Happy Wednesday! The Insecure Writers’ Group is a group of writers offering motivation and encouragement to all those taking on the challenges of writing. Every month the ISWG sponsors a blog hop where writers can blog about a topic related to overcoming obstacles and exploring various aspects of the writing journey. If you’d like to participate in a future hop you can join here. It’s always a great experience, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in writing and sharing with other writers.
Every month there is an optional discussion question, and this month the question is the following:
April 6 question – Have any of your books been made into audio books? If so, what is the main challenge in producing an audiobook?
I feel like it’s been forever since I sat down and wrote anything down besides a to do list. Time slips by and I realize I haven’t written in a month or more and it feels strange and kind of sad. But the truth is I’ve been busy with a big project. A month ago we welcomed a little boy, and he’s been a lot of work. Good work, but still, a lot of work 🙂
I was interested in today’s question, even though it doesn’t really apply to me now. I haven’t yet gotten to the point where I’m thinking of publishing my book, so an audiobook seems sort of far away. But I have listened to a lot of audiobooks, and I can imagine that one of the biggest concerns for preparing an audiobook is the very reason many people turn off an audiobook halfway through or earlier.
The voices aren’t like you imagined them.
Whether it’s that they’re just different, or that they’re outright bad, I have been forced to stop listening to books because they sounded weird to me. Even when it’s a book I really like. Maybe that’s a little unfair of me, I’m not entirely sure, but I know I’m not alone. My mom also does this all the time.
We often imagine things in our head a certain way. It can feel wrong and weird, like it’s sabotaged our enjoyment of the book when the information is presented to us in a way that doesn’t align with how we dreamed it. This happens a lot with movie adaptations, and I can imagine that the pressure to convert a popular book into a visual medium has to be enormous. Especially with popular series.
So to answer the original question, I imagine the most challenging thing would be living up to expectations for the way the characters’ voices sound. If it doesn’t turn out well, does it hurt your story? I imagine it might.
If you’ve produced an audiobook, what did you think about the experience? And what was the most challenging part? Let me know in the comments!
Have a great day,
Winter
Winter Betancourt 
Great post, Winter. I missed your writing.
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Thank you so much JR, I really appreciate that it means a lot! It’s a good feeling to be back writing again 🙂
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First of all congratulations, as a fellow mom welcome to sleepless nights and endless worries! LOL. Secondly, this is a great post. I bought Song of Achilles because I was listening to someone read it on youtube. He did such a good job (and the story was so good) I had to get my hands on a physical copy. I’m listening to Romancing Mr. Bridgerton and the person reading is so henious I’m turned off from ever buying the book. Like she’s just the worst and robotic. I’d say if you’re going audio (or even podcast) don’t cheap out on voice acting or sound effects. These things make all the difference.
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Thank you Holly! Haha, yep, the sleepless nights are a killer. I’m so tired 😴😂 I totally agree, not providing a good experience for the book listener can make all the difference! That’s so sad that a bad audiobook reader can ruin the book experience, but it’s true! Definitely better to invest in something you feel people will enjoy, that way they’re not turning off the book halfway through because they can’t stand the voice.
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Congrats on your little boy. That’s a good reason to let writing slide IMO.
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Thank you Patricia!! I agree, he’s totally worth it! 😁
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