As you may have heard, the audio rights to The Heroine’s Bookshelf were recently sold to Blackstone Audio, which got me thinking…what’s a day in the life of an audiobook narrator like?  Luckily, I have a great resource in my Twitter friend and new heroine Lorelei King, who just happens to be an accomplished actress and the multiple-award-winning narrator of an astonishing number of audiobooks and BBC Radio 4 programs (we’re talking the books of Margaret Atwood, Patricia Cornwell, Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton, and even Louisa May Alcott…click here for an impressive list).  Lorelei isn’t just fabulous, she’s gracious…and she’s agreed to answer some of my niggling questions about the life of an audiobook narrator in my never-ending attempt to assuage the longstanding pain of waiting (in this case, to find out who’s going to narrate my book!).

To make things fun, I’m giving away one of Lorelei’s award-winning audiobooks to a lucky winner (details below).  But be sure to read Lorelei’s fabulous insights before scrolling down:

Erin Blakemore: Tell us a bit about the path you took to a career in voice acting and audiobook narration.
Lorelei King: Like most things in my life, I stumbled into it! I was living in London and working as an actress when I got a call from a friend who owned a recording studio; he was recording an ad for a client, and the US voiceover hadn’t shown up. Could I get there in 10 minutes? I did. Hurrah! I loved the experience, and found I had a knack for it. Audiobooks came about in a similar way — someone who knew my animation work asked me to do a book. Again, I loved the experience and definitely had a feeling of “coming home.” And my voice career then, as now, ran in parallel with my acting career.

EB: How does audiobook narration differ from acting for the camera?
LK: When acting for the camera, you normally only play one character. With an audiobook, you might be playing hundreds! Also, in front of the camera your character is normally engaging with other characters, which speads the load a bit — whereas an audiobook is essentially a very, very long monologue. And of course for tv you have to be ‘camera ready’ — no dark roots, no spinach in the teeth, full makeup. Recording an audiobook, I could turn up looking like a troll and it wouldn’t matter. Not that I turn up looking like a troll. Very often.

EB:  How do you prepare to perform an audio piece?
LK: To prepare the book for record, I read it through once and make a cast list on one side of a piece of paper, jotting down and clues about the kind of voice that character might have. Some authors are very helpful in that regard, telling you a character’s accent, voice quality and so on. If there are no clues, I have to make an educated guess! On the other side of the paper I make of list of any pronunciations I want to look up. A good producer will check all that for you, but I like doing my own research.

EB:  What’s the most challenging part of your job? Do you have any disasters or horror stories you’d care to share?
LK: The most challenging part of the job is maintaining stamina — having the same energy level at the end of the day that I had at the beginning of the day! Horror stories? The most horrifying thing is if the engineer makes a mistake and deletes the morning’s work. It’s only happened twice in my career, but I cried both times!

EB:  What do you like best about your job?
LK: I get paid to read books! What could be better?…. And I love being a storyteller. Audio is a particularly intimate medium — and I feel so privileged that people are wiling to listen.

EB:  What are your personal reading habits like? Who are some of your favorite authors and why?
LK: I get very little time to do reading for myself as I have to do so much reading for work! Of the books I read for work, I love the funny ones (like Janet Evanovich) and the crime fiction (like Tess Gerritsen). As for personal reading, my favourite author of all time is Gerald Kersh –Song of the Flea is probably my favourite of his books. I’m also very fond of horror — I like Stephen King, Robert Bloch and Harlan Ellison, among many others. I’ve always had a soft spot for Somerset Maugham — The Razor’s Edge had a HUGE impact on me when I was 11 — and of course I have to mention my Greek boys, Homer (I prefer the Illiad to the Odyssey) and Herodotus (it’s like reading Hello magazine)! For enjoyment I read them in English, and for torture I read them in ancient Greek.

EB:  What surprises you about the audio world? Are there any trends to watch for?
LK: I’m surprised at how much it’s growing! It’s wonderful that people are integrating audio into their lives, listening to audiobooks the way they might listen to music.  As for trends, I think digital audio publishing means we’ll be using audio in new and original ways: shorter titles, individual short stories and poems, getting to market much more quickly with subjects that are trending, publishing in digital download only, embedding audio into eBooks … I am co-founder (with Ali Muirden, former head of audio at Macmillan UK) of a digital publishing company, and we’re exploring some of these things already. It’s a scary and exciting time!

Lorelei King Tallgrass Contest

To liven things up a bit and give one of my readers access to a great heroine book, I’m giving away one copy of Lorelei’s Audy and Audiophile Award-winning reading of Sandra Dallas’s Tallgrass, a poignant story of the Japanese-American internment of the 1940s as told through the eyes of a young girl.  Here’s how to enter:  leave a comment on this blog post telling who you’d have voice your favorite heroine (voice actress, actress, friend, mom…just make sure to identify her!) and why.  Comment with a link to your tweet, blog post, or Facebook “share with friends” about the contest and I’ll enter you twice! I’ll choose the winner at random at close of business this Friday, April 2.  Contest is open to United States, Canadian, and U.K. residents only.  Good luck!