We’re delighted to have narrator Summer Roberts here with us as we continue to celebrate Audio Books with Audio Book Lovin’! Welcome Summer!
Summer: Hi Ladies! Thank you so much for having me!
Viviana: How about we begin with you telling us a bit about yourself and how long have you’ve been narrating and how did you get into the gig?
Summer: I’ve always loved reading and writing stories, and particularly romances (I’d sneak reading Nora Roberts books on summer vacations!) I have a friend who is a professional narrator and actor who suggested I might enjoy the work and be good at it, so she told me about the business, encouraged me to practice, and then put a profile up on ACX. Much like with online dating, I was like “what do I have to lose?” My first book was in 2012, Jasinda Wilder’s Big Girls Do It series. Jasinda, who is amazing and the reason I have an audiobook career, found me on ACX, liked my samples, asked me to audition and we’ve worked together ever since. Now, looking back I am so glad I listened to my friend! The audiobook community is amazing and so supportive of each other. I’ve found some of my best friends in this business. If only the online dating thing was as easy! J
Viviana: For you, how does an author/narrator relationship begin?
Summer: The author/narrator relationship is actually my favorite part of being a narrator. I love getting to know authors and am honored that they trust me with their words and their characters. When an author contacts me directly about doing a book, I usually start by asking for a sample of the book, going to their website, seeing if they have other audiobooks up on Audible, etc. I want to do every book justice and build long-term relationships, so if I don’t think I’d be a good fit for the book, I don’t want to lead anyone on, so to speak. If I like the work and the author likes my read of it (I almost always send samples, though sometimes an author will hire me just based on hearing other books I’ve done) then we sign contracts and go from there. I love working with authors on multiple books, either stand alones or a series. It’s great to see the characters change and grow, and I love following the journey just like the fans!
Viviana: What sort of information does the author (or the publishers) provide you prior to starting the narrating process of the book(s)?
Summer: I get a copy of the book in PDF form, so I can make notes and highlight it on my iPad. I use a great app called iAnnotate, which is a gift to narrators! You can mark up the pages just like you would on paper. It makes the recording process go much more smoothly. If it’s an author I’ve never worked with before I usually ask them to send me a character list with descriptions of each character and how they hear the voices, any clues to get me closer to matching what they hear in their head when they write. This is really helpful and starts us off on the same page. Then I read the book, making notes, looking up things I don’t know or am curious about, asking questions along the way (name pronunciation usually! No one is ever just named Rachel Jones!) Anything that helps me get more into the world of the book. All that research will hopefully come through in my performance and helps me feel more confident in the booth.
Viviana: How do you go about selecting how each of the characters are going to sound like? (i.e. their tones and accents)
Summer: A good writer will give a lot of hints as to how a character sounds so I will underline those descriptions and make notes. Personally I like to have a picture of the character in my head. Good writers flesh out these characters so well that an image pops into my head while I’m prepping. Sometimes a character will remind me of a person I know in real life or a celebrity and I make a note to think of that voice when I narrate that character. Everyone speaks in a way that represents who he or she is as a person, their point of view, what they are trying to hide or put out into the world. Motivation will lead to sound and how they speak to different people along the way. I also love listening to people in real life. Everyone sounds different! Slow, fast, clipped, nasal, monotone, laughing while speaking, sighing heavily all the time, annoyance at everything, pure joy, etc. You can vary your character voices by altering the rhythm rather than the pitch and get much more range. So often it’s the cadence someone speaks in that makes their speech distinct, not their pitch.
Viviana: Along the lines of the previous question, how do you manage or what is your process of remembering what the character from a previous book sounds like when they reappear in a new book (or if not part of a series, but standalone, characters as they pop in and out of the story)?
Summer: This is tough because sometimes you’ll think it’s a stand alone and then the author will be like “Oh I wrote a sequel from this tiny, tiny character’s POV!” and then you’re like, “oh man, that character had two lines in the first book so I made them Irish!!!” Then you’re screwed. So I like to ask authors if they plan to write another book or spin off and usually they know yes or no way ahead of time. I also try to be really subtle with small characters just in case. J As for working on a series, I take a lot of notes and keep them in a file for the next book. This is where having a mental image of a real person or a celebrity is really helpful because just a name can trigger a voice and the memory of that character. I also go back and listen to different sections of books to make sure I’m remembering the characters correctly.
Viviana: As readers we get the completed product to listen to. Nicely wrapped up in its pretty cover! However, a lot of work goes into making audiobooks. Tell us about the narrating process (i.e. do you read the book before narrating it? How long are the recording sessions per day? How long does it take for you to narrate a book? If you make a mistake while recording, what happens?)
Summer: The most common misconceptions about audiobook narration are that a) you just read it straight through without stopping and if you mess up you go back to the start, and b) that if you can read and talk you can narrate. The fact is it’s a really hard job. And anyone who listens to a lot of books knows that just reading and talking is not enough. It’s storytelling, creating an arc to the performance, putting yourself in the characters’ shoes, and matching your tone to the writing and what’s happening at any given time. I always, always read the book ahead of time. That way there are no surprises and I just wouldn’t feel confident enough to tell the story truthfully if I didn’t know what was going to happen and who was who. The length of recording time depends on the book, but industry standard is 2 to 1. So if a finished book you download from Audible is 7 hours long, it took the narrator roughly 14 hours in the booth. (But that’s not including the prep and research time.) So a 7-hour finished book might take 25-30 hours total on the narrators end all in, and then another 14-20 hours on the engineer’s end for postproduction. I usually do 6-hour days in the booth. When you mess up, you go back to the start of the sentence you messed up on. Not the start of the book! That would be horrible. J
Viviana: So… we often hear authors say they have a writer’s cave, where they go and do their work. Do you have something similar (i.e. home studio)? Or if you work in the publisher’s studios, do you bring certain things with you and if so, what are they?
Summer: I keep a picture of my dog with me and stick her up on whatever booth wall I’m in for the day. I had an engineer say to me once, “Hey you’re getting kinda frustrated, do you want to look at a picture of Georgie or something?” And I started laughing and was like “YES!” so I keep a picture of her in the booth and then when I start to get frustrated or tired I just look at her and it calms me down. Other than that, I always have lip balm, water, an apple or apple juice, and my favorite lavender hand cream from L’Occitane. It smells amazing and helps me stay focused and relaxed.
Viviana: Here’s a fun question we have been wondering… as a narrator, do you get “oh say it in ‘the voice (i.e. Character’s voice or the “narrator” voice)” question often? Or do you get that sort of requests at all?
Summer: I haven’t really gotten that question about characters, but definitely about doing accents. People like to ask me to say things in a French dialect or British or Russian. It’s usually awkward. J
Viviana: One of our favorite narrators Lorelei King tends to have a little bit too much fun with the engineers when it comes down to the sex scenes… all in good fun! Being that romance is one of the genres you narrate how do you go about managing/handling/working through those steamy hot scenes?
Summer: I have to be totally honest, when I narrate sex scenes I usually end up cracking up! I almost always misread something in a scene that makes it not sexy at all, like “She put her hands on his wrist” instead of waist, and end up just laughing. The laughter is a good release, and helps lighten everything up. You can’t be sexy if you’re too serious! J
Viviana: What do you do for fun? When you’re off the clock.
Summer: I have a dog, Georgina, who is the best walking buddy a girl could ask for. I love to listen to a book and walk for an hour or more. I also do yoga and recently got into coloring. It’s so relaxing. I love not staring at a screen for a while and doing something with my hands.
Viviana: What are you currently working on and what’s next for you?
Summer: I’m thankful to have a busy summer coming up. Jasinda Wilder’s amazing Madame X series conclusion will release on August 1st (you guys, this conclusion is crazy!!!) I will also do a new book called Spinning Out by Lexi Ryan, which is a dual voice with Tyler Donne. We love working together and since our Audie win last year we have been getting more calls to do books as a team. It’s been really fun!
Viviana: Let’s have a little fun and “get to know you with some “Lighting Round Questions” Ready?
Cats or Dogs? Dogs
Vanilla or Chocolate? Vanilla
Coffee or Tea? Is wine an option? J
Texting or Talking? Talking!
TV or Movies? Movies
Facebook or Twitter? Twitter
Favorite Holiday? July 4th!
Favorite Song right now? It’s old but Shake it Off is my jam of the moment
Favorite TV show? I’m ashamed to admit it… but right now… The Bachelorette
First Book you ever bought? Oh that’s tough! I think it had to have been a Saddle Club book when I was like 12. I was obsessed with those books and had my own babysitting money then so that was probably it J
First Audio Book you ever listened to/bought? Well not counting the books on tape I had as a kid, it was There Goes the Bride by M.C Beaton, read by Penelope Keith. I love British cozy mysteries and am hooked on the Agatha Raisin series! It’s so good!
Viviana: If someone has not listened to any audio book before what would you tell them?
Summer: Do it! J Listening to a book transports you to another place, and is relaxing and educational at the same time. If you have long commutes or trips it can be a great way for the time to fly by. I would recommend starting with a book you’ve always wanted to read but never had time to or never got around to. You’ll be invested in the story right away and then can let the narrator take it from there.
Viviana: This was awesome! Thank you for hanging out with us today!
Summer: Thank YOU so much! It was fun! And thank you for supporting the audiobook community and helping to spread the word about this wonderful industry, authors and talent.
A little more about Summer:
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Madame X
Madame X invites you to test the limits of control in this provocative new novel from New York Times bestselling author Jasinda Wilder.
My name is Madame X.
I’m the best at what I do.
And you’d do well to follow my rules…
Hired to transform the uncultured, inept sons of the wealthy and powerful into decisive, confident men, Madame X is a master of the art of control. With a single glance she can cut you down to nothing, or make you feel like a king.
But there is only one man who can claim her body—and her soul.
Undone time and again by his exquisite dominance, X craves and fears his desire in equal measure. And while she longs for a different path, X has never known anything or anyone else—until now.
*****
Omega
When you make an enemy of a man like Vitaly Karahalios, there is nowhere on earth you can go to escape his wrath. He’ll find you. He found me, he found Roth. He found Layla.
He found us, and now the unthinkable has happened. Someone I love has been kidnapped.
Again.
This isn’t a fairy tale.
Not everyone will get a happily ever after.
Sometimes we can’t just walk away from the past.
Love doesn’t always save the day.
The beast won’t always get his beauty.
But maybe, just maybe we can get our happy ending.
******
Big Girls Do It Married
Life was finally starting to make sense. And then he showed up…again. Now, I have to make the biggest decision of my life, and someone will end up heartbroken. I can only hope that someone isn’t me.
*****
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