BookBrunch - Reproducing the inner voice

Recording an audiobook well, as opposed to merely mechanically, is as much a performance as a stage play or a film. It has elements of both forms. Analogous to a film, there are the three stages: pre-production (casting, research), principal photography (recording), post-production (editing, checking, correcting, mastering). And analogous to learning the lines before playing a part on stage, an audiobook reader needs to work thoroughly through the book, marking and annotating so that no time is lost in the studio settling matters that could have been decided or researched beforehand, and so that he or she knows how to stress sentences and can consistently produce characterisations.

No actor would contemplate going on stage unrehearsed, yet on several occasions over the years we have had well known readers arrive clearly having not read the book and relying entirely on the producer in the studio (good thing there is one!) to provide all the background knowledge and shape the performance. ("Right, what are we doing today?" said a television star bounding breezily into our green room one morning a few years ago.)