When an author completes a book and is considering creating an audiobook, one question will often be raised. Should I narrate this myself?
While it certainly depends on the voice and personality of the author, having the author narrate the audiobook themselves has its certain advantages that include them knowing their characters, cultures or own life story better than a professional narrator.
Whether you are the writer, the book’s publisher, or anyone else associated with this process, we encourage you to read on to learn of the potential benefits and drawbacks of an author providing narration for their upcoming audiobook.
The author knows their book better than anyone
While it may seem obvious, one advantage of having the author narrate their audiobook is that they know the material, characters, cultures and more associated with the book better than a professional narrator.
If the book takes place in a different country, uses a different language at times, has certain phrases that are obscure or anything else that may be hard to pronounce, the author will typically be able to narrate these more accurately than a professional.
Should the book be fiction, the author may also be able to provide more accurate voices or emotion for each character since they are the one that came up with them.
If it is a memoir or autobiography, it may also be beneficial for the author to narrate the audiobook since it is about their own life and experiences.
It depends on their voice, however
There is no doubt that it can be advantageous for the author to narrate their audiobook, however, if they are not a good orator or good at projecting their voice, it may be difficult for a listener to follow along.
If the author has a more monotone voice, has trouble creating different voices for different characters or simply cannot create excitement when narrating, it is probably best to go with a professional.
Professional narrators can voice individual characters at various ages and phases of life which many authors simply cannot do.
The author should be in good physical condition
Another thing to take into consideration is the physical toll that narrating an audiobook can take. Many people will stand when narrating in order to project their voice better or make hand gestures, etc. as they act out the book.
This can often require a narrator to be standing for up to 10 hours a day. If the author is not in the best health and cannot stand or work for extended periods of time, it may be best to leave the narrating to a professional.
No matter who you decide to have read your audiobook, we hope that you will choose us at Live Oak Studio.
We provide the very best equipment and comfortable recording studios for those who create audiobooks, and are proud to have played a role in recording a wide range of audiobooks.
When you’d like to learn more about our audiobook recording studio in Berkeley, CA or want to book our space in the near future, we ask that you contact us today at 510-540-0177.