I have published two novels, and have two more in the works. I like each book, but Members of the Cast is dearest to me. Margo struggles through her junior year of high school, and her experiences touch my heart. So, I have decided to have an audiobook made of Members of the Cast.
MOTC sells well, although I have no yardstick for comparison to other self-published books. It doesn’t sell well enough to pay for a narrator. But I love the book, have some mad money laid aside, and I will have it narrated.
I did some research and signed up for Findaway Voices. It doesn’t cost anything, so I began listening to the narrators. Findaway has many to choose from, and I narrowed the selection to women readers. After hours of samples, I had five on my list and requested a sample piece from four. Findaway has you provide 500 words you want to hear. I chose the opening scene.
I tend to be a low decision threshold guy and was torn between two samples. I had Ruth, our children, and three Twitter friends weigh in on the selection. I read everything I could about the two narrators. I went to their websites and looked at their presence on Facebook. I also put in their names on Amazon books and listened to AudioBook samples of books they had narrated.
I was a little alarmed by the range of volume in the recordings. Both narrators had written me a note on Findaway, which opened communication. The two narrators use a sound person who masters the final copy.
The votes came in, and the choice was unanimous, with one dissenting vote. Either narrator would have done a marvelous job, but the deciding factor for me was a Facebook photograph. The narrator had a book on the screen of a tablet and was marking up the chapter in different colors in preparation for recording. Such prep work was evident in her sample.
Next time, we will look at pricing, contracts, and “the wait.”
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