Hey there, lovely reader,

I'm sitting outside in the sun writing this. We're having our annual carpet cleaning and I'm staying out of the way. I always say that getting the carpets done is as much work as moving house. I exaggerate, but it's a lot of work to move all the furniture, pile it high, and then move it back again. Phew!

I'm taking today off. Maybe tomorrow too. I'm nearly done with the new Inspector Graham and it should go to the editor next week with an October/November publish date.

Today I answer a reader's question, share a reader bonus, and invite you to enter a competition.

Reader's Question

When you are choosing a narrator for your audiobooks how do you go about it ? Do they have to read the book beforehand or are they exploring the book the same as the listeners?

I choose my narrators in a variety of ways. A good narrator can make mediocre writing sound fabulous and good narrators are very skilled. If the main character is female, then the narrator is expected to be also, and vice versa.

Common key components for a narrator that I select for in order of importance are: pleasant to work with, voice “fit” with the character and essence of the story, ability to voice accents, acting ability, timely, low error rate.

In my experience, most narrators do not read the books ahead of time. They might skim them but not read them in detail. I don't know how they anticipate the right voice and keep up the flow, but they do.

Narrators do have to agree voices with me and also pronunciations of certain words ahead of recording. They do character voice reels for me which I review and approve.

This is how/why I selected my narrators:

Penny Scott-Andrews (Annabelle): I posted a call for auditions on the Audible site and listened to them all. I fell in love with Penny's interpretation of the books. I thought she embodied Annabelle's character and the tone of the series perfectly. And she turned out to be the loveliest, most accommodating person to work with. Unusually, she read the books ahead of recording.

Matt Jamie (Graham): I'd heard Matt voice another audiobook series and thought he would be perfect as Inspector Graham. He also had the ability to voice different characters and accents.

Marissa Pistone (Roxy): This was a tough selection slog. There are many regional and international accents in the books, and it was hard to find a narrator that could do the range of accents I wanted and who also sounded right for the Roxy character.  I searched a database of voice actors using different criteria many times and listened to many, many reels. Finally I asked three to audition and chose Marissa. She met all the criteria and has had special training in accents. She does a great job. Phew!

I will start looking for a narrator for the Diana series in 2025.

Have a lovely week.

Happy reading!