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THE VOICE MAKES THE BOOK

Listening to an audio book can be like listening to an old-fashioned storyteller or to a fascinating professor. We have different expectations when we plug in with an audio book than when we sit down with the printed word. Apart from variances between abridged and unabridged versions, it is primarily the narration that makes audiobook reviews different from the printed paper book.

The audio book narrator, often called the reader, is crucial to meeting our expectations and to the success of the audio book.  The listener wishes to hear a credible voice, a voice that fits the story being told.  In this way, the audio book narrator is similar to an actor playing the leading role (and all the other roles) in a play or a movie.  He needs to draw on many talents to make the reading credible.

To prepare to record an audio book, the narrator needs to understand and feel comfortable with the material.  This means not only studying and reading the book, but also getting behind the script to understand the author’s intent in non-fiction or the motivation of the characters in a work of fiction. The narrator needs to convey a sense of pacing and rhythm in the text, know when to provide emphasize and when to pause to either build or relieve tension.  He or she needs to pronounce the words properly and give vocalize different dialects, accents, and personalities.

Not surprisingly, many audio book narrators are stage or movie actors.  Actors enjoy reading audio books because it’s often one “part” in which they get to play all the roles.  Jim Dale, who was awarded the an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) and an Audio Publisher’s Association Hall of Fame Award for his narration of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books series, voiced over 140 characters-muggles, wizards, giants, goblins and more in that series.  On the night when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released, Dale read to an estimated 6,000 fans at Barnes and Noble in New York City.

For those of us who never heard Ernest Hemingway’s voice or Harper Lee’s, it makes sense, it fits, that Charlton Heston narrates an audio version of Old Man and the Sea and that Sissy Spacek reads To Kill a Mockingbird.

Special audio recording studios cater to audio book production.  A production team consisting of a narrator, a sound monitor, and a reviewer work together to make certain the product will satisfy listeners. A single hour of an audio book may take up to 5 ½ hours of time in the studio.

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Abridged and Unabridged Audiobooks.
Unabridged audiobooks are the complete book, word for word in audio.
Abridged audiobooks are cutdown or modified versions of the original book.

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