So I’m thinking about an audio book; it seems that’s the way to go these days as it’s the fastest growing medium for books in the business. Traditionalists will hate it but you just can’t fight progressive technologies; EVEN THE GREAT MASTERPIECES OF LITERATURE ARE NOW BEING MADE AVAILABLE ON AUDIO, so why shouldn’t I?
Here’s the thing: my book is my story, my experiences, my reactions, my words as told by me. So when I got samples of the audio-narrators it just felt weird and also sounded weird to me. My tech-guy, Evan, at Atmosphere Press (my publisher) did a great job finding 4 great gals to do 4 great auditions; they were all very professional, well-spoken with excellent annunciation and pronunciation and I had absolutely nothing negative to say about any of them except that none of them were quite “right”. After much thought I came up with this; I think it should be MY voice or not happen at all, otherwise it doesn’t feel authentic.
I took a long time to write this book – 14 years owning the B&B and writing down my experiences, 3 years after that I had a mass of stories that I had pre-edited into what was a good start to submit for publishing. It took the better part of another year to complete all edits, cover designs, my website and to begin a marketing campaign so now I’ve pretty much spent 2 decades in this journey. You can ask anyone who knows me – I’m type A to a T lol. Meticulous, detail-obsessed and generally a perfectionist who probably drives most people on earth to exasperation but I just can’t usually “settle” on things, it’s my way or the highway, so to speak. That being said, I think I’m going to have to go with my gut and do the audio myself.
What do you think? I would welcome your feedback; please drop me a line or two and share your thoughts!