Audio book narration

[Frank Zafiro]

My publisher recently asked me to record a teaser from my short stories that appear in the anthology, The EX Factor. Anyone narrate their own work before? I used some low-tech stuff (it is just a teaser, after all) and felt like the results were mixed...mostly with my own performance, I suppose.

The editor liked it and has suggested I do the first novel and the second when it is released. I like the idea, in that I know what emphasis and tone I intended when I wrote the prose. Still, I know for a fact that I am not as skilled vocally as professional voice talent (though considerably cheaper).

Anyway, just curious what others' experiences have been and what your ideas are.

Frank

P.S. If anyone is truly interested, I'll upload one of the teasers. It is in pre-production form, meaning the publisher hasn't done anything to it yet. It's just what I read, unpolished and without flourish.

[Graham Powell]

Hell yes, upload that sucker. I have thought about recording a couple of stories of mine, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm pretty sure Dave White has recorded one of his, though.

[Bill Cameron]

I'd like to hear it!

[Pari Noskin Taichert]

I'm really interested in this and have thought about doing the voices for my books. I'm a good reader (though, again, not professional) and it would be a kick. When I do radio interviews, the interviewers tell me that I should be doing voice-overs -- so, I don't think I'm deluding myself.

But when, how, where?

Can't wait to see what others have to say on the subject.

[Frank Zafiro]

Okay, then...here's the first five minutes of my short story "Core Issue," which appears in the anthology, THE EX FACTOR. It isn't cleaned up or primped, just raw audio...curious what you all think.

[Frank Zafiro]

Karen,

It worked for me when I clicked on it...ran online under Quicktime...

[Keith Snyder]

I used to do live readings accompanied by the band I was in, The Cosmic Debris. Got a sidebar in Publishers Weekly, too.

I'm not that happy with my performance in the recordings. (We recorded all our gigs.) Getting direction from an actor in the band helped, but I think I still sounded like a writer reading his book.

[Doug Wood]

Free production tutorials can be found at a site called www.librivox.org , a new site trying to do for audiobooks what Project Gutenderg does for classic e-texts. They already have over 500 works available for free download, including classic mysteries by (mostly) UK authors. Even if you don't care for their releases, which are all read by volunteers with widely varying results, the tutorials can help anyone through the learning curve of d.i.y. recording.

Also worth a look is another site, www.podiobooks.com , at which current aspiring authors post full novels or story collections in an attempt to jump-start their careers. Not much Mystery/Crime overall, but Seth Harwood's "Jack Wakes Up" is worth a listen for fans of neo-noir.