Janey Mac is coming to Audible ...and it will shatter a long term prejudice...

Increasingly, people are choosing to listen to rather than read books and Janey Mac will soon be available in narrated form. I recently engaged a very talented narrator, Maria Johnson, who will soon begin the work of 'translating' Janey's story into something that you can listen to if reading is not your thing.

I have to admit, I've always been a reader rather than a listener, but there isn't a great deal of logic to my preference. After all, I regularly listen to radio plays or even to 'The Archers' on the BBC so why did I have a bias against listening to a book? I can't really asnwer that, except to say that I am something of a creature of habit. The move to an electronic reader was quite enough for me, thank you very much. Why would I want to make my life more complicated?

And yet, in my book club, probably about fifty per cent of us regularly listen to rather than read the book of that month. They offer several reasons for why, but amongst the most common are: the ability to multitask while listening (that pile of ironing seems less daunting if you're avidly following a murder mystery); the fact that a good narrator brings the characters to life in a way that reading about them doesn't always manage and the joy of never having to prop up a heavy tome!

I think an epistolary novel like Janey Mac is ideal for the audible form. You'll never be confused as to whose email you're listening to - Maria will make sure of that. For anyone who has not quite made the jump into audiobooks yet, this might be the place to start. A strong narrator can turn listening into something intimate and vivid. You are not just hearing the story. You are immersed in it.

It seems to me that different parts of the brain are engaged when listening rather than reading. Some people do both at once, which I haven't tried yet myself. While reading certainly makes it easier to check back if you've missed something, listening perhaps allows you to create even more vivid 'pictures' than reading does. Or maybe not. What do you think?

Why didn't I simply narrate the book myself, some of my friends have asked. For one thing, I'm not an actor and I simply can't imagine having to 'speak' my characters into existence, besides which, my monotone would probably make the novel seem like one long, boring monologue. Secondly, I'm told that Amazon KDP doesn't accept just any old person to read a book for them, so I found Maria by putting out an 'Audition' call to which she responded. Several other people did too, and while they were perfectly good, none of them captured the essence of my characters in the way Maria did.

Was it easy getting Janey Mac ready as an Audible? Now that is a whole other blog which I will post in the near future!

Suffice to say that Maria will soon begin her work and Janey should be ready for your ears in early December. I'll keep you updated!