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Audiobook lovers - would you listen to ten hours of this?

I recently made a video of myself reading the first chapter of my fantasy novel, Death & Magic - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_YJnfmnMdA

I'm considering an audiobook edition of the book, and was wondering whether my voice is sufficiently euphonious for me to narrate it. So, if you're someone who listens to audiobooks, regardless of genre, would you want to listen to ten hours of me reading to you?

(Don't worry about hurting my feelings - people tell me I mumble and speak too softly. Technology allows me to compensate for that to a degree, but I don't know if it can compensate enough. If you fancy a laugh, turn on the captions or subtitles (the "CC" button at the bottom right) to see what YouTube *thought* I was saying.)

If you'd rather just listen, an audio-only version is here - http://www.pembers.net/wd/chapter-1-long.mp3

Thanks!

Update:

That was a more positive response than I was expecting :-) Now that you mention it, I do tend to speak faster than average when reading aloud. When I was at university, I used to write plays for the student radio station, and would record myself reading them to time them. When I got the actors in to record them properly, I found they lasted about 25% longer than my reading.

Good point about distinguishing the voices - I can do different voices, but most of them sound silly. Maybe I'll try different accents...

When I started on Y!A, I didn't realise there were different national sections. Every question seems to get copied to all the other national sections anyway, so I didn't think it made any difference... until I noticed that each country had its own leaderboard.

I don't often get mistaken for someone else, though with seven billion of us on the planet, I shouldn't be surprised if I have a double somewhere. I live in Hertfordshire, which should be enough for any real stalker to fi

11 Answers

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  • 10 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    With a little training, I think you could get really good at narrating! You have a few problems though: First, you're a little monotonous here. For people to want to listen to you for ten hours like you said, you have to be a little more animated. Second, it's difficult to tell the characters apart. You should try to give each of them a distinct voice so that people can tell who's talking. A few other people here have already mentioned that you mumble in some places, but like I said before with some training I think you could iron out your technique and become a really good audio book narrator! (By the way, I also commented on YouTube as Regenesska, if you're wondering why the two answers sound similar!)

  • 10 years ago

    Lovely voice and accent. You speak softly, but I had no problem understanding; just had to turn up the volume a little.

    As in all your videos, good technical work, too: Good sound quality and the lighting is perfect.

    I didn't get the impression that you're going for a "dark, brooding..." (as one comment on the video site stated), but, yes, the reading is rather quiet and somewhat monotone.

    Such a terrific story deserves a bit of spark and energy!

    My opinion? It's already good; if you could amp it up a bit, it would be more fun to listen to. I believe that might also solve the problem some mentioned of distinguishing the characters. You don't need drastically different voices. The text makes it clear, plus you've done well using slightly different tones; well enough that I had no trouble knowing which character was speaking.

    From my post on YouTube: I'm reading the book and have read this part. How enjoyable for me now to not only hear you reading it but to see you. I've enjoyed all your videos immensely.

    You are a talented man, Steven.

    ~

  • chorle
    Lv 7
    10 years ago

    I does sound better than text to speech when I listened on the kindle 3.

    I had a hard time getting loud enough on the computer I am using.

    You seem like you should sound better with more like you maybe don't orate that often.

    Many of the podiobooks guys have redone first few episode as they got better equipment and know how to read for it. There have been things said about talking slower for recording audio.

    since I am an audio fanboy and not a pro and too lazy to do my own podcast, I might not have the best advice.

    the audio only did not like me. I did not get it to play.

    I could find your Faust parody but I thought I remembered you sounding better in that video.

    CC button is funnier than reading Google Voice speech to text

  • 10 years ago

    There's nothing wrong with your voice or accent - it's always nice for us non-North Americans to hear an accent from elsewhere in the world. Your voice is quite calming and soothing. The volume also seems good in my fairly quiet environment, although I don't know how it would go if I needed to turn the sound up, say in the car.

    I have no trouble understanding everything you're reading, but I would suggest working a little bit on your diction anyway. The audio would be improved if you read a tiny bit more slowly and enunciated more clearly. Also, you did a good job of not having the page-turning noise most of the time, but I heard it once or twice.

    Good luck.

  • 10 years ago

    I would, yes. You've got the kind of voice that I could listen to for hours on end. Other people tend to have a voice which drones on and sends me to sleep, but yours is okay.

    The CC got it pretty accurate for a change, I did that once for Coronation Street and you don't want to know what it came up with...Let's just say it wasn't for innocent eyes!

    Anyway, like I said I would listen to you reading your book. You're good. I hope you don't mind me saying though that you look utterly bored. :P

    Which area are you from? The more I look at you the more I recognise you for some reason...

    EDIT: A little too far away from me in that case. XD

    Source(s): (And I just realised how stalker-ish my comments seemed... Not intentional!)
  • Unkurg
    Lv 5
    10 years ago

    Your voice has a good cadence, but in this clip it is a bit too soft. My impression was the reading of a bedtime story to a child. Of course this does not mean that it won't fly. With practice and outside direction and coaching, I feel you can do a very good job.

    I hope the book is doing well, Steve! Take care.

  • Anonymous
    10 years ago

    I thought it was great, although a little quiet, but still good. Lol at the CC!

    How come you're on the USA Books and Authors leader board when you're from the United Kingdom?

  • 10 years ago

    Yes.

    I'd say speak up and just speak and try not to slur words together; I noticed that at a few points

    I looked at the subtitle. Ha!

  • ?
    Lv 5
    10 years ago

    Hell to the yeah. Audio books are good for the car, and you got me interested in your fantasy novel, Steven. I would totally read that.

    EDIT: Love your accent. And you look like my teacher. xD

    Source(s): ~Celeste
  • 10 years ago

    I would suggest reading a little bit more slowly. It would help your words come across more clearly.

    Other than that it sounds good.

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