A sound decision: How audiobooks allow book lovers to continue 'reading' in the age of distraction

When Shilajit Mitra, an avid reader who is fond of his hardcovers and Kindle, first discovered audiobooks, he found the experience was "like listening to an audio play or to a sitcom." The narrator's voice was engaging, the background sound effects had dramatic impact, and the episodic transitions between different parts of the book and characters in the story were seamless. "It helped me finish heavy books, including some that I had procrastinated on reading since my college days," he shares. Among them was Bertrand Russell's 900-and-something-pages-long ‘A History of Western Philosophy'.

"Though listening to fiction is easier than non-fiction, one can easily listen to conceptual books chapter wise. Audiobooks give us that sense of time," adds Mitra, who is a journalist by profession.

‘Reading', or rather listening, to full-length books in a shorter time is one of the advantages of the audiobooks, explains Mitra, and this is due to the hands-free access they allow, while engaging in other activities. While this can mean you are only loosely following the plot, you do not get completely distracted and end up grasping what the story is about.

Currently hooked to the titles of the Serge A. Storms series by Tim Dorsey, Mitra says, "I think we are all looking to cut down on the devices we use. An audiobook is another supplement or another choice for digital reading and is much handier. We have the space to choose between different reading options."

Manish Dongardive, a voice artist and audiobook narrator whose recent narration includes the famous ‘Kalki Trilogy' by Kevin Missal, observes that people love good stories and audiobooks are providing a unique way of accessing these stories. "The power of the voice sometimes supersedes visual storytelling and people have started realising that. This is one of the creative reasons why there is a surge in the demand for audiobooks in recent years."

According to a Financial Express report, the global audiobook market which was valued at $4 billion in 2020 is expected to grow to $20 billion in 2030. The Indian trade book market, excluding educational titles, is estimated to be anywhere between $500 million to $1 billion.

"Since our launch in 2018 in India, we have seen a significant increase in demand for audiobooks and podcasts. Today there is a lot more awareness among listeners and from our experience so far, once a customer is initiated into the world of audio, they come back asking for more," says Shailesh Sawlani, general manager and vice president, Audible India. The company recently expanded its free content catalogue for members as well as new listeners.

Making of an audiobook

So, how do audiobooks come together? Benaifer Mirza - who has narrated well known books such as ‘10 Judgements That Changed India' by Zia Mody and Shobhaa De's ‘Starry Nights' and ‘Second Thoughts' among other diverse titles - explains a book may reach an artist directly through the publishing house or the author, via streaming platforms such as Audible or Storytel in India and sometimes through coordinators. While some publishers conduct auditions, sometimes the artist is approached directly.

Benaifer Mirza narrated her first book 'No Strings Attached' by Sheila Kumar in 2017and has been awarded at the India Voice Fest in 2020 and 2021. Image courtesy: Benaifer Mirza

A run-through with the script provides the narrator with a general sense of the story, genre and the tone of the writing. Understanding the personalities of the characters and the way the author is trying to tell a story adds to the artist's recording experience. "We try to paint mental pictures of these characters in our mind and try to find a voice in our head for these characters before actually getting into the recording studio," says Dongardive.

The voice artists stress upon language fluency as a pre-requisite for narrating a book for digital listeners. A narrator's comfort level in a language determines the manner in which the story will be delivered. While practice can improve the skills with time, to be able to sustain the tone, voice texture and confidence for a period of three to four hours, one needs to have a strong hold over the language they are narrating in.

Having narrated a few Hindi titles for Audible originals such as, ‘Sasural Wonder Phool', ‘Kaala Paisa' and ‘Buri Nazar', Dongardive, says, "In my experience, people who grow up studying in English and reading a lot of Roman texts at their workplaces too, find it difficult to read the Devanagari script. Initially, I found it difficult, but learnt with experience."

While the recording is usually done in a studio, the pandemic has encouraged people to set up home studios and record the books from the comfort of their rooms. Once a book is recorded during a period of two to three weeks, the studio team edits the audio and flags mistakes if any. There is also a team in place for checking the quality of the audio, marking errors such as pronunciation mistakes, misread and omitted lines. Once these errors are spotted, the audio is sent back to the narrator to fix them. The studio team, including a team of sound engineers and producers, compiles the audio, provides finishing touches, adds music or special effects if required and then sends it to the publishing platform, which releases the final audio.

Narrating an audiobook, not a regular audio assignment

Both, Mirza and Dongardive, emphasise on the long hours of recording sessions that go into the process of producing an audiobook. Unlike audio dramas or series, where there's a voice for every character right from the protagonist to the supporting characters, audiobooks require one narrator to voice a variety of characters in the book.

According to Dongardive, who has narrated several epics and mythologies which require the narrator to voice multiple characters alone, observes that recording with other people eases the environment with a space for spontaneous reactions and energies to respond to, whereas, in audiobook recordings the narrator is talking to themselves, has to respond to themselves and yet has to sound realistic enough for the listener to not only comprehend, but also enjoy the story. While this is challenging and can be physically tiring, narrators have to act according to the emotions of the characters.

Manish Dongardive narrated his first book, which was a children's fiction, in 2011. Image courtesy: Manish Dongardive

"As an audiobook narrator, one is trained to endure and be calm in such a situation. It's lonely and hours of pain and suffering, but it's also a meditative and a spiritual experience where we enter into a different zone, block out your physical pain and struggle and focus on the world you are transporting yourself into, which is the story," says Dongardive.

Mirza recalls spending about 20 hours recording one of her favourite books, ‘Hangwoman' by K.R Meera, originally written in Malayalam. "The book truly tested my modulation skills. Its female protagonist was power with vulnerability personified, and I'm so happy to have been her voice. Every single minute of my narration had me thinking ‘what next?'" she says.

"To maintain the same style, voice and modulation rendered to each character across those 700-800 pages, without sounding bored or out of character at any point of time is as much of a goal as well as a challenge for a narrator. Narrating an audiobook is like giving life to a book or a story, just through the power of your voice, minus the visuals or music that you may have in most other types of audio content," she adds.

What's appealing to the listeners?

As someone who has grown up reading books and for whom reading and writing is an inseparable part of personal and professional life, Mirza contends that audiobooks enable the listeners to "close their eyes and transport themselves into a completely different world" and "it's still the world of words and beautifully written stories, all brought alive through the power of one magical voice".

The creative immersive impact and the narrator's captivating voice nudge the readers to imagine what they are listening to. The guiding voice is a novel experience with every audiobook, fiction or non-fiction, which becomes one of the major appealing factors for the listeners. Whether it is the chirping of the birds, sounds of children playing alongside a well, women of a village talking while they are engaged in their chores or whether it's just the protagonist narrating their story, the listener is able to tag along, interact with these characters and feel it all on their own.

"The effect, quite unlike a movie, is that you are not a passive listener. The voice of the narrator helps the listener to conjure up images of the different scenes and characters in a book," says Karen D'Souza, who is a narrator herself and enjoys listening to the ‘Harry Potter' series and ‘Roald Dahl' books with her kids together.

Time is another major factor urging booklovers to switch to audiobooks, partially at least, and remain in touch with reading amid the need to multitask and keep up with tight schedules. At a time when we complain about blurring differences between home and work life, spacing out to read books with complete focus has indeed become challenging. The increasing penetration of audiobook platforms has provided a suitable alternative to ease the task and counter the self-guilt of not being able to ‘read enough'. As Dongardive notes, the workload of trying not to shift attention from a physical book is taken off when you are listening to a book. One can just put on their earphones and indulge in a book while going for a walk, cooking, eating, cleaning their house, traveling or even while going for a breezy walk to escape hardships of the day.

While Karen says, "There is no replacing the smell of an old library book. However, with us living fast paced and hectic lives, audio books have a fantastic future in the flexibility that they offer. Moreover, the attention to detail and the way that books are dubbed today promises listeners a high quality listening experience, on the go."