Behind the Scenes with Dragons, pt 1
There’s more to it than meets the eye. Enjoy a cup of tea with my brilliant narrator Benjamin Fife and I to get a taste of what it takes to put an audiobook together.
Take it away Ben–mg
I got into narrating because I love literature. I personally have listened to or read the complete works of Charles Dickens. (Which totally impresses me, considering I find Dickens, in most cases, utterly depressing-mg) I love Austen too.
I was first introduced to Pride and Prejudice nearly 20 years ago about 3 months before I met my wife. (That means it was the Colin Firth version… just saying ;)-mg) I was spending time with a longtime friend who was getting over a bad breakup.
Watch this movie with me–said she. I didn’t realize it was a 6 hour production.
As you might guess, I fell hard for her while we watched it over the next week, one installment at a time. She still thought of me as just a friend. She prophetically said that come 2 months later I’d meet some cute freshman & I’d be just as happy as Lizzy & Darcy at the end of it all.
Now two decades down the road, she married the guy she had broken up with, I wed that adorable freshman, and both marriages now boast 6 kids apiece. (Definitely not a Charles Dickens ending, just saying–mg)
Starting when my oldest was about 6, we started taking turns picking what book to read as a family every night. With a handful of exceptions, I’ve been the voice for all the books ranging from Jane Eyre to Hank the Cowdog; from Lord of the Rings to Louis Lamour. (An impressive variety to be sure! I confess, Jane Eyre was a childhood favorite of mine. My kids loved The Mouse and the Motorcycle series and The Secret of Nihm series –mg)
I had often thought about turning my passion for reading aloud into more than that. In February of 2018, I dove in. As I’ve looked for books to audition for and connected with authors, I’ve loved what I’ve learned from each book & each writer in the production process.
But there is no other book or series that has brought me as much satisfaction to voice as Maria Grace’s Jane Austen’s Dragons. (That’s me in the background doing a happy dance!-mg)
The Road to Becoming a Dragon Narrator
Earlier this year when I saw Pemberley up for audition, I had to try! I adore Austen & I adore dragons! What could be better? When I auditioned, I did 2 takes for Maria – one with a “straight read,” and one with “effects.” I’ve used a little bit of effects on my voice in previous books, but by volunteering to not only voice each dragon differently, but then alter the audio to a more ‘size appropriate’ voice, I was jumping in with both feet.
(I had a sense this was going to be a big, complicated project from the get go, but I really didn’t fully realize it until we got started on it all!-mg)
Let me give you a rundown of the whole Audiobook production process:
- Find a Title/Author you want to work with
- From the author’s side, it’s trying to put together a pitch attractive to a narrator. A lot like writing sales copy, but worse! -mg
- Read the audition material & plan your characterizations, accents etc
- From the author’s side, this means picking out a piece of the book that includes enough of the characters and ‘feel’ of the book that the narrator can really show their stuff. The Dragon series added another layer of complication to that, requiring the dragon characters and descriptions along with the humans were made clear in a very few pages.-mg
- Record the Audition (click to have a listen!)
- Edit the Audition
- Get selected for the book
- What Ben says succinctly in a single sentence is so much more from the author’s side. Each audition is 5-10 minutes long and must be listened to. It doesn’t sound like much if there are just a few, but when there are dozens, it is hours of listening. Then comes the selection agony. Seriously, agony.
- There are always a couple that are really clear no-starters, like the ones who don’t bother with the entire audition script. Those are easy to rule out–along with the one that sounded like it was recorded on an i-phone with street noise included, and the one where Longbourn sounded like Scrooge McDuck. After that it got tough.
- I listened, made notes, relistened, got my husband and sons to listen and made notes on their comments. Culled the list and listened again. Pulled out some hair. Read narrator bios and checked the reviews on their other audiobooks. Listened and culled again. Rise and repeat and agonize some more.
- It sounds crazy, but it was a lot like trying to find a nanny for my creative offspring; I needed someone who could nurture and care for them in just the right way.-mg
- Read the whole book & plan characterizations, accents, etc again.
- It boggles my mind how a narrator works out all the voices for the characters and keeps them straight all the way through the book. I know how to do that from the author side–making each character sound distinct is a foundational writing skill–but doing it as a narrator seems like a whole ‘nother kettle of fish to me. I’m in awe!–mg
- Communicate with the author about their wishes-(ALOT!-mg)
- Record the whole thing, redoing any line you make any kind of error on. And sometimes that means 5 times. Not often ,but sometimes, there’s a tongue twister (You try saying “the courtship twas by your world rules” in a thick Scottish accent complete with rolled r’s– not from Maria’s book [Thanks for not blaming that one one me! The fairy dragon conversations are bad enough–right?–mg])
- Listen to the whole thing and edit out any outtakes, errors, mouth noises, dog barking, wife scaring the *&% out of you in the middle of a chapter, etc…
- Master the file so it can pass muster for QC of an audio book
- That’s techonobabble for working a level of black magic few can aspire to!–mg
- Send it to the author/publisher to listen to.
- This is the proof-listening stage and it is every bit as difficult as proof- reading–said as one who find proof-reading quite difficult. It’s hard to listen for errors when all you want to do is get lost in the story. Then when the occasional blooper sneaks in, trying to find the time stamp for the error and how to describe it is challenging.–mg
- Fix any additional errors and performance issues to the satisfaction of the author & yourself.
- Repeat the last 4 steps as many times as needed.
- Send it to Audible to sell
- Promote the heck out of it.
So it’s a bit of a production to begin with. You add in needing a different effect for a dozen different characters & you can imagine what that does. Still, I love it. Maria & I both hope you love what I’ve done to bring her world to life.
Midway through production on Pemberly, I messaged Maria to ask if she could send me the whole series so my family could read it too. My wife & 2 oldest daughters had it finished before I had a chance to finish recording Pemberley. (I loved seeing pictures of your girls reading the dragon books!–mg)
Maria’s writing is superb. I love how true she is to the original characters, while changing it up enough to make it a delightfully new story. Some of my favorite moments in the series are when she takes Austen’s original dialogue, or sometimes back narration & gives it to a different character to say. In book 1 (Pemberley), she sticks pretty close to Austen’s original plot fairly closely up to Netherfield ball. In the remainder of the series, there are similarities to the original, but the plot veers off course considerably. I loved it.
And I’ve loved working on this project with Ben and look forward to doing more dragon projects with him soon. (Pssst–Longbourn is in the final production phases and will be out very soon!)
Come by next week for part two of my conversation with Ben!
You can find Ben online HERE
Click HERE or in the menu in the header to read more about Jane Austen’s dragons.
You can find Jane Austen’s Dragon books below. Click on any of them to read a preview!
Wow, what a fascinating insight into audiobook production! Thanks so much for sharing it with us.
I listen a lot when driving on my commutes, cooking and doing other household jobs (except the vacuuming – too much background noise!) and find it a great way to sneak in some extra reading when I don’t have time to sit down with a book. Someone (I think it was Claudine of Just Jane 1813) once described audiobooks in a fantastic way – reading with your ears!
It’s also slightly surreal, in the nicest possible way, to listen to a book that I’ve had the pleasure of helping out on at the beta stage, as I’ve done with all of the dragon books. Pemberley is next up on my Austenesque playlist and I’m so looking forward to renewing my acquaintance with all of my human and dragon friends from this particular alternative universe.
I’ve always wondered what the process was like, thanks for sharing.
Wow! Thanks for sharing your experience. I enjoyed the sample and the link to his site. Well done. I’m not into audio yet. I still haven’t mastered walking and chewing gum at the same time. It is too distracting for me. I know many like it though and know they will enjoy the Dragon stories in audio. I have all three books and look forward to another. Blessings.
Wow! What a procedure. First finding the right narrator, and then the dreaded proof listening. I admire authors for taking this on as I love audio books. Thank you for doing this.