I try to limit BSP on my blog, really, I do, but every now and then you have to shout it from the rooftops! THROUGH THE VIEWFINDER is out in audio! Narrated by the gorgeous Jude Erin. She does a fantastic job and I love working with her.

With that bit of promotion done, I have to talk about audiobooks and narrators. More and more, the business is promoting AI narrators, and I’m not having it. I’m sorry, these people work for a living, too, and they bring so much more to the project than some manufactured voice. Is it pricey to employ a human rather than allow a computer to read your work? Absolutely. Is it worth the cost? Absolutely.

I’d been behind in publishing my work in audio, testing the market as if the water was ice-cold. I did a couple of books. I even tried to narrate a couple myself (LANDSLIDE and FAMILY ALCHEMY, for anyone who wants to have a listen). I have exactly one review on FAMILY ALCHEMY, which was less than complimentary. Once again, leave the narrations to the professionals. I may yet hire that series out. Then I decided it was time to catch up. At least a little.

I’d had EPITAPH done, and I’d had THE TWINS and THE MIRROR done. There were four more in the series, so I reached out to the original narrator, who did an OUTSTANDING job (shout out to Jane Oppenheimer). She wasn’t available. For various reasons, I decided to go another route. I found Karen Frantz, who did to a great job finishing up the series. I enjoyed working with her.

I was also doing the Elspeth Barclay novels at the same time, so I continued my search for another narrator. Jude Erin was very professional, and she had me in tears at one point reading my own book to me. Another fantastic pick.

Here’s the thing. Different narrators bring different skills to the table. For instance, in Epitaph, I had a couple of Gaelic words as the McCormicks are Irish. When I hired Jane, I had completely forgotten about that, including the fact one of the chapter-heading epitaphs was completely in Gaelic! Let me tell you how impressed I was that she was able to read it! Granted, the Internet has wonderful translation tools that will help you out, and I’m sure that’s how she accomplished that feat, but other narrators didn’t fare as well. As someone who is language curious, I often use foreign words in my work. One of my narrators struggled with that, as well as some English words. These were easily corrected in pick-ups, but I’ve learned to give my narrators a heads-up when I switch languages. One of my books was set in Spain, and the narrator who got that one did a creditable job. Some narrators send you a chapter at a time so you know how things are progressing. Some wait until they’re done to get your seal of approval. Each method has its own pros and cons.

Deciding who should do the next narration relies on a number of factors. While I really love one reader’s voice, I really love another reader’s professionalism, and then there’s the adaptability to my changing languages. Bottom line, I’d use any one of them again. They all bring something extra to the books and I’m very happy with their work.