Hey folks! It’s Alex Breck here, and I have some exciting news from my little Scottish island.
After much chin-scratching and deliberation, I finally decided to go for it. I’ve just published my second Ridge Walker adventure thriller as an audiobook. More than that, I opted to do the narration myself!
So you’re getting to hear the actual words, spoken by the guy who wrote the book.
What possessed me to narrate my own audiobook?
It was a labour of love, to be fair, and I can now understand why most authors wouldn’t contemplate doing their own narration. I also have unbounded admiration and the greatest respect for people who do narration work full time!
Why did I venture down this path? Was it penny-pinching? Remember, I am Scottish after all, and we DO have a reputation to uphold! I was born in the Kingdom of Fife on the East coast of Scotland and we have a particularly bad rep for being tight with our money. There’s an old saying that goes like this – it takes a lang spoon tae sup wi’ a Fifer.
To be honest, my decision was only partly motivated by money. It costs several thousand dollars to secure the services of a professional narrator, like the incredible Chris Barnes, who narrated my first book, He Who Pays The Piper. He did a wonderful job, no question, as far as I am concerned. But there’s little chance I will cover the outlay in this lifetime, judging on the audiobook sales thus far.
Customer feedback is always good
But, the decision was made for an entirely different reason. It was a visceral response to a throwaway comment made by a reader I met from the Philippines, at an international event. He said he liked the audiobook, but couldn’t get on with the narrator’s accent. He queried why didn’t I ever consider narrating my own books. When I asked him why he’d said that, he mentioned that I have a gentle Scottish accent, which he thought people would find easy to understand. He added that he found my voice pleasant to listen to. At this juncture, around half a dozen people from different countries’ all piped up (excuse the pun) and said the exact same thing.
And so the deed was done. It took much longer than anticipated, of course. But what better excuse for a prevaricating author, struggling to complete his latest masterpiece? And now that’s it is finally ‘in the can,’ I’m raring to go for the audiobook of the third Ridge Walker thriller, The Piper’s Promise.
So keep your ears open, okay! And in the meantime, grab a mug of coffee, pull up a comfy chair and settle down for an aural adventure. Grab your audiobook here.
