Audiobooks discussion

We would like to welcome narrator Robert Fass. Monday & Tuesday April 4th & 5th.

With over 125 unabridged audiobooks to his credit, veteran actor Robert Fass has eight Audie award nominations and has received the award twice (for History and Audio Drama). Robert has also earned multiple Earphones Awards, including for his narration of Francisco Goldman's novel SAY HER NAME, named one of the 10 Best Audiobooks of 2011 by AudioFile magazine—a list on which he also appeared in 2012 and 2013. Robert has given voice to modern and classic fiction writers alike, including Ray Bradbury, John Steinbeck, Carlos Fuentes, Isaac Asimov, Ellery Queen, Steve Berry, Jeffrey Deaver, and Nele Neuhaus, plus bestselling nonfiction works in history, politics, health, journalism, philosophy, and business.

In December 2014, he undertook to resurrect a favorite novel by acquiring the rights and publishing the first audio version of Russell H. Greenan’s 1968 uncategorizable cult classic IT HAPPENED IN BOSTON? which consistently sits near the top of Goodreads’ Great Underrated and Obscure Books list. Released in partnership with Blackstone Audio, the result received widepsread coverage—ranging from mainstream press, including AudioFile and Publishers Weekly, to online magazines and popular blog sites such as LiterateHousewife.com, dogearedcopy, and Locus Magazine.

Here are some links:
Robert’s Audiofile Magazine Page
http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/narr...
Robert’s Audible Page
http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_s...
Robert’s Soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/robertfass

And his website
http://www.robertfass.com/index.html

Robert and his publisher have been generous enough to offer the following giveaways,

1 copy of It Happened in Boston? by Russell H. Greenan, courtesy of Blackstone Audio;

1-3 copies each of The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 by James Shapiro, courtesy of Tantor Media;
and The Mulberry Bush by Charles McCarry, courtesy of HighBridge Audio.

Unfortunately these giveaways are only available for US addresses.

Thank- you for joining us Robert !

I will start out with a couple questions and everyone else can chime in.

How did you get started in the audiobook world?

What was your first audiobook?

Do you have a favorite genre to narrate?

Good morning all, and greetings from NYC, where 2 days ago it was in the mid-70s and now there is snow falling outside my window! Thanks for inviting me to participate in this great series for these couple of days, it’s a pleasure to hang out at Narrators’ Corner. I am seated at my desk at last with my smoothie and a cup of tea, so I’m ready to dive in, starting with your questions, Susie:

How I got started:

A bit of background first - I have been a professional working actor for nearly 40 years, classically trained, and working primarily on stage for the majority of that time. Along the way I developed a particular niche in improvisational theatre and both performed and taught in New York for several years. Combined with that experience I was always fascinated from childhood with comedy and spoken word recordings, and spent some time in the punk/new wave scene in Washington, DC, where I grew up (anyone remember a band called Insect Surfers?). That gave me some early basic experience with recording technology.

My mother was a librarian and my first job in high school was shelving books at my local public library, and so my love of reading and literature was instilled early (not that you’d have known it from my grades in English class at the time!). My father was a volunteer reader for the blind in DC for 25+ years and, when he passed away in 1997, in his honor I began volunteering at the InTouch Network here in NYC, an invaluable radio reading service housed at the Jewish Guild for the Blind. By luck of the draw, on my first visit I was asked to fill in for one of the two volunteers who read from The New Yorker magazine, and I wound up doing that weekly for 11 years. It was the best conceivable training for audiobook narration you could want: reading the best fiction, essays, poetry, and criticism live (and unrehearsed!) on the air for thousands of listeners.

Now to zero in on the answer to your question: one day about a dozen years ago, a fellow volunteer — a very good actress named Katherine Puma — offered me an invitation she’d received to a seminar being given by the Audio Publishers Association (APA). At that time, they were seeking to bring more classically trained performers into the narrator community and she correctly thought that I had an interest in pursuing that work. I attended, listened to the panelists (which included stellar narrators such as Grover Gardner and Davina Porter), and was given the opportunity to submit a sample recording to one of the producers — in my case, Max Bloomquist at Brilliance. He sent me back a moderately encouraging response, saying that I might find some occasional work in this field.

So I went full tilt into preparing a demo recording showcasing my abilities with as many styles as I could and sent it out to every producer and publisher listed in the APA directory. Out of all of them, there were two who responded very quickly and enthusiastically and said they were very eager to work with me. Even with that, it took nearly a year before I booked my first job, and another year before I got my second, so it took a lot of patience and perseverance.

My first audiobook was for Audio Renaissance, which is now Macmillan Audio. It was a Jeffery Deaver novella called "Forever" which appears along with a Sharyn McCrumb novella called "The Resurrection Man" read by Carrington MacDuffie. It was released as Transgressions: Death's Betrayal: Two Novellas from Transgressions Novellas 5 and 9 as part of a series put together by Ed McBain.

The following year I was chosen by Ray Bradbury himself to narrate my second title, which was a beautiful and curious short novel called Farewell Summer. This was the sequel to his beloved classic Dandelion Wine. He wrote it over a 50-year period, and sometimes you can tell by the subtle variations in style and rhythm... but it's Ray Bradbury, so in my book it's already wonderful by default. And it was a huge boost not only to my self-esteem but to my visibility in the industry.

As for a favorite genre, I am very lucky in that I have built a career that crosses a great many genres, and I'm grateful that different publishers think of me for different kinds of books. I think that like a lot of narrators I particularly enjoy work written in 1st-person, as it allows more immediate emotional access to the material. As a result, I especially enjoy memoirs and 1st-person literary fiction. But more than anything else I just love great writing, and it's been my good fortune to get wonderful books to narrate pretty much from the beginning.

I also like writing that challenges me as both as a narrator and as a reader. Authors who create worlds that require you to invest thought and intelligence and attention into the experience of reading/listening, whether it's fiction or non-fiction.

Good morning , Robert
Welcome to the group.

I'd like to ask what your dream book to narrate would be , if you had your choice of any book ,whether it's been previously narrated or not ?


And when you read for your own enjoyment , do you prefer print books or audio. , and when you listen to audio , who are some of your favorite narrators that you enjoy ?

Thank you.

Julie wrote: "Good morning , Robert
Welcome to the group.

I'd like to ask what your dream book to narrate would be , if you had your choice of any book ,whether it's been previously narrated or not ?


And whe..."

Since I've realized my 1st-choice dream of narrating Russell H. Greenan's amazing It Happened in Boston? (one of the giveaways on this Q&A), I think next in line would be Stanley Elkin's epic George Mills. Elkin was my favorite 20th-century American novelist and I have always loved his darkly comic explorations of America and his crazy, Faulkner-influenced, jazzy language riffs where he leaves the plot completely behind and just goes where the words take him. Audible put out a bunch of Elkin's work a year or two ago, but I don't think George Mills was among them. So, hmm... you're giving me ideas. Perhaps a phone call is in order!

As for reading for enjoyment... one of the few downsides of being as busy as I am with narration is that for years I've rarely been able to read a book solely for enjoyment! But I tend toward print for the most part as I like the tactile experience of paper between my fingers, feeling the heft of the book, and knowing how far I am from the end. There are few narrators who I've listened to in depth, and any list I include here will inevitably leave out some great names... but I certainly enjoy listening to Simon Vance, Dion Graham, Johnny Heller, Simon Prebble, Barbara Rosenblat, Robin Miles, Katy Kellgren, Grover Gardner, and many more. Great narrators all.

Do have have any upcoming projects you are excited about and are allowed to talk about?

MissSusie wrote: "Do have have any upcoming projects you are excited about and are allowed to talk about?"

I do! This has been one of my busiest years ever so far, and in the next month I think there's something for everyone. Let's see:

For fans of historical/literary fiction, I've got two beautifully written debut novels in a row coming out. Tomorrow marks the release from Macmillan Audio of Australian writer David Dyer's The Midnight Watch: A Novel of the Titanic and the Californian, a fictionalized account of the events that took place on the S.S. Californian, the ship that was within sight of the Titanic as it was sinking and ignored her 8 distress signals. It's a carefully crafted book and quite riveting.

Then, on April 12th, The Houseguest is coming out from Tantor Audio. It's by Kim Brooks, and it's set in the world of Jewish immigrants in upstate NY and Manhattan in 1941 as word of what's happening to Jews in eastern Europe is beginning to reach America, and how the arrival of a mysterious refugee, an alluring actress from Poland, sets a series of major events in motion.

For sports fans, Hachette is re-issuing the works of the late George Plimpton, who famously published a number of books of "participatory journalism". It was my pleasure to narrate his first, Out of My League: The Classic Hilarious Account of an Amateur's Ordeal in Professional Baseball, in which he attempts to pitch in an exhibition game at Yankee Stadium to Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and many other greats... and completely melts down. I had a great time with that one; it began to feel like Plimpton had taken up residence in the booth with me.

There are a few others, but there are two I'd particularly like to mention. On May 3rd Hachette is releasing a powerful new novel called Imagine Me Gone, which I co-narrated with Ellen Archer. That involved three 1st-person characters and one of the most challenging psychologies I've ever had to inhabit. I think there is going to be a lot of attention paid to the print edition, and I hope we did it justice in audio.

Finally, I am going into the studios at Penguin Random House later this week to record a book called Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America. This is a collection of essays written by Calvin Trillin and originally published in The New Yorker. I'm honored that I'll be meeting the author; I mentioned earlier that I cut my teeth as a narrator reading The New Yorker for the visually impaired, and I particularly enjoyed reading Trillin's essays on food. He's such a great writer, and it's a wonderful opportunity to help bring his perspectives on the Civil Rights Movement to a new audience of listeners.

Well look at that I already had Midnight Watch on my wishlist so will be listening to that one, I've also added The Houseguest and Imagine Me Gone to my TBL list as well!

Hello Robert ! Thank you for joining us.

I just put The Midnight Watch: A Novel of the Titanic and the Californian on to my wishlist at Audible. Looks right up my alley. While I was there, I quickly scanned some of your other works. Duplicity is another I added. Did you have the opportunity work/talk with Newt when you did this one?

I'm glad to see a lot of history to your credit. If you had to choose between only fiction and non-fiction for the remainder of your career, which would you choose?

Grumpus wrote: "Hello Robert ! Thank you for joining us.

I just put The Midnight Watch: A Novel of the Titanic and the Californian on to my wishlist at Audible. Looks right up my alley. While I wa..."

Hello Grumpus! I did not meet Mr. Gingrich. I was told he was expected to be there for the first day of recording but it was a false alarm.

As for choosing between fiction and nonfiction, that's an extremely tough call for me. I've built my career on not having to choose! And I might give you a different answer from one day to the next. On the one hand I'd like to say fiction because it is truly an unlimited category filled with millions of distinct voices and worlds both internal and external to explore; but on the other hand we seem to be living in a time where those who ignore history are in danger of repeating it... So if I can play a part in keeping historical events and concepts fresh in the minds of listeners, I'd consider that a worthy calling! (And of course there is a pretty vast amount of terrain to explore under the nonfiction banner as well!)

MissSusie wrote: "Well look at that I already had Midnight Watch on my wishlist so will be listening to that one, I've also added The Houseguest and Imagine Me Gone to my TBL list as well!"

Great that you and Grumpus both have The Midnight Watch on your lists! I thought it was an excellent book and will be eager to know what you think of it (but I warn you, my engineer was crying by the end...). In fact, I recommend listening to something cozy and/or funny before immersing yourself in either of the other two!

Hi Robert, this is Aurelia for AudioFile. Thanks for joining us! I'm interested whether you read the entire book you're working on ahead of time or limit yourself to preparing what you'll narrate the next day? And what kind of notes do you make for yourself? By the way, I love your description of channeling George Plimpton for Out of My League: The Classic Hilarious Account of an Amateur's Ordeal in Professional Baseball!

AudioFile wrote: "Hi Robert, this is Aurelia for AudioFile. Thanks for joining us! I'm interested whether you read the entire book you're working on ahead of time or limit yourself to preparing what you'll narrate t..."

Hi Aurelia! (Sorry for the slow reply, I'm running around for a few hours this morning.) I am a strong advocate for reading the book in advance. Always. For one thing, a narrator needs to know what the overall dramatic arc of a book is – whether it's fiction or nonfiction – so you can serve the author's intention. In addition, for fiction, you need to know everything about your characters before you voice them. This is basic acting technique and we narrators have to be, at the very least, competent actors.

The most obvious pitfall example of not reading in advance is choosing a sandpaper-y Cockney voice for a character, getting nine hours into your recording and then discovering on page 300 that the author makes reference to their "flutey Irish brogue". But you also need to have an understanding before you begin of a character's emotional journey over the course of the book, where the turning points are, etc.

When I prepare a text, I work on simultaneous tracks. First and foremost, I am going through the text as a reader, taking the ride of discovery as the author intended. Along the way, I am making note of terms about which I have pronunciation questions (even if I think I know them...if I have any doubt it goes on the list), as well as, if it's fiction, a list of all the characters who speak in the book – both for hints and descriptors given about their voice and for indicators about a character's physicality, personality, energy... everything I can mine from the text. Add to that clues about the milieu; the setting is often a character itself.

And over it all is the author's voice, which it's my job to serve as a narrator. All mysteries are not created equal: Ellery Queen, Frank Tallis, John Verdon, and Nele Neuhaus are all notable mystery writers, but their styles and voices are profoundly unlike each other.

Once I've done all my research and built that level of understanding of the text, then the book becomes my score and I am prepared to perform it.

I'm not sure where you're located but do you record from a home studio or travel to a studio to do your recordings? Do you have any voice "warm up" routines to loose up the pipes?

Robert wrote: "AudioFile wrote: "Hi Robert, this is Aurelia for AudioFile. Thanks for joining us! I'm interested whether you read the entire book you're working on ahead of time or limit yourself to preparing wha..."

That's all fascinating, thanks Robert.

I'd never thought of how a character's physical description (other than a mention of a voice) and descriptions of milieu influence how a narrator (at least, you in particular!) builds the sound of a character. So interesting.

Grumpus wrote: "I'm not sure where you're located but do you record from a home studio or travel to a studio to do your recordings? Do you have any voice "warm up" routines to loose up the pipes?"
I've lived in New York City for over 30 years. Mostly on the Upper West Side but five years ago my wife and I moved up to Riverdale, in the Northwest Bronx. I was able to put in a recording booth there and I would say I record 80% of my work from home. Being in New York, however, allows me to go into Manhattan to record at the various studios used by the publishers here. In just the last two months, I have recorded in-house for Penguin Random House, Macmillan, and Hachette Audio. I'm returning to Penguin Random House tomorrow to begin recording the Trillin book.

I love being able to record in my pajamas on my own time, but it's a treat to go somewhere where I can just focus on the performance and they provide an engineer and a director. And yes, I do have a lengthy vocal warm-up routine of exercises that I've assembled over the years. I also cut out all caffeine, alcohol, and dairy starting the day before I begin recording. So I celebrate a finished recording with a scotch and a quesadilla!

How have you seen the audiobook business change since you started?

Do you still act? or is that secondary now?

What type of book would you consider the hardest/easiest/funniest to narrate?
When you audition for a book is the author usually present?
After you get the role does the author work with you on shaping the character voices or is it more your choice?
Keep up the awesome work!

MissSusie wrote: "How have you seen the audiobook business change since you started?

Do you still act? or is that secondary now?"

The audiobook business has changed in many ways since I started. For one thing, the scale of the industry has grown to a degree that I think was unimaginable back in 2003. The digital revolution and the subsequent disruption of traditional publishing means that there is an exponentially greater number of books being published and, as a result, an exponentially greater number of audiobooks. That has, on the plus side, made a great deal of work more accessible to the reading/listening public and allowed authors at all levels new platforms for getting their work published. I'm a proud union (SAG-AFTRA) professional, and I'm very happy that where the audiobook workplace was once the wild west, nearly all of the major and intermediate-level publishing houses are now either signatory to a union contract or offer work through a signatory paymaster. That means for every book I narrate I'm earning health and retirement benefits, something that is critical for myself and a great many members of our community.

On the minus side, that also means that there's a lot of stuff out there that perhaps should never have been published in the first place, which of course then trickles into the audiobook world. But that's how things are now—and as a result, again, both good and bad have resulted. There are many more people entering the narration field, which tends to push rates down and the lack of filtering has made for a great deal of variety in terms of quality - both in terms of acting ability and on the technical side. (I've never heard an audiobook where sirens and lawnmowers are audible in the background, but apparently they exist...)

What has NOT changed in my experience is that the narrator community is filled with talented, generous men and women who have carved out a strong network of mutual support despite the solitary nature of our work. It really still has a "family" feel in a lot of ways and I'm grateful to be a part of it.

When you ask if I still act, my immediate answer is absolutely, because that's what I am doing every second I am sitting behind the microphone! But I assume you mean outside of narration, right? The answer there is that acting on stage has evolved into a somewhat secondary pursuit, but the urge is always tickling at the back of my mind. I do still regularly utilize my improvisational and performance background as a coach for corporate training in a wide range of industries, engaging in both role-play and facilitation for business groups all over the country. That fills in the occasional gaps between audiobooks and I love the balance it provides - the opportunity to play a character face-to-face with another individual.

Gildo wrote: "What type of book would you consider the hardest/easiest/funniest to narrate?
When you audition for a book is the author usually present?
After you get the role does the author work with you on sh..."

Hello and welcome! Good question - I think the hardest type of book to narrate is one where the writing is bad. I am very lucky to be at a point in my career where nearly all the books I am offered are well-written, sometimes exquisitely so. The second hardest challenge for me is a room full of different characters in conversation.

The easiest is a book whose language flows, has a natural emotional undercurrent, and whose thoughts are organized in some way. I just had a great time co-narrating Walter Tevis's sci-fi classic Mockingbird, along with a wonderful narrator named Nicole Poole, and it was particularly easy to inhabit the first-person diary entries of the character Paul Bentley, whose sections dominate the narrative. His character undergoes a great, humanistic awakening and it was a very natural thing to voice his thoughts.

As for author involvement, by and large, by the time I've been brought on board to narrate, the author has stepped back. He or she has done their job, and now it's my turn to do mine. The producer has hired me, often with author approval (unless the author's dead... at least I've never yet been turned down by a dead author), and they trust me to do my best with their work.

To bounce back to MissSusie's previous question, there is a whole other side of the audiobook world nowadays that didn't exist 10 years ago, and that is Audible.com's ACX platform (owned by Amazon) which enables authors and rights holders to directly engage producers and narrators who bid on the right to do their book. In those cases, the author is usually the rights holder, and thus plays a greater role in the creation of the book. I have only dabbled in that space a couple of times, with rights holders I've trusted.

By the way, folks - just a reminder that we will be giving away copies of three of my audiobooks when this is all over:

It Happened in Boston? by Russell H. Greenan
The Year of Lear by James Shapiro and
The Mulberry Bush by Charles McCarry

and to give you a sense of what they're like, here is a link to my fan page on the AudioFile magazine website. You can read their reviews of each of them, and I hope you'll take a moment to read the Op-Ed piece I wrote for the magazine about the creation of the It Happened in Boston? audiobook to see why I (and anyone who's ever read it) think it's so special.

Robert wrote: "The answer there is that acting on stage has evolved into a somewhat secondary pursuit, but the urge is always tickling at the back of my mind. ..."


HaHa as an actress in local theater I totally get this statement! I am always up for doing a show!

MissSusie wrote: "Robert wrote: "The answer there is that acting on stage has evolved into a somewhat secondary pursuit, but the urge is always tickling at the back of my mind. ..."


HaHa as an actress in local the..."

Yes, and then you remember that mortgage payment that's coming due...

Robert wrote: "MissSusie wrote: "Robert wrote: "The answer there is that acting on stage has evolved into a somewhat secondary pursuit, but the urge is always tickling at the back of my mind. ..."


HaHa as an ac..."

Exactly!

Morning Robert,
Just a quick question from me,
When you are deep into the story, do you find you absorb some of the characteristics of the people you play? Do they affect the way you act in real life?
Have you ever found it difficult to distance yourself from a story once you have completed it?
Regards, Bec

Audiothing wrote: "Morning Robert,
Just a quick question from me,
When you are deep into the story, do you find you absorb some of the characteristics of the people you play? Do they affect the way you act in real l..."

Bec,

What happens in the booth stays in the booth... for the most part. I think if anything, though, it's the energy of a book that I tend to carry around with me while I'm working on it. But if there is a particular character that's a challenge for me vocally, I have sometimes stayed in "that voice" so it remains easily available to me when I get back behind the mic.

Then I have a definite wave of post-partum depression when I leave a book behind. Which is helped a bit by the aforementioned scotch and quesadilla... but mostly by getting started on the next book!

Robert wrote: "Audiothing wrote: "Morning Robert,
Just a quick question from me,
When you are deep into the story, do you find you absorb some of the characteristics of the people you play? Do they affect the wa..."
Good answer! Similar to what happens after listening to a really engrossing audiobook

Guess it's around dinner time up in your part of the world, but here's another question
When you are in the midst of recording, what happens if you need to drink, (or something) can you just turn off the mic for a few seconds or is it majorly disrupting to the recording process?

Dinner's in the oven... but I've got a few minutes still to spare!

It's not an issue at all to pause for a sip, whether working on my own or in-house with an engineer. It's relatively frequent for me to have moments that force a stop (flubbing a word, a mouth noise, a stomach gurgle, etc.) so, if I need to, I'll just have a swallow of water (or Throat Coat tea, I keep both in the booth with me at all times) before diving back in. Rule One for narrators: keep yourself hydrated!

Thanks to all for taking part - it was a pleasure. For anyone who wants to keep up with my new releases, I invite you to like my Facebook page here. Susie, I leave it to you to organize the winners; PM me with the details and I'll pass them along to the publishers.

Hey lurkers! This is your chance to speak up if you want to get in on the giveaways!

All the best,
Robert

Thanks so much for joining us, Robert!

Gildo is the Winner of It Happened in Boston?

Grumpus Is The Winner of The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606

Julie is the Winner of The Mulberry Bush

Please PM me your addresses!

Thank you so much Robert for taking the time to join us !