Audible has done for audio books what Kindle Unlimited has done for ebooks. So when my publisher asked if I wanted my first book published with them to be made into an audio book I liked the idea. There would be a cost involved, however. Not an insignificant cost either. Having a cosmopolitan family I tend to measure cost against the price of a plane ticket. I could go and visit some family for that price. If I read the book myself, the publisher continued, it halved the cost. Wow. I had never considered recording a book myself. That's not true. I had thought about reading Harry Potter and recording it so that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren could hear my actual voice reading them a story. But I had never considered doing it professionally. Throughout our marriage my husband has suggested that I exploit my voice for radio ads or voice-overs. I was born and raised in England and even after over 30 years in the US I have retained most of my accent. The rough edges of my London upbringing have been knocked off but the essentials remain. One adult niece jokes that if she ever has to have bad news broken to her she wants it to come from me - because my voice is comforting. Others have told me that I could read the phone book and they would listen. These endorsements in mind I decided to take the plunge. Oh my. I ordered the equipment and with the help of my husband we set it up and did a test. Not bad. Or was it? I could have let insecurity cripple me and thrown in the towel before the fight had begun but that is part of my writing journey - trying new things even when it's scary. That is how I am growing. The publisher liked the test. It will not be a quick project. I have to make sure the house is quiet and that I have a block of time and that I don't have a cold. And it is now that I have realized just how many characters are in my book! As a narrator you cannot skip reading the different characters in different voices. And accents! French and Italian. Yikes. This may be the death of the project! Lol. I'm going to have to read a brief speech for each character and record it on my phone so that I can have consistency. Wish me luck!
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