• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Erggo

Karen@KarenCommins.com

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™

  • Home
  • Demos
  • Titles
  • Reviews
  • Videos
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Contact
  • Shop

Archives for 2015

Interview with Audiobook Blogger Jennie Mortarotti

10 March 2015

Authors and narrators greatly appreciate the people who take the time to listen to our audiobooks and then write thoughtful reviews. In this third installment of the series, I’m excited to interview audiobook blogger Jennie Mortarotti from Narrator Reviews to find out about her review interests and process.

Jennie’s bio:

I live alone with two cats, one cranky and one snooty and two outdoor cats I rescued. I teach photoshop and do computer repairs. I spend some time doing crafts and making costume jewelry. Repurposing things is a fun way to use leftovers and throwaways, so I spend time doing that. I love browsing around in antique and collectible stores.

10 Questions For Jennie

 

1. When did you start listening to audiobooks?

Several years ago I was driving for a delivery company and started listening to audiobooks. Night driving was especially boring and I was thinking of quitting the job, but once I got onto audiobooks, I lasted about 3 more years.

2. What prompted you to start writing audiobook reviews?

I was keeping a Wordpad list of the bad narrators and my thoughts about them, mainly to not waste time or money on books they narrated. I found many readers that were really great so expanded my notes to include them. Information about some of the narrators was pretty scarce, and I wondered if others looked for the same information. So I thought I’d start a blog about them. At first it was mind numbing to figure out how to use the Google Blogger so decided to try WordPress. I googled a narrator, and the blog I didn’t finish came up on the first page of Google. I was surprised to say the least, so, of course I put my mind to figuring it out.

3. Where do you write your reviews? If it’s a public place, why did you choose it? If it’s at home, describe the room and/or stuff on your desk. A picture would be fabulous!

Sometimes I do it in the dining room on the table and most often I am in the bedroom. When the weather is nice I do it outside. I could be anywhere as I have more than one device and use Dropbox so I take notes as I’m listening.

4. How do you decide whether to read a book or listen to it? Do you ever do both for the same book?

If it’s something I’m interested in reading and it’s not on audio I sometimes write the author and ask when they expect to have an audio edition. I have no plans on doing both. I do collect old books, mostly history, and I do read those.

I decide by authors I know, titles that are interesting, book covers that are catchy and also by narrator.

I rely on Audible’s very good book blurbs and excellent samples. I’ve found some new authors and narrators on Audible that I adore.

5. Do you have a go-to genre?

I love cozy mysteries and I like humor, getting both in one book is a bonus. I like silly books like the talking chihuahua Pepe in Waverly Curtis’ Barking Detective Series or Sid the skeleton in Leigh Perry’s Family Skeleton Mysteries. I love Lee Goldberg’s Mr Monk books. For really cozy, cozies I listen to M.C. Beaton’s Hamish Macbeth or Agatha Raisin Mysteries.

6. What is your review policy? Do you accept review requests from narrators?

I do accept from narrators, authors and audiobook producers. I like to first listen to the narrator if I don’t know their work, usually by going to Audible or Soundcloud. I don’t listen to books with a lot of erotica in them. I know it’s popular today but I just don’t like listening to details of someone else’s sex life. I don’t care for a lot of swearing that’s overused. I like the Evanovich books, but the gratuitous swearing is hard to listen to. There are some genres I don’t listen to much, but I am open to new things. I’ve found I like steampunk just from accepting a review request. So I’m open to new things.

7. Describe how you approach your reviews. Do you have different criteria for different genres?

I am fair about the reviews. There is no difference as far as criteria goes. If I didn’t like a book I may try two or even three times to listen to it again. It may just be I’m not in the mood right then for that type of book or it might be the narration is off. When I listen, I jot down any particular thoughts I have about the narration and other things of interest.

8. Do you multitask when listening to books? If yes, what else do you do while you listen, and how does listening to books affect the other activity?

That’s the wonderful thing about audiobooks you can do anything while listening. I could be playing games or chatting on facebook, or mopping the floor or combing the cat. I’m always doing something. It can only interfere in other tasks when I can’t hear the book, so it’s other things may interfere in my hearing the book.

9. Looking back through the reviews you’ve written, please share the link(s) of 1-3 that were favorites of yours and explain why they are special to you.

1. Tell Me Where it Hurts By Dr. Nick Trout

http://narratorreviews.blogspot.com/2011/05/simone-vance-narrating-tell-me-where-it.html
I especially love animals and found this a heartwarming and beautiful book.

2. Anne of Green Gables By: L.M. Montgomery

http://narratorreviews.blogspot.com/2014/08/anne-of-green-gables-by-lm-montgomery.html
The Anne books have been favorites of mine since I read my first one when I was about twelve. They are classics in every sense of the word.

3. Snobs By Julian Fellowes
http://narratorreviews.blogspot.com/2012/07/snobs-julian-fellowes-narrator-richard.html
It’s intriguing how society changes over time, and Snobs is wonderful at showing the way people thought and conducted themselves in the past.

10. As a narrator, I sometimes feel I have a spiritual connection to some of the characters in the books. If you were a character in a novel, who would you be, and why?

Muriel Wylie Blanchet in A Curve in Time, as she had a sense of adventure, was daring, and at the same time, sensible. To spend summers with 5 children and a dog sailing in many uncharted waters took skill, and courage. I felt very connected to her as she detailed her adventures. Life did not happen to her, she happened to life.
http://narratorreviews.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-curve-of-time-by-m-wylie-blanchet.html

Connect with Jennie on these sites:

Blog:  http://www.narratorreviews.blogspot.com/ or http://www.narratorreviews.org/
Twitter: @Audiobookguru
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Narrator-Reviews/210535265649857

Thanks, Jennie, for spending some time with me and giving readers a peak inside your world! One thing I’ve discovered through this series is that the highlighted reviews make me want to add books to my queue. For instance, I’m sure I’m not the only Downton Abbey fan to notice a Julian Fellowes book among Jennie’s favorite reviews!

Do you have a question for Jennie? Please leave a comment!
 

Filed Under: Audiobook Bloggers, Audiobooks, Away From the Mic, Interviews, Narrators Tagged With: audiobook, blogger, Jennie Mortarotti, Narrator Reviews, review

My Recommended Classes, Audition Criteria and Other Advice

7 March 2015

Being interviewed makes me feel like a celebrity on the red carpet!


Earlier this week, audiobook narrator Wendy Pitts interviewed me on her blog A Girl and Her Microphone.

She asked 10 engaging questions, such as #7: Are there any books, webinars, classes, or conventions you have found particularly helpful and informative?

I responded with a mini resource list of links in the following categories:

  • Narration
  • Pro Tools
  • Voiceover books
  • The best marketing book
  • Time Management
  • Making a Fast Decision
  • How to Use a Journal
  • How to Become BETTER at Anything
  • Conferences

In other answers, I offered my advice and links on selecting books for audition and narration (question 4), as well as a FREE and fabulous book to help you figure out what’s important to you and get it into your life (question 8). I hope you’ll check out the interview and let me know whether you found the links to be helpful.

Do you have a question you’d like to ask me? If so, please leave a comment!
 

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Away From the Mic, Interviews, Narrators, Voice-Over Tagged With: A Girl and Her Microphone, audiobook, interview, narrator, resource list, Wendy Pitts

Interview with Audiobook Blogger Rebecca M. Douglass

23 February 2015

Authors and narrators greatly appreciate the people who take the time to listen to our audiobooks and then write thoughtful reviews. In this second installment of the series, I’m excited to interview audiobook blogger Rebecca M. Douglass from The Ninja Librarian to find out about her review interests and process.

Rebecca’s Bio:

Rebecca M. Douglass is an author and blogger with eclectic tastes, from children’s books to murder mysteries and non-fiction examinations of the natural world. She writes middle-grade fiction and adult murder mysteries and promotes her own work and that of other writers on her blog, largely in the form of reviews of anything and (nearly) everything she reads. Her own work maintains a humorous touch, whether it is the tall tales of the Ninja Librarian books or the absurdities of life on Pismawallops Island in Death By Ice Cream, or the wide variety of short stories published on her blog. Ms. Douglass writes from her home near San Francisco, which she shares with her husband and two teenaged sons, which is enough to drive anyone to invent new worlds to inhabit.

10 Questions For Rebecca

 

1. When did you start listening to audiobooks?

I have been listening to audiobooks for a long time, and don’t recall just when I started. I’m sure it’s been at least a dozen years. I listen when exercising, or when doing housework, which I detest but will do for the sake of continuing to listen to a good story. I began listening back in the days of cassette tapes and then CDs. My itty bitty MP3 player is a huge improvement!

2. What prompted you to start writing audiobook reviews?

I’ve been writing reviews for a couple of years now, and it never occurred to me to make a distinction between books I read and books I listened to, so I just naturally reviewed audiobooks. But I soon realized that I did need to comment, at least, when I’d used the audiobook, and that a mention of the quality of the audio and narration would be helpful to listeners. So I have gradually begun making two-pronged audio reviews.

3. Where do you write your reviews? If it’s a public place, why did you choose it? If it’s at home, describe the room and/or stuff on your desk. A picture would be fabulous!

I do almost all my writing at home, and all I will say about my desk is that I share it with my 15-year-old son…and he nags me to clean up my side of it. We have a somewhat chaotic little den (less chaotic since the teen cleaned it up recently), which contains a huge partner desk and a bunch of bookcases, full of classics, my favorite children’s books, and books on writing. I have a lot of inspirational quotes from author Chuck Wendig on my wall, because even though they tend to be profane, they are also profound. But I’m not sharing a picture of my chaos. No way.

4. How do you decide whether to read a book or listen to it? Do you ever do both for the same book?

I usually pick my audiobooks from whatever I stumble on in the library catalog, though sometimes I will select something because I love the narrator or because it’s the only copy available at the moment when I want it. I do often listen to and read the same book, though not at the same time—I might choose to listen to something I have enjoyed in the past, just to get a different take on it, or I might find and read a book I’ve listened to because I want to pick up what I might have missed when distracted while listening. I find that books are very different when read or heard.

5. Do you have a go-to genre?

Cozy mysteries form a large part of what I listen to, and I also do a lot of middle-grade books, though they can be hard to find.

6. What is your review policy? Do you accept review requests from narrators?

I do accept review requests, but I probably turn down more than I accept. I need to actually want to read the book, as I am foremost a writer of fiction, and my reading is for pleasure, when it’s not for research or to improve my craft. So I try to be sure that my reviewing and blogging don’t become either a burden or the focus of my work. I do not accept payment for reviews (I do accept review copies of books), and I do not do “review exchanges.” A lot of what I think about reviewing is covered in a blog post from October 2013: http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2013/10/reviews-and-review-policy.html.

7. Describe how you approach your reviews. Do you have different criteria for different genres?

I try to review with both an honest appraisal of how I liked the work and a more objective assessment of strengths and weaknesses, and a final recommendation for who might like the work. I hold all works to a high standard of writing, but I do consider genre. I don’t expect profundity from a children’s book full of goofy humor and silly situations, but I do expect things to make sense in their own goofy way. I have been gradually developing my format, but I try to always include a cover image, the author (and narrator or illustrator if appropriate) info, publication info, and a summary of the story, either my own or the publisher’s summary. Then I review, and end with a recommendation. I have stopped assigning “stars” unless I am publishing a review somewhere like Amazon that requires it, because I’d rather just talk about the book, the good, bad and indifferent, and let the reader judge from that.

8. Do you multitask when listening to books? If yes, what else do you do while you listen, and how does listening to books affect the other activity?

As I mentioned above, I like to listen to books while working out or doing housework (or yard work)—anything that requires the use of my body but not much of my brain. I can’t just sit and listen to a book, so if I’m totally caught up in a book and don’t want to quit, I will invent tasks, do handwork, etc., to keep listening! I have been known to stop short while running because something I’m listening to has made me laugh too hard to keep going, so I guess you could say that listening to book can affect what I’m doing!

9. Looking back through the reviews you’ve written, please share the link(s) of 1-3 that were favorites of yours and explain why they are special to you.

These are more about books that I particularly like, than reviews that I love. But I include here a range of review styles, to show what I may do.

Dana Stabenow, Restless in the Grave http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2014/08/mystery-monday-restless-in-grave-by.html

This review handles a book well into a series, and talks about my issues with the series as well as why I like it and keep reading, and what a new reader might do.

Ivan Doig, Dancing at the Rascal Fair http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2014/12/audiobook-review-dancing-at-rascal-fair.html

This is a fairly brief review, but one of my favorite books. I was delighted to find many of Doig’s books on audio only recently, and to find that his fantastic writing is enhanced by the excellent narrators.

And a less conventional review, of Brian Jacques’ Redwall books in general, and on audio in particular: http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2014/11/redwall-audio.html

This review in part sprang from a discussion of kids’ audio books, and an issue I’d had listening to these long ago in the car.

10. As a narrator, I sometimes feel I have a spiritual connection to some of the characters in the books. If you were a character in a novel, who would you be, and why?

I’d probably have to be Jo March or Anne Shirley! I’d like to believe I’m the Ninja Librarian, but the fact is that he is far wiser than I am. It is funny—when I think about that, I always end up going back to the classics from my childhood.

Connect with Rebecca on these sites:

Blog: www.ninjalibrarian.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Ninja-Librarian/305808032816136
Twitter: I Tweet as Douglass_RM, when the spirit moves me, which it mostly doesn’t.

Thanks, Rebecca, for spending some time with us in this great interview! Do you have a question or comment for Rebecca? Please leave a comment on the blog!
 

Filed Under: Audiobook Bloggers, Audiobooks, Away From the Mic, Books, Interviews, Marketing, Narrators Tagged With: audiobook, bloggers, interview, Ninja Librarian, Rebecca Douglass

Dual Gender Narrations in Audiobooks

21 February 2015

An audiobook listener on Goodreads wrote recently:

“I’m hoping the powers-that-be realize this (and care) and we’ll see more audiobooks being narrated by dual-gender narrators.

And I don’t mean simply dividing up the chapters between a male and female narrator to read…I like the dialogue narrated by the relevant gender.”

I can tell you why most books have a solo narrator: COST.

I produced and co-narrated the 4-book Blue Suede Memphis mystery series (fun, cozy mysteries with romantic elements) where I voiced the narrative and all of the female parts, and a male actor (my husband Drew!) voiced all of the male parts — a narration style known as DUET.

A DUAL narration occurs where 2 actors narrate all the characters’ lines in the chapters associated with their main characters’ points of view.

While I love the sound of the finished product and agree that having both genders makes the production so much more interesting, it’s a very time-consuming and tedious process to create an audiobook this way.

First, you have to have production rights to even be able to do a multi-voice production. One mid-size publisher told me that we couldn’t use 2 voices on a particular book because they didn’t have the production rights for it. I guess the production rights allow you to make a play or movie from the book’s text and are somehow different than audio rights.

Next, you cast the 2 actors and must coordinate their recording schedules. If I weren’t married to my co-star, the scheduling step alone could have derailed the production. The schedule is less of a consideration when the narrators are reading whole chapters instead of performing dialogue.

Once the schedule is worked out, you turn to the cost of studio time, both for the recording and the editing/mastering. The Big 5 publishers can afford real-time studio hours in big cities for their high-profile, bestselling titles. Everyone else — small and mid-size publishers and indie authors — usually looks to control costs by casting narrators with home studios. Depending on the project, the editing might be done by the publisher, the narrator, or an editor sub-contracted by the narrator.

Normally, my rule of thumb is that it takes 2 hours in real time to record 1 finished hour and 3 hours in real time to proof/edit/master for 1 finished hour. With the books in this series, we spent at least an additional hour on both phases. A book that runs 10 hours with 1 narrator (or 2 or more narrators who read different chapters) therefore might require 50 hours in real time to record and edit. The same book with 2 narrators and interspersed dialogue might require 70 hours of production time.

Studio time isn’t the only cost consideration. I also have the opportunity cost of other projects or promotion that I can’t do when an audiobook requires more time than usual to complete.

In this series, I did all of the narrative portions and the female voices. I left airtime in the dialogue where male characters spoke. As Drew directed me, he mouthed his lines and cued me in for my next sentence.

Then, we switched places; I directed him as we recorded his parts:

  • I cued him by playing my audio in his headphones.
  • I pressed Record in the software.
  • He delivered his lines. Everything true of solo narration is true here, too, as far as re-recording to fix inflection, accent, flubs, etc. In fact, it may be harder to be the 2nd person because you’re kind of coming into the dialogue cold. I think that person has to work harder to connect to the text because they weren’t immersed in the story to that point.
  • I stopped recording before he spoke over my next line.
  • Sometimes we originally left too much time for his parts, sometimes not enough. Sometimes his delivery caused me go back to my part and re-do it to change some nuance.

As a result, editing the dialogue is EXTREMELY time-consuming. When I am narrating all voices, as is customary, I naturally leave the appropriate amount of time between characters. The editor is not constantly adjusting the timing to make the conversations flow smoothly and naturally. In these productions with true M/F dialogue, the editor’s job was even tougher given the timing issues.

Due to the considerable amount of time needed for this kind of production, I’m not too eager to produce another one. Instead, I’m looking for dual narration projects with 2-3 1st person POVs (romance or mystery) where each narrator is responsible for entire chapters.

Do you like hearing books with 2 narrators? Do you know of a book for which you’d like to hear a dual narration in the audiobook? Please leave a note in the comments!

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Authors, Business, Observations, Voice-Over Tagged With: 2 voices, audiobook, Blue Suede Memphis mysteries, dual narrators, male and female narrators, voiceover

Audiobook Releases Fall 2014

31 January 2015

What would you do if you received a $20 bill on which someone had written “For a good time, call Kit” and a phone number?

Sherry Spencer decides that she’ll call Kit and let her know that her phone number was being circulated along with the currency. Any woman would want to know that, right?

Only…to Sherry’s shock, Kit isn’t a woman, but a man. And he’s not exactly thrilled to hear her news or anxious to retrieve the bill from her.

The next day, she’s not exactly thrilled to see Kit again. I won’t say how or where they re-establish their acquaintance because I don’t want to give too much away!

For A Good Time, Call by Trish Jensen is a sweet romance that runs 5 hours and 38 minutes. It read like all of my favorite RomCom movies and left me smiling at the perfect HEA ending! I hope you’ll enjoy it, too!


 
Buy on Audible  iTunes


Here’s a different scenario:  What would you do if you were the last person left on Earth following a nuclear war?

For 19-year-old Lita Day, the choice is simple: continue singing to the TV camera every night in the empty Copa.

Her husband Bill had said a man might hear her and would come to her. However, Lita was shocked by the visitors who actually showed up.

Eddie For Short is a 41-minute short story by prolific American science fiction writer Wallace West that is sure to give you something to think about!


 
Buy on Audible  iTunes


In October, I released a couple of cozy mysteries. The first was Return To Fender by Virginia Brown.

This fun book is the 4th in the Blue Suede Memphis Mysteries and is set in the week or so approaching Halloween. In fact, one of the biggest scenes in the book occurs at a Halloween party.

One of the leading drag queens in Memphis asks our heroine Harley Davidson (yep, that’s her name!) to find out who is trying to kill him. Harley isn’t a detective. She’s a tour guide at Memphis Tour Tyme.

Her friend and co-worker Thomas “Tootsie” Rowell is adept with computers and helps her get information. Her former boyfriend Bobby and current boyfriend Mike — both police officers — try in vain to convince her that she should leave the investigations to them.

Whoever it is thinks Harley is getting a little to close to the action and tells her to back off — or else.

As with the first 3 books in this series, Drew Commins, the hero of my life story, voices all of the male parts in this book, which runs 9 hours and 44 minutes.


 
Buy on Audible  iTunes 


Next came Yip/Tuck , book #4 in the Pampered Pets fun, cozy mystery series written by Sparkle Abbey. Each book in this series alternates between the POVs of 2 cousins, pet therapist Carolina LaMont and pet boutique owner Melinda Langston. This time, it’s Mel’s turn to tell the story.

She and her best friend Darby find Dr. Jack O’Doggle, one of Laguna’s best known plastic surgeons, dead outside of her Bow Wow Boutique. In trying to unravel the mystery of his bizarre death and find his killer, they learn most interesting secrets about several people in town.

Meanwhile, in a sub-plot, Mel and Caro are fighting over a brooch left by their grandmother to her “favorite granddaughter”. Naturally, each thinks she is the granddaughter in question, so they keep stealing the brooch from each other. We’re in on the fun as Mel plots and schemes about getting the brooch back in her possession!

The story has a lot of charm and humor. I especially enjoyed narrating Betty Foxx’s lines because Betty White seems to have been the model for this character.

Yip/Tuck is set at Christmastime and runs 5 hours 15 minutes, making this a perfect companion on holiday trips to see friends and family!


 
Buy on Audible  iTunes


December saw 2 releases: one of mine, and one for my husband Drew, which I directed.

Dead In Boca by Miriam Auerbach is audiobook #3 in the Dirty Harriet cozy mysteries.

In Boca Raton, Florida, Junior Castellano, a big-time land developer, hires PI Harriet Horowitz to find the silver-haired gigolo who broke Mama Castellano’s heart.

Simple enough, until the Boca police find Junior bulldozed at one of his construction sites. Was Junior killed by his mother’s con man? Or by a bitter ex-wife or spurned ex-girlfriend? Maybe by his estranged sons got the old man out of the picture for good.

The book has lots of laughs during its 6 hours and 49 minutes. I particularly enjoyed Harriet’s HELP test — the Horowitz Ersatz Lovers Profile — in which Harriet asked funny questions to determine whether Junior’s mama, Miss Lil, was getting scammed.


 
Buy on Audible  iTunes


After the success of Plague, a story about a terrorist unleashing the Ebola virus in Atlanta, Drew was excited to narrate H. W. “Buzz” Bernard’s latest suspenseful offering.

In this stand-alone story, Chuck Rittenburg is a washed-up, former tornado chaser/tour guide. A film director offers him $1 million to find the biggest, baddest F5 tornado within a 2-week window. Chuck hopes to not only find the tornado, but to regain the respect of his estranged son Tyler, who decides to help Chuck in this venture.

At the same time, an FBI agent wants to tag along on the quest. She isn’t tracking storms. Instead, she’s chasing the criminals who follow them and pretend to be emergency workers. The only help these so-called EMTs offer is to help themselves to the victims’ valuable possessions.

Bernard is a former weather forecaster, and he sprinkles his immense knowledge of and love for weather phenomena in unique metaphors throughout the book. His writing style really adds to the drama.

This is a great listen on a trip (especially in sunny weather!) as it runs 9 hours and 45 minutes.


 
Buy on Audible  iTunes
 

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Books, Narrators, New releases Tagged With: Atlanta, audiobook, Blue Suede Memphis mysteries, Christmas, Dead In Boca, Dirty Harriet series, dogs, Ebola, Eddie For Short, For A Good Time Call, H. W. "Buzz" Bernard, Halloween, HEA, Miriam Auerbach, new release, Pampered Pets series, Return to Fender, romance, romcom, science fiction, short story, Sparkle Abbey, Supercell, tornado, Trish Jensen, Virginia Brown, Wallace West, Yip/Tuck

Audiobook Production Advice from Audible Studios

29 January 2015

On 1/28/15, ACX.com hosted a Twitter chat with Darren and Chris from Audible Studios, who answered production-related questions from audiobook narrators on ACX.com.

I added the chat to a Storify page which can be viewed at this link.
 

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Away From the Mic, Business, Interviews, Narrators Tagged With: ACX, Audible, Audible Studios, audiobook, production, Storify

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Erggo

Karen@KarenCommins.com

© 1999-2023 Karen Commins // Site design by Voice Actor Websites // Affiliate links to Amazon are used on this site.