sure it is all really good quality. So, it was like a mix of the two things that I’m good at.
What’s your favourite thing about audiobooks and their production?
Well, it’s particularly brilliant working with authors because they often come in and they’ve written a book that they are massively passionate about, and they want to try and get it out to as many people as possible. And when you do an audiobook, you know that the people who buy it as an audiobook probably wouldn’t buy it as a book, so you’re reaching an entirely new audience which is a nice feeling, because you’re like, “this book is going to be appreciated by double the amount of people that it would’ve been otherwise”. It feels very purposeful, I guess. So, it is partly about letting people who wouldn’t normally read themselves access the book.
There’s also, when some actors that may not have done audiobooks come in, they can often be quite nervous. They’re worrying that they’re not going to be very good at it, and as a producer, it’s just your job to put them completely at ease and help them through the whole process. Because it’s quite exposing, I think, when you’re sat there as an actor or an author and you’re reading a book with a mic right in front of you. You feel like every single mouth noise you make is going to be there, every little nuance of how you deliver a line, and so people can get a little bit anxious. I just enjoy trying to get the best performance out of people in a way that they feel comfortable and at ease.
What’s your favourite audiobook that you’ve either produced or read?
I’ve just done one, actually, which links in with accessibility. It’s just at the top of my mind, though I’ve done a lot that I really enjoyed. You know Stormzy, obviously, who is very pro- getting kids who don’t read to read; either reading books or listening to audiobooks. And so, he’s put a huge amount of money into making his own publishing imprint out of Penguin, which is called Murky Books. He’s publishing 6 books in audio form and in paper form, all being sold for £1, so it’s very accessible to people who might be put off by the £7.99, £8.99 price on a paperback book. And the audio is subsidised as well.
So, I’ve done the first audiobook of that, which is a book called Hunger Pains by Derek Owusu. He is this young, black writer, who is an amazing author, he’s written loads and loads of books, but he is particularly focused on trying to get young people who don’t normally read interested. So, the book is all about a young man who is training a lot in the gym and becoming really obsessed with his physical appearance. It’s that classic thing of getting caught in online stuff about how you should look as a young man. And, yeah, it’s kind of an amazing book.
It was very nice to do that because it felt like there’ll be some people who really wouldn’t normally think about reading, and this can be something they relate to. It has a lot to do with online pressures and how you can get caught up in that obsession about body image, and how it can impact your mental health. So, I enjoyed doing that one.
What is your favourite genre of book, personally?
What I read myself? Oh, that’s interesting. Well, I do read quite a lot of fiction but, funnily enough, I’ve got two small kids, so I am also reading quite a bit on how to stay sane as a working mother, with all the juggling that’s involved.
Is there any advice you would give to people who want to work with audiobooks in the future?
Yes. Make sure that you really enjoy reading. There’s quite a lot of people who work in audiobook production who have done it because they wanted to be music producers and they couldn’t get enough work doing that, so they end up doing audiobooks. And that kind of person doesn’t make a very good audiobook producer. I would say half of the people who are audiobook producers are very technical, they’re sound engineers, but they are not engaged with the book itself. I would say, only a third of recording an audiobook is to do with your technical audio abilities; so, once you understand how to get a good sound out of one person who’s sat at a certain distance from the mic, it’s quite easy in terms of how to record it. The main part of the job is if you’ve read the book in advance. Are you able to direct, basically. There are quite a few audiobook producers who just sit there quite passively and all they’re doing is making sure that the reader says all the words that are on the page, as opposed to trying to get a good performance out of the actor. You’re called an audiobook producer, but you really are as much a director as you are a producer. So, if you’re not interested in performance in any way- if that doesn’t excite you, this is not for you. That’s what I would say.
Have you ever produced a full-cast audiobook? Do you like the idea of them?
I think there are a lot of full-cast audiobooks being done by Audible in particular, and I know that Penguin some too. I have to say, it’s something I have avoided, because it just feels like a lot of stress, basically, but you never know. I might do it in the future, but I really enjoy working 1 on 1 with people. I do sometimes do books which are dual narrated or even narrated by three different people- but they all come in separately. So, I’ve done quite a lot of those where the book is maybe told in from two different first-person perspectives, and then you do all of the sessions with one actor, and then you do all of the sessions with the other. That has particular challenges in terms of making sure that you’re consistent in terms of how you pronounce names or terms that come up in both actor’s different segments. One person might make a character Scottish, so then the other persons got to do them as Scottish. That kind of consistency is something you’ve really got to be on top of. But I haven’t done full dramatized audiobooks. I think it’s a good listening experience, if you’re a customer and you’re listening to an audiobook, it’s quite interesting to have a book that have several different narrators’ kind of brings different perspectives on the same book.
I’m not the person to talk to about that, because I don’t really know how that works. I’ve done so many audiobooks, but this is just one element that I just think “Oooh, no no no”. For me, that’s more like doing a radio drama, which I don’t want to do.
Do you have a personal book recommendation that you’d like to share?
A brilliant book which really opened my eyes to the whole experience of a trans person, which I would recommend to anyone, actually, is called The T in LGBT and it is by a young man called Jamie Raines and his wife Shaaba Loutun-Raines. He was born a girl and at aged 16 realised that he wanted to transition and wasn’t in the right body. I would recommend it to any parent whose child is talking about this issue, in terms of just making it clear and un-frightening. He’s just very very honest about how essential it was for him to be in the right body, and he absolutely knew that he was a boy and a man and how this became possible, really. So, it has a lot to do with the psychological process and the physical and surgical process. And, how his wife has supported him through this whole process. It’s an amazing book it’s a real eye-opener. It’s very honest and very encouraging to anyone going through the process or who knows somebody who is or just doesn’t understand how it could be possible. It’s a brilliant book.
Do you yourself prefer audiobooks to physical books/eBooks?
I, funnily enough, spend most of my days listening to other people recording audiobooks. I am a reader as in: if I read, I won’t listen to audiobooks, because it’s too associated with work. I imagine, if I ever stop doing audiobooks and do something else, then I’ll probably be an avid listener. But it’s too work-related for me. I just sit there critiquing it and going, “oh, they should’ve done this” and “Oh, why did they not do that?”. And that’s not very relaxing.
What do you enjoy about the accessibility of audiobooks? Any comments about working for the Royal National Institute for Blind People?
A lot of people find it hard to carve out time to sit down and read a book, and the brilliant thing about audiobooks is that you can do it in the car, on the train, when you’re doing housework, when cycling. You know, it fits into people’s very busy lives. It’s very sad to have a situation where people aren’t reading as much anymore. I mean lots of people do read, but I think a lot of people would just say, “I haven’t got the time”. So at least with audiobooks you know you can kind of build it into your possibly very busy life. Like, I did this book called Matrescence by Lucy Jones, which has got so many lovely reviews on Audible, and it’s because it’s written about and for people looking after a tiny baby. The kind of people who need that book really will not have time to sit there and read a physical book; they’ll just be so busy. So, it’s lovely to read the reviews of the audiobook because people are describing how they listen to the book while in the park with a buggy, or in the dark when breastfeeding and feeling exhausted and alone and how these words really kept them going. I guess that’s for when people just haven’t got the luxury of sitting and reading a book, but they can still access the books that will be really beneficial to them.
The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) has got the biggest audiobook library in the world. They have all sorts of arrangements now with different publishers, so if a book is published with Penguin, it is given to the RNIB and put in their library. It’s almost like a donation to the charity. So, if you’re a member of the RNIB, not only are you able to access books that have been produced by them, but also books that are available on the commercial, but at a much lower price since it’s through the charity. You might have to check this, because I worked there 10 years, but I think you pay something like £50* and then you have the membership for the entire year which gives you access to as many books as you want. What the RNIB does is, if you really need a book in an accessible form and in an audio form, then you can ask them to record it, and they will do that. So, it’s not just commercial texts that they do, they will record a lot of books that commercial publishers wouldn’t necessarily record because they wouldn’t expect to sell many copies, whereas the RNIB will be like, “look, if it’s important for you to have this book, then we will record it for you.
Is there anything else that you wanted to say?
Audiobooks is a growing area that’s booming, and the market is increasing so it’s quite heartening that people are still really enjoying and accessing books but just perhaps in a way that works slightly better with their busy lives.
The audiobook industry is an area that’s booming, and the market is increasing, so it’s quite heartening that people are still really enjoying and accessing books, but just perhaps in a way that works better for people with their busy lives.
*The RNIB subscription has three tiers of Text only, being £39/year, Audio only, being £59.03/year and both Text and Audio for £84/year.