Audiobook boom is good news for Canadian actors and listeners

In a downtown Montreal recording studio, seasoned actor Tom McCamus, known for his work on stage and in films such as Room and The Sweet Hereafter, put on his headphones, stepped up to the microphone, and heaved a sigh.

He was gearing up to breathe new life into Michael Ondaatje's classic novel In the Skin of a Lion by turning it into an audiobook.

"It's the first time I've done it," an admittedly nervous McCamussaid. "I called some friends who do [audiobooks] a lot and asked them and got some advice on what to do. I hope I do a good job for Michael."

The project is part of a boom in Canadian audiobook production led by Amazon-owned Audible. Eighty per cent of its newly commissioned audiobooksof Canadian novelsare being produced in Canada, and the company has pledged $12 millionover three years to develop new content.

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In the Skin of a Lion is one of more than 50 audiobooks begun since Audible launched its Canadian website in mid-September to bolster its previous catalogue of around 100 Canadian titles.

The company has also partnered with Canada's richest literary award, theScotiabankGiller prize, as a sponsor. This year, according to BookNet Canada, sales of five Giller-nominated novels went up 1,115 per cent after they made the Giller shortlist.

Audible's game plan is to use well-known Canadian actors to interpret classics of contemporary Canadian literature, hoping to capitalize on the popularity of audiobooks, particularly among young, university-educated women,and the nearly 20 per centgrowth in sales over the past three years.

Add to that the estimated 35 titles being converted to audiobooks by Penguin Random House Canada's brand new in-house audiobooks production division, and you have plenty of new work for Canadian actors.

Even the prime minister has signed up, reading the foreword of his 2014 memoir Common Ground,while the bulk of rest of the book will be narrated by actor Colm Feore.

Learning new craft

This fall's surge in acting workis welcome, but it's also opened up an awareness that the art of reading an audiobook is a skill that needs nurturing.

That's where Braden Wright comes in.

The experienced voice actor first became interested in audiobookswhile living in the United States two decades ago. He has been hosting training sessions forToronto-based actors who want to learn the "acting acrobatics" that it takes to successfully read an audiobook.

"It's a one-person show," Wright said, with the narrator in most caseschanging pitch and accents to bring to life all of the book'scharacters male andfemale.

"The funniest misconception isthat it's [simply] reading a book or that, 'I can read, I can do well' when really there are things that are very specific about audiobook work."

One major difference is that, unlike most acting work, the narrator must remain somewhat in the background.

"There's a certain kind of neutrality that you have to do in reading the book, because you want the listener to create what's happening," McCamussaid. "If I tell too much of the story through my own interpretation, then I get in their way."

'It's like a marathon'

Another requirement is stamina, since an average audiobooktakes at least 20hours to record with retakes.

"It's like a marathon," said Sarah Mennell, who was recently in studio to read Michael Redhill's Bellevue Square, rushing to get the Penguin Random House Canada audiobook ready in time for the Giller prize gala, an award that Redhill ultimately won.

"Halfway through, I think I'm not going to be able to finish this book, I'm not going to be able to finish this day, this hour."

Despite the long hours, Mennell appreciates the creativity involved, and she's building a bank of accents for future audiobooksgigs.

"I'm in the age range of my career where parts are declining," she said. "With audiobooks, Iget to play all these different characters thatI would not be able to play on film or television."

A starry world unto itself

It's not only Canadian actors opening up to a new world of audio opportunities, but also Hollywood stars.

Many, including Claire Danes, Nicole Kidmanand Colin Firth, have twigged to the acclaim that can come from reading into an audiobook fan's ear.

But there is already a star system in the audiobook world. Barbara Rosenblatmay be familiar to Netflix fans as the actor who plays Miss Rosa in Orange is the New Black, but to book listeners, she's the Meryl Streep of audiobooks.

She has narrated more than 500 and she literally wrote the book on it.It's called Audiobook Narrator: The Art of Recording Audiobooks.(No, there's no audiobook version of it yet.)

While Mennellhasn't done nearly that many, she's already won praise for her read, from fans as well as the author whose vision she interpreted.

"She'sreally imbued the book with its tone, the tone that I wrote," Redhill told CBC.

"I've listened to her read the book, andI feel like I'm entering it from a different direction," the Giller prize winner added. "I can actually see and hear things in the storyline that I wasn't necessarily aware of, because she picked out things of her own."

Am I cheating when I listen to a book?

With the explosion in popularity of audiobooksand more people being introduced to the format, there's also the niggling question that keeps coming back to torment fans of the medium: Is listening to an audiobook in some way cheating?

Daniel Willingham, professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Virginia who studies the brain processes behind reading, hates the question but he'll gamely answer.

Is listening to audiobooks cheating?

7 years ago

Duration 1:00

Cognitive psychologist Dan Willingham walks us through the answer to a question he hates: Is listening to audiobooks cheating?

"The answer is a very clear no," he said emphatically. "Listening to an audiobook is not cheating.

"There's an enormous amount of overlap between the mental processes that you would engage to read a book on paper and listen to a book on audiotape."

He adds the caveat that the reader should be at least 11 years old, with their skill at decoding text already fully developed.

In some ways, audiobooks can actually be more difficult than reading an actual book,Willingham said, since the listener has to follow the pace of the narrator without the luxury of stopping and restarting.

Ultimately, Willingham insists that it's irrelevanthow you get to the last page.

"The point of reading is to appreciate the narrative, appreciate the beauty of the language, and the particulars of how you got to that point of appreciation really doesn't matter so much."