Hello? Hello? Can You Hear Me?

 

Terry here with our question of the week: If you listen to audio versions of books, do you also read them? Why or why not? Or do you never listen and, if not, why not?

 I can’t say I’ve never listened to audiobooks. I have. At least three that I remember. Two of them were books by Bill Bryson that I’d already read, and one was Blind Faith, by Leslie Budewitz (writing as Alicia Beckman) that I read last year when I had to make an 11-hour round-trip drive.

I thoroughly enjoyed all three. 

 Why haven’t I read more? Simple. When I hear something that interests me on an audio presentation, I start thinking about that “thing” and the next thing I know the narrator has moved on…and I haven’t. And then I have to putter around trying to find where I left off. That’s easier these days, but there’s another reason I don’t listen to audiobooks: I don’t do much long driving. 

I imagine people who commute an hour or more each day enjoy listening to audio books. But my drives are sporadic. I might do a two-hour drive one day and then not drive more than 15 minute-spurts for days in a row. And when I’m home, I like to read print books. I also don’t listen to podcasts (gasp) except on rare occasions. I think I’m just not an oral learner. I need to see words on a page to really take in what I’m being presented with. 

 This doesn’t mean I don’t intend to have my books on audio at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later. I constantly get prods from readers who want the books on audio. But my personal indifference to listening may explain why I have dragged my feet in getting them onto audio. So many people seem to “read” by audio these days, that I think I have to get them out there so people can get to know Samuel. 

 There may come a time when my eyes won’t allow me to read as much as I’d like, and when that time comes, I’ll be eager to sample audiobooks—if my ears let me! Ha. Reminds me of that all joke. “If we had some eggs, we could have some ham and eggs if we had some ham.” 

 All of which brings me to the issue of audiobook narrators. I attended a panel recently on which there were some well-known narrators. One, in particular, has won numerous awards. I’d love to have him narrate my books, but I found that narrators, like any other service, come in many different cost ranges—and he was way out of my budget. My dream is to find someone who wants to hit the “big time” and who makes it big by narrating the Samuel Craddock books. Think Sam Elliot’s voice.

On October 1, six short weeks from now, my next Samuel Craddock book, The Troubling Death of Maddy Benson (the eleventh in the series--can you believe it?) comes out from Severn House. Please consider pre-ordering it.