Why I Hired Eleanor - An Audiobook Story

After finishing my first book, I had a long, internal debate with myself as to whether I should spend a bit on having it narrated for an audiobook. There was a moment in which I even considered reading it myself. You know, like Neil FREAKING Gaiman. 

I am not Neil Gaiman.

My voice is the harsh grating of a chair leg on ceramic tile. Five hours of that would turn anyone away from my novel. Hell, it might turn them away from reading.

The thing was, I recognized the crazy ask in handing a book over to someone. I’m saying, “Hey, I haven’t written anything more than song lyrics before this, but please spend several hours of your free time reading about this pretend world I made up.”

More than that, I struggle to find time on my own to read books from authors I know and love. I haven’t even been able to keep up with my own backlog, but I’m asking friends and strangers to invest in my work. 

My album can play in the background of any situation. When you go to Wal-Mart to buy Preparation H, I can be your soundtrack. And I am forever grateful for that memory we make together. 

But a book is different.

It’s a lot of time, and I’m thankful for those that took a chance and dug into the world I’ve created. You all freaking rock.

That said, I wanted the ability to reach people that are like me. People that read almost exclusively through audiobooks while cooking or driving because life feels too chaotic and stressful to sit with a book and experience anything other than frustration at the inaction of it.

I know, I know, millennial joke.

Once it was decided that, yes, I’d splurge on an audiobook, I went to ACX to try and decide on who would fit this world the best.

There’s so many narrators across the widest range of budgets that it felt overwhelming. I could hire someone that had audio samples from their iphone. They would charge me about $200 for the finished book and it would sound like those audio memos you make when you’re driving to Home Depot for mouse traps but have a great idea for a business selling plastic replicas of roman statues on Instagram. Or whatever your memos are about.

There were also people that had back catalogs of pretty famous books that charged thousands of dollars for a novel the length of mine.

Cool, but my wallet shivered while I looked through their work, so we moved on.

I combed through hundreds of profiles. Seriously, I’m not exaggerating.

I knew that I wanted a woman to narrate, as the primary arc is that of a young girl, but I felt overwhelmed and tired every day that I went through more audio samples and narrowed my price point.

Finally, I stumbled upon Eleanor Caudill. If you’ve listened to the audiobook, hers is the voice you will hear. I listened to some of her previous work and immediately knew that she was a perfect fit.

She has a calming tone and easy command of disparate voices. Her cadence was never too slow or too fast and she read the story as I always hoped it would be read: like it was a movie playing out through stereo speakers. 

Even after the book was finished Eleanor continued to help promote and even reached out with helpful resources and suggestions. (Most of which will appear in a future blog outlining what worked best for me in self-publishing and what you absolutely should avoid.)

Because of Eleanor, I have a fantastic and easy entry point to my series. If someone is worried that I suck, they can spend one measly audible credit and check out the world of Aberthene without as much concentrated investment as before. And I think that’s key.

I want as many people to read this book as possible. Reaching them is an uphill battle...or some other cliche saying...I don’t know. It’s a pain.

Eleanor’s talent has ensured that the first impression of Addeleigh Simmons is a great one. And for that, I am very thankful.

So if you’ve written a cool book and you’re debating investing in the audiobook, I would absolutely recommend it. What’s more, I would recommend considering Eleanor as your narrator. She’s super professional, her turn around time was crazy quick and she gave me an end product that I’m so immensely proud to share around.

If you want to check out her work, I’m linking her facebook and ACX profile below. If you’d like to hear her read my book, shoot me an email and I will try my best to get you a free code. I can’t wait to hear what you think.

I’m bad at wrapping up blogs, but I guess my point is this: Don’t stop after you’ve created something. That’s just one part. Continue to invest and promote and to make sure that you are putting out the highest quality product that you can. Books, art, music, plastic replicas of roman statues for instagram...whatever. Believe in yourself.

And hire Eleanor.

Thanks for reading.

Eleanor’s Facebook (go like it): https://www.facebook.com/eleanorthestoryteller/

Her website for booking: https://www.eleanorcaudill.com/audiobook-narration

My audiobook: AUDIBLE