LibriVox Forum

The Art of Audiobook Narration

Celeste Lawson is recording studio director for the National Library Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped in the Library of Congress. In this video, she explains techniques for becoming a skilled audiobook narrator, demonstrating the subtleties of performance, enunciation and diction.

https://youtu.be/xxbXlwsMj1s

I thought this might be interesting to those who are considering becoming professional narrators.

Winston

Very interesting - I think many readers would get things from it , there was a very small section about picking narrators but even that gave an idea of things we could all aim for.

Anne

That is a very interesting video!

This one I found interesting (I paraphrase):

You can go on youtube and listen to author's interviews where they say their own name, presumably correctly.

Pity our authors are all dead by now...

And in the end I had to chuckle when she started with "For more information,..."

"A good book requires a good narrator, and a bad book needs a great narrator."

That is an excellent guide to narration, and how not to be boring. In her judgement I must be a very boring reader. So I must see to it!

Thank you for posting this video link. Ms. Lawson is very insightful, and her vocal examples are helpful, too.

OOOO!! This lady is fabulous!! She even made 'Library of Congress" sound good. Super inspiring and just what I needed to hear. How is this not mandatory viewing for readers? Thanks for sharing. I just posted this on my FB site under "Up your bedtime story game."

The mandatory things at LV are bit rate etc
USA PD text
Understandability
then to quote our founder

the rest is up to the whims, passions, desires of the volunteers who wish to record, and we make no judgments about who should or shouldn't record.

Anne

Yes, you’re right. Mandatory was overzealous. I was thinking of it more from the angle of getting the amazing people who give so much of their time to do this fired up to read to the very best of their abilities – stir up their whims and passions. You’re doing something amazing here!