Updates:

Sorry to everyone who has noticed a decline in activity on here and social media. Now that I reached the tail end of my COVID recovery, super fun, I can finally focus. I wish I could tell you that my time off work gave me enough time to finish my novel, but the COVID fog and fatigue won that battle. Let’s hope all of your tail ends of January went better than mine.

What’s in store for February?

Frozen in Line will continue with two more episodes. A book review for the Audiobook version of The Caging at Deadwater Manor by Sandie Will, another phenomenal phycological thriller, will post tomorrow. After that, expect my posts to continue as regular. Thank you again for all of your patience as I recovered from illness and I hope to bring more exciting posts in the future.

Audiobooks

In honor of the audiobook review I’ll be posting tomorrow, I wanted to share the differences in audiobook styles you may not have known about.

1. Author’s Audiobook
   1. In short, this is the author reading the book. What you have here is sometimes rough, cheaply done, or less dramatic readings of the novel. But what you get is the power behind the author’s voice at what they saw as the right time besides another reader’s interpretations. I’ve listened to many of Stephen King’s audiobooks that he read himself. There’s a certain quality to Stephen King’s voice that makes him a fit for his books. He’s no professional voice actor, but I feel like the ones he reads are those closer to his heart. Would you ever narrate your book for an audiobook? Or do you want to leave that to professionals?
2. Full-Cast Audiobook
   1. The best example on Audible right now is The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. A Full-cast approach often uses auditions to identify professional voice actors to read the story, or script, with sound effects and music. Audio productions like this can add multiple layers to your characters and stories by giving them voices they didn’t have before. Where one narrator keeps a consistent tone, the full-cast audio removes the needs for many of the dialogue tags because they have a unique voice for each character. One con is a poorly cast character, in the reader’s opinion, can ruin their experience. I see this approach as more of an epic fantasy, historical fiction, or any other large cast story’s best choice.
3. Memoirs
   1. Similar to the author read audiobooks, the memoir carries extra power when read by the person who wrote/experienced the story. One of the most powerful voices I’ve found is David Goggins in Can’t Hurt Me. He doesn’t read most of the book, but when he and his ghost writer take breaks to talk through chapters, there is a certain quality to David’s voice that gives a different sense of life to the story. The thing with memoirs is they’re painful for the writer to read, even if they find empowerment through the process. These often dredge up emotions long buried deep in the soul. Some things they wrote they’d rather not say out loud. I’m sure there are many other memoirs that might connect with others more, and if you have any recommendations, please comment below.
4. Voice Actor Audiobooks
   1. This is the most traditional approach to an audiobook. Voice actors audition and either the artist or publication company select who they think will best read the novel. Often big-name authors, like Brandon Sanderson, will have their go to narrator(s) for a series, e.g. The Way of Kings with Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. Some authors will find that a voice actor is perfect for one story, but not another.
5. Final Questions
   1. Many people dispute audiobooks don’t count as reading. What side of the fence do you swing? 
   1. If you had the choice of turning your writing into an audio production, what approach would you like to use? Why?
   1. Do you think audiobooks and e-books are going to take over print? Or will print live as long as we have readers?