Audio books are an exciting frontier for literature these
days. In an industry where flat is the new up when it comes to sales, audio
books continue to see double digit increases. I admit I was not much of a
connoisseur. The few I listened to never seemed to capture the story for me.
And then Jannie Meisberger approached me about producing an audio book of Never
Doubt a Duke, and I fell in love.
Jannie was born in England. She attended a British boarding
school, where she studied elocution. She has university degrees are in Modern Languages (French and
German) and Communication & Theatre Arts. How perfect for a
narrator! I was just as delighted to discover that she now lives across Puget
Sound from me. I thought you’d enjoy learning more about her and the audio book
process.
What made you decide
to become a narrator? I had studied music and acting in school in England
and worked for an international organization in Europe before moving to America
and raising a family. I inherited my mother’s ability to pick up accents and
dialects and had great fun ‘performing’ bedtime stories to my children as they were
growing up!
After a career in international education, I decided to get
back in acting, this time voice acting. I completed a number of projects,
including children’s concert narration and recording public domain poems and
short stories for LibriVox, before deciding that my passion was audiobook
narration. I recorded my first audiobook in 2014 and have now recorded 36
audiobooks with number 37 in production.
What do you love best
about being an audiobook narrator? I
get to travel through time, journey into different worlds, real and imagined,
voice a myriad of characters, and bring
all these wonderful stories to the world of audiobook listeners. It is also a
joy to collaborate with a group of creative authors that I am honored to call
friends.
What drew you to Never
Doubt a Duke and the Fortune’s Brides series? As a schoolgirl in Bath,
England, I fell in love with Regency period novels, notably Georgette Heyer, as
well as the classic Regency authors including Jane Austen. I have narrated a
number of Pride and Prejudice variations, so you can imagine how
delighted I was to come upon Never Doubt a Duke and the Fortune’s Brides
series and discover that they had not yet been made into audiobooks. I was even
happier to discover that Regina lived not far from me, so I had the opportunity
to meet and chat with her about her writing career in general and Never
Doubt a Duke in particular.
What’s your secret
for creating an audiobook that captures the characters and the story? Lots of careful preparation! The average time a narrator spends per
finished hour of the audiobook is between 4-8 hours preparation, sometimes
more. This includes requesting character descriptions and pronunciations of
names from the author, as well as reading the manuscript several times through,
listing all the characters and voices for each. I make short recordings of each
voice for reference and check various online resources for pronunciations of
certain words. Being English, this means checking both the English and American
pronunciations of many common words, to ensure whichever pronunciation I choose
remains consistent throughout the book!
What was the most
challenging about recording Never Doubt a Duke? I always keep in mind that
the author has spent many months, even years crafting each book, and it takes a
leap of faith to trust a narrator to give just the right voice to the story. I
truly believe we are a team. The author’s words are the stars, and I hope my
voice allows the listeners to be enthralled by the story. When Regina and I
met, she shared her concerns about an audiobook version of her book, and I am
so happy she trusted me to record this first book in the Fortune’s Brides
series. It has been a true pleasure to narrate, and I’m looking forward to
narrating the continuing journey of Miss Thorn and dear Fortune through the
peerage!
So, stay tuned! Jannie is currently recording Never
Borrow a Baronet too!
You can learn more about Jannie at https://www.voicebyjannie.com.
And you can find her marvelous recording of Never Doubt a
Duke at
I am a huge fan of audio books, and a huge fan of Regina Scott, both the person and the author. So I was excited to experience her work in my favorite medium. I ADORE this audio book. I vastly prefer audio books read by the author, and I thought it would bother me that this is not in Regina’s actual voice. But Jannie’s charming British accent nails the tone of the books and brings the characters to life.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jannie and Regina for this lovely collaboration. I hope to hear more of the adventures of Fortune the cat and the nonpareil Miss Thorn.
Oh, I'm so glad to hear this, FOR! Thank you so much for your kind words. Here's hoping the book resonates with many others as well.
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