I’m just about to start narrating the novella, To Desire a Scoundrel, Book 2 in the Southern Heat Series.
The process of audiobook narration is one of several steps. First step is to prepare the manuscript by reading it so I become familiar with the characters and story arc, make some decisions about the characters’ personalities and what they will sound like, then start making notes in the margins of the manuscript about intention, tone and emotion. That way, when I get to a part of the book that requires a particular emotion, I can see what’s coming, not have to stop, stay in the moment and get into the character’s head and heart on the fly.
In this case, the main protagonist, Tanner Barkley appeared briefly in the first book in the series, To Seduce a Rogue. So I will go back to my audio files and pull the character reference recording to remind myself of how Tanner sounds. Kate is a new character, so I can take liberties with her voice, but I have to be careful to make her distinctive so she doesn’t sound like Charlie (Charlotte), the main female character in Rogue. Charlie and Kate have scenes together, so the listener has to be able to tell who is speaking at any given time, so their vocal tone needs to be different.
Since Scoundrel is a novella rather than a full-length novel, the challenge for the narration is to imbue the characters with their backstory very quickly, so when the listener hears them speak to each other in the first chapter, their previous relationship is believable.
Narrating never happens in a single shot. Depending on the day, or even from minute to minute, mistakes happen. The ones that I hear as I’m making them, get corrected right then and there. Sometimes my brain will see something on the page that isn’t there and I will transpose, add or omit words, and these kinds of mistakes are caught after the narration is finished when the audio files are sent to the proofer. The proofer will listen to the whole book and take note of each error, its chapter, page and time stamp on the audio file. Once they’ve proofed the whole book, I go through their notes and narrate and record the corrections, which then go to an editor who slots them in the right place in the script and then masters all the files so the sound quality is consistent throughout the book and has no extraneous noises. It can take 8 hours of work in total to complete one finished hour of audio.
And now the synopsis of the book!
The first rule when dealing with scoundrels? Never wager more than you are willing to lose.
Especially in matters of the heart.
Katherine Peters had loved Richmond's most notorious scoundrel - and lost. She vowed to forget Tanner Barkley. And deny the ache in her heart. Caught between the devil and desire.
Tanner Barkley rejected a banking fortune for the newspaper business.
He hadn't planned on falling in love with the one person who held the key to the most important story of his career. Katherine's disdain is no match for Tanner's persuasive charm….Or the love neither can deny.
Scheduled to be released on Audible in spring 2020.