Audiobook Narrators - From my imagination to your ears!

A good audiobook narrator is worth their weight in gold, but how does the process work? How do you get from words on the page to words in the readers’ ears? And what’s it like as an author, to hear someone else’s interpretation of your story?

Not every book is recorded into audiobook format right now. The widespread use of AI might change that. We’re not far from being able to have any book read to you in a voice of your choosing, male or female, of different ethnicities, with various regional or social accents. But for now, when one of my books is being turned into an audiobook, there’s a lengthy process we go through to make sure that each crime novel gets a narrator who’s a perfect natch for that story.

For me ,that starts with whether my protagonist is male or female. For the Luc Callanach books, my audiobook narrator is male, because Luc is so central to all the plots, and because there are so many other male characters. I couldn’t imagine having an antagonist like Dr King (remember Perfect Remains?) read by a woman. So the next consideration is accent. Do you go for something neutral, like a “middle Britain' accent, or should we be true to the geographical centre of the book? We choose to have a Scottish narrator  to give the audiobook a really feeling of authenticity. That worked for me, because as I was writing, I could hears the Scots accent in my head the whole time. Of course, my detective Luc has a French accent (just to make things even more complicated) so then I needed to make sure my audiobook narrator was competent with accents as well as acting. 

At this stage, the audiobook team at my publisher gave me a shortlist of several voice actors. I was sent an audio clip from each of them, and asked to listen and decide on a first and second choice. Luckily my first choice was available. Robin Laing is the actor who voices the Luc and Ava books, from Perfect Remains to One for Sorrow. You may know him as an actor from Band of Brothers. For me, he was chosen for his versatility, his acting skills, his experience, and because his voice is, well, just great to listen to.

It’s important not to underestimate that. As a consumer of audiobooks, I’ve sometimes listened to a chapter or two, then given up listening because I didn’t enjoy the voice of the narrator. You’re up close and personal with that narrator for 11 or 12 hours on average for a crime novel, so choosing a voice that people will want to go back to is vital.

Then the book is sent off to the narrator. They used to print all the pages off, but more often these days narrators will read from an iPad as they record. I was lucky enough to go to the recording studio with Robin for the third book, and watch him recording. It really is an art. My books have loads of characters, often with different accents. The narrator has to choose and settle on a voice for, say, a serial killer. Another for the pathologist. Yet more for each police officer. When these are repeat characters that go through multiple books, it’s a lot to remember. 

And they have to be really skilled at building drama and tension, without sounds melodramatic or ridiculous. We don’t have to think about those things when we’re simply reading, but as a narrator it’s a fine line. Reading a crime novel out loud in a way that will have pulses racing is an art form. I love listening to my audiobook narrators. They often find different nuances that I hadn’t seen in my own stories. They bring colour, light, dark, joy and drama. A good narrator - and Robin Laing is one of the best - will have listeners raving not just about the book but about the voice actor too.