Could I enjoy this experience?

I didn’t expect to enjoy narrating my memoir, Those Who Remain: Remembrance and Reunion After War –  my first audiobook. I worried about my vocal performance and I thought that a professional actor could do a much better job. I’m not completely inexperienced as a performer but I wasn’t sure I was up to a series of 6-hour sessions, day after day, in a recording booth. How could I sound consistent from day to day during the recording? What if I get emotionally overwhelmed by my own words? Will listeners “like” my voice? I felt like I knew my story but what would it be like to speak the entire book? I was reminded of something a pianist said to me years ago about performing on stage.

        “When I feel nervous before stepping onto a stage, I say to myself – come on nerves you’re coming with me – and I walk out under the lights as if I’m arm in arm with my nervousness,” she said. (I wish I’d heard that advice when I was age 21 and singing with a USO show in Germany!)

Is it possible to prepare?

I decided weeks before the first day of recording that I would take time to prepare myself, physically and emotionally, for this adventure. The recording studio was a five-hour drive away so the first step was to book a comfortable place to stay for the 6+ days it would take to complete the recording. After that, I found some vocal exercises to build my confidence and vocal muscles. I researched soothing cures for potential vocal fatigue and dry throat. I wondered how I could maintain emotional energy over multiple days especially if I had to repeat the same sentences over and over to make them perfect.

          Finally, I decided to think of myself as a vocalist as well as the author of my book.  This was probably one of the most important “cures” that I found to give myself both the perspective and the courage to manage what I had taken upon myself. It helped me to meet my story in a different way especially when reading some highly emotional scenes. There are parts of the story that were difficult to write and even more challenging to read aloud but by creating the “imaginary vocalist” part of myself I felt comfortable and even excited to tell my story.

Choose a great company to work with

            The recording company that I worked with was also a blessing. Mary Catherine Jones of Voice Over Vermont is not only a consummate professional producer but she is also encouraging and inspiring. She made the complex process of maintaining vocal consistency and energy seem completely manageable.  Sitting very still in a small booth with a lurking fear of mispronouncing my own words as I read them from an iPad could have been overwhelming but her guidance and direction made me feel as if I was on an extraordinary voyage with an expert captain. I became fearless and the result, according to my reviewers, was excellent.

            My audiobook recording experience was a total success and it’s now available wherever audiobooks are sold or distributed. If your library subscribes to Hoopla, you can check it out for free. If you decide to listen, I’d love to hear your comments.

           Click here to listen to a sample and thanks for listening!

(Here’s one of my happy listeners!)