Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself? How did you get into professional speaking?
I've always been a bookworm and always enjoyed reading texts at school (although I was usually too shy and never volunteered). During my studies - I have a master's degree in Indology and Religious Studies - I rediscovered my love of reading aloud by opening a channel on YouTube and reading texts to complete strangers. I enjoyed it immensely and the listeners obviously liked it too, because I kept getting more subscribers.
That motivated me to keep going. At some point, the author C.M. Spoerri wrote to me and asked if I would like to set one of her novels to music. That was a huge honor for me! I'm still grateful to Corinne today for putting her trust in me and I like to think of it as the start of my professional voiceover career, because it was the first time I'd been paid to speak. I then finished my studies, but in the meantime there was a faint hope that I might be able to turn my hobby into a profession. And so I decided to see where the path would take me if I concentrated fully on speaking. Because I was passionate about it and I wanted to at least give it a try.
I knew that, as an untrained actress, it wouldn't be easy to get into audiobook speaking, but that's where I wanted to go! And so I took every opportunity to record books for authors. Sometimes they wrote to me, sometimes I wrote to them. The intervals between jobs got shorter and shorter, the pay got higher and higher, the authors got better and better known and at some point I realized that voice acting had actually become my profession.
You have an insanely great voice! Is it a kind of musical instrument for you?
Thank you very much for the lovely compliment. I was ambivalent about my voice for a long time. I've always loved singing, but for a long time I didn't like my speaking voice at all. I always found it far too high and would have preferred a deeper, darker voice. It was only over the course of many audiobook productions and through feedback from listeners that I became friends with it and today I am grateful that I have it.
With regard to the question of whether it is a kind of musical instrument for me, I think that it is of course changeable, just like a musical instrument, and you can use different highs/lows, tempos, degrees of hardness etc. depending on the mood. For me, however, this happens more subconsciously by feeling the text rather than simply reading it. But you can definitely see the voice as a musical instrument, depending perhaps on what you personally are most likely to use to express emotions.
What appeals to you about voicing audiobooks?
I love good stories! And when I read them out loud, the characters and events come to life in a completely new way. When you read a good book, for me at least, it often creates a movie that plays out in your mind's eye. When I narrate a book, I'm not just an observer of the book, I play every role myself, just as I imagine it.
You are no longer bound to what the author writes, but can give the roles in the story a completely new face by giving them a voice that sounds soft, hard, funny, bored, arrogant or loving, for example. It's just so much fun!
When you have a new audiobook project, how do you go about it? Do you have to settle into the roles first?
First of all, I read the text to get an idea of what kind of book it is and what it's about. If there are lots of different characters, I make notes in advance about how I want to create their voices. This is helpful for the individual book, but also has the advantage that I can look up any subsequent volumes that may be published. I also like to mark the dialogues in colors so that I can see at a glance who is speaking.
That way I don't have to start over so often and the editor has less to do later. The fact that I 'settle into' the roles comes automatically through reading/the story itself. If a book is well written, it creates an emotion in the reader that I can ideally convey in my voice. I rarely use any specific preparation for this.
How long does an audiobook production usually take?
First and foremost, of course, the time frame depends on how long the book is that is to be set to music. Based on the experience I've gained over the last few years, I always calculate a ratio of 1:3, which means that about three hours of work are calculated for one net hour of audiobook. This covers the time for recording and mastering. If you include the preparations and proofreading, you end up with a ratio of 1:5.
So a ten-hour production can mean 50 hours of work. As I work together with a sound engineer and the proofreading is usually done by the authors, we share the work so that such a production can be completed in as little as two weeks.
What do you enjoy most about breathing life into stories?
If I had been braver and less shy in the past, I would have liked to have become an actor like my father. It's a lot of fun to slip out of your everyday role into different characters and give them a voice.
Are there any stories that are particularly suitable for audiobooks?
I would say no. Audiobooks have become a constant form of entertainment in almost every household. Be it for the businessman who listens to an audiobook about agile project management while driving, for the housewife who might like to learn about vegan cooking, on a family vacation where the Meyer couple might be listening to Simon Beckett's latest thriller together by the pool, or in the afternoon gossip session where two women discuss the latest releases of erotic audiobooks.
I believe that audiobooks work across all genres. But if you look at people's consumer behavior, it's probably pure entertainment literature that covers the majority of the audiobook market.
Do you have a favorite audiobook?
I'm a frequent reader and rarely read/listen to a book/audiobook twice. But of course there are authors or narrators that I particularly like and that I listen to again and again. For audiobooks, I usually download either thrillers or fantasy books. For the former, I prefer a male voice. Simon Jäger is one of my favorite narrators. For fantasy audiobooks, I'm a big fan of Ann Vielhaben, she reads incredibly vividly. I'm currently listening to the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas, which she narrates.
Do you have any tips for authors who want to have their book produced as an audiobook?
- Choose the right narrator for your story. It's best if you can get an audio sample of him/her with your text in advance, because that's the only way to know whether it's really what you want for your audiobook. Once you've chosen and agreed, there's rarely any going back.
- If possible, get quotes from different production companies and compare their services. Personal contact also plays an important role here. You need a partner with whom you feel you are in good hands.
- Make sure that you can talk to the voice artist in advance about how you imagine certain characters or how names should be pronounced.
- Make sure that you have another opportunity to make corrections (if words have been misread or mistakes have been made in the editing) and that these are implemented.
- If possible, plan the publication of the audiobook together with the publication of the eBook or paperback.
- Think about whether you want to handle the distribution yourself or whether you want to put it in professional hands. If you already have your hands full with writing and publishing eBooks/paperbacks, it makes sense to hand over the distribution to trustworthy hands.
- Use social media channels to draw attention to your audiobook. If possible, have short audio samples made that you can use in advance to arouse people's curiosity.
- If possible, work with bloggers who can also promote your audiobook.
If there is a general interest in the audiobook medium, take the plunge and ask for a non-binding quote. I often get feedback that authors experience their book in a completely new way through audio and that it is a really nice experience.