Preserving the Mystery or Not?

[SonOfTheExiles]

I've been pondering a question to ask our professional readers.

When as an audiobook reader, you are marketing your voice, should you:

A) Add a face to the voice?

B) Preserve the mystery so as to be all things to all listeners?

Obviously the utterly gorgeous will probably go with the visual reveal, Hollywood-style, but 4'11" Walter Mitty types like me have to do all they can to increase the odds.

Cheers,
Chris

[Availle]

I think it depends whether you use your real name or a pseudonym.

If you use your real name anyway, it's likely that people will google to find out how you look like, so you can just as well use a photo on your website.

Personally, I don't think what people look like is important (unless you want to be the next Miss Universe), but others may disagree.

[TriciaG]

There can be bias introduced when a picture is available. Just yesterday on the radio, I was hearing of an instance where two co-workers in the same field send out the same form letter email to (customers, potential customers, whomever; I don't remember exactly). It includes a picture of the sender to make the note more personal.

The emails of the visible minority had a substantial decrease in responses.

This is anecdotal, of course, but I do like the "all things to all people" approach, especially with voices. It doesn't matter your age or color; it matters how your voice sounds. Or at least, it should.

IMHO, and YMMV, and any other acronyms I can think of.

[smike]

I never look up how a narrator looks, it really doesn't matter to me. If I like the voice and narrating style, then that's good enough for me. Same with authors, btw.

[sjmarky]

I don’t, mainly because I don’t want someone to look at the pic and decide I’m too old for the book. You may not have this issue.

[Monaxi]

B.