What Actually Makes an Audiobook Well Narrated?

Growing up as someone who struggled with reading due to the
combinational effects of living with ADHD, any book that was placed on with
some sort of narration was something of a spiritual awakening for me. If I was
going to struggle to pay attention to anything, it was going to take my mind
for a ride. If it didn’t, you lost me after a chapter, at most. Simple as that.

My buddy on the other hand thoroughly enjoyed long,
fictional world building and often read book after book. Recently, he started
dabbling in audiobooks. When we hung out, he would occasionally talk to me
about the narrator this, the narrator that. How he often would pick audiobooks
that he had a hard time finishing due to the narration. He often found himself
bouncing from resource to resource trying to gather whatever information he
could about the recommended audiobook narration to provide himself with enough
of a picture before paying for the audiobook itself.

It’s not a mind-altering experience to understand audiobooks
are not books for many reasons. One of which is surrounded around the
narration. Narration is one of the penultimate qualities in listening to an
audiobook. You can read this all over social media about how readers or
listeners had to stop something they purchased simply because of the narration.

1. “I couldn’t stand the narrator.”
2. “I liked the story, but the narration ruined it.”

A lot goes into narration and there should be more thought
put into providing listeners analysis behind the different narration
structures. Narration isn’t one quality; it’s a combination of several
different things happening all at once. Creating profiles of these different
things can assist listeners in the type of audiobooks they decide to listen to.
Something like a “listening-fit”.

So,

What actually makes an audiobook well narrated?

A Great Voice Isn’t the Same Thing as Great Narration

When I first started listening to audiobooks, the few that
were out there at the time, I would look out for engaging and animated voices.
I was very particular about who I wanted to listen to because I understood what
would disengage me very quickly if my internal set of requirements were not
met. At the time, I would listen to narrators not understanding that internally
I was breaking their vocal quality into a myriad of criteria. Now, I understand
that those criteria are paramount for listeners of today. Audiobooks are only
becoming more popular, and listeners need something to help them navigate their
perfect listening fit.

What do I mean when I say listening-fit?

Listening fit is the term I use to describe how well an
audiobook matches a listener’s situation, preferences, and experience. Knowing
a reader’s “listening fit” can help them narrow down audiobook experiences they
are more likely to enjoy. Often, readers will get drawn into a specialized,
distinctive voice that sounds good in the short term but does not end up
translating well over 10–20 hours. That is why there are multiple criteria that
really need to be analyzed or broken down to better understand listening fit.

What are examples of listening criteria?

The listening criteria can be broken down into the
following: pacing, emotional delivery, character differentiation,
consistency, pronunciation, narrator/book fit, and production quality.

For many readers and listeners, such as myself, it can be
very difficult to pinpoint and identify what the issue is. We understand that
something is not what our ears and brain enjoy, but we do not often have the
words to express it. Often, listeners will say that there is something about
the voice or narrator they do not like, but it may actually be more about the
pacing, an exaggerated voice, poor emotional tone, or lack of differentiation,
to name a few. Not every audiobook will be the perfect fit. At times, the
author or publisher wants the narrator to have a certain type of vocal style
and speech. Some listeners will love that, while others will loathe it.

Sometimes, your favorite narrator simply won’t make the
grade for every audiobook you listen to. This is where narrator quality versus
narrator compatibility comes in. The narrator could be your favorite but could
still end up being wrong for a specific book or choice for a myriad of reasons.
For instance, if the narrator crosses over into another genre, what works well
in one genre does not always translate to another.

The narration needs to meet the emotional and stylistic
requirements of the book and what the author intended. That requires the
narrator to have range if they are going to evolve genre to genre. What works
well in a beautiful romance or literary fiction may not create the strength and
urgency or energy of a thriller. While a highly animated narrator might feel a
little excessive in a quiet memoir. The drive home here is that the performance
has to fit the material.

Lastly, I think one very important hard-coded piece of
information that could be helpful to pull from your synapses is that you might
find a narrator who is technically strong, but that does not mean they are
going to work for every specific listener. And that is okay.

Pacing: The Invisible Skill You Notice When It Goes Wrong

Audiobook narrator pacing is one of the single most
important criteria that shapes listener engagement. Pacing is the rhythm of
speech that shapes tension, clarity, and emotional impact. How a narrator
technically delivers lines, changes timing based on the mood of the story, uses
pauses for dramatic tension, and adjusts the speed and strength of their
delivery is all part of the craft of pacing.

The most common speed for audiobooks falls around 145–165
words per minute. This is fast enough to hold your attention but slow enough to
comprehend and put the sentences together fast enough. The pauses between
lines, the exchanges between narrators, the gap intervals between words and
moments are what makes the scene feel either rushed, natural, or deliberate.
When a narrator understands the timing between these gaps, the story, and the
words, the book has a heartbeat.

Humans naturally want to fill the void. Often, that leads to
abrupt statements. Like real life, narration follows suit. Silence in pacing is
a subtle and powerful medium. The listener, often without knowing it, leans
into the experience, holding onto that next heartbeat. Something with such
power can come from soft-spoken timing and silence between thoughts and words.
It’s exact. It’s final. And it’s truth. Whether you are listening to a memoir,
true crime, thriller, or a romance/comedy, silence in pacing is a subtle art
form for laughter, struggle, and everything in between.

The pacing between genres isn’t always the same. The timing
between words is normally faster in a thriller, while romance may allow more
room for breathing and emotion. A thriller wants forward pressure, while
literary fiction wants you to think. That may be the normality of those genres,
but the activity or heartbeat within the audiobook itself can change wildly.

One example from our own analysis is Project Hail Mary, narrated by Ray Porter. The current evidence describes the performance as engaging and the story pace as brisk, which makes it a useful example of how narration and forward momentum can work together.

Character Differentiation Without Turning the Book Into a Cartoon

Character differentiation is one of those parts of audiobook
narration that can make each character feel distinct, memorable, and actually
irreplaceable within the story. The narrator and author are giving the
character unique personalities, motivations, behaviors, and voices. In doing
so, there has to be a balance between making those traits strong enough to make
the character compelling, but not so strong that they overshadow the plot or
make the narrator feel too heavy within the story.

A good narrator understands the subtle changes in pitch,
cadence, rhythm, and energy for each character and how all of those characters
are going to balance together. There are parts of a story where several
different characters are simultaneously having dialogue. Without those subtle
variations, it can become extremely difficult to know who is communicating and
when.

This can also be met with overacting. Overexaggerated
changes in character voices can make the entire story feel fake or cosmetically
put together. Instead of becoming absorbed in the character, you start becoming
overly aware of the narrator performing the character. Understanding where that
line sits is part of what makes a narrator stand out and continue in the field.
When it goes too far, the characters can become harder to follow because the
listener becomes too focused on the narration itself. You can sometimes damage
the trust of the listener.

That is also one of the reasons why handling several
different character roles becomes increasingly difficult in a good audiobook.
There probably isn’t a perfect hard-coded number, but somewhere around the 4–8
recurring-character range is where keeping each voice distinct, natural, and
consistent starts becoming much more noticeable.

Emotional Delivery: Performing Without Overperforming

Emotional delivery is extremely important in successful
voice-overs. It’s the intentional use of vocal tone, pitch, pace, volume, and
other qualities to showcase various emotions and connect strongly with
audiences. Put simply, it’s how something is said. The narrator needs to match
the emotional changes in the scene and character and fully be present enough to
transform the words they are saying into a serious emotional experience the
listener can actually feel.

The Mehrabian rule of 1967 shows that when communicating
attitudes and feelings, there is a 7-38-55 rule involving the words themselves,
vocal tone, and facial or nonverbal cues. Obviously, when you are listening to
an audiobook you do not have the facial expressions or body language sitting
directly in front of you, which puts even more emphasis on what the narrator
can do with their voice. Delivery is everything. You have to believe what you
say, and those around you will too. It’s not about how loud or grandiose you
are with the words, it’s about intentionality. Some of the strongest, most
influential, or revered individuals communicate calmly, slowly, and succinctly
because there is an understood weight behind those words.

Understanding the lines and situation helps narrators
perform the delivery correctly. You can usually hear when a narrator genuinely
understands the emotion behind the scene versus simply trying to sound
emotional. Practice, listening back to your own delivery, and feedback can
help, but for the listeners, the result is what matters. If the emotion being
delivered does not match what is actually happening within the scene, the
experience can come across entirely differently than the narrator probably
intended. Without understanding that connection, listeners can lose their
connection to the role surprisingly early.

Consistency Matters More Than Most Listeners Realize

Within long audiobooks that takes days and days to voice
over, it can sometimes be the case where the narrator’s voice for a character change
halfway through. If the narrator and publication isn’t doing their due
diligence over the course of the audiobook, these things happen. Narrator’s
fatigue and listener’s have no sympathy for that. While some may not care too
much about consistency, most of the time they do. Especially when it’s an
important character listener have fallen in love with.

Narration fatigue is a thing. Some voice overs can work
their vocals so much, that they have permanent problems. Seth Green developed a rare and severe vocal fold condition called chondroid metaplasia. While he may
be the only case got this from the extreme vocal changes he was paid to do in
such short time spans, the heart of the matter is that listeners want
consistency, and narrators must be trained to follow through.

I do not think I ever came across this that was so
pronounced that I took note of it. But often, listeners will feel this subtle
change. Where the audiobook experience just doesn’t feel the same. Obviously,
consistency matters tremendously, but it is much more forgivable than the other
criteria narrators deal with.

Pronunciation and Research

Really good narrators are meticulous in their research ahead
of doing voice-overs. Depending on where the plot takes place, how much the
character knows, or specifically where they are from, it’s in the best interest
of the narrator to know:

·        the fictional names they are playing,

·       the foreign languages they perhaps need to
speak or the accent they need to have,

·        scientific terminology,

·        geographical locations,

·        dialects, and

·        technical terminology

are all important in building an architecture to an
immersive experience for the listener.

What makes an experience terrible and will turn a listener
off is a consistent failure of the environment. Understanding the ecosystem of
the story and what the character or characters will have to face, speak, feel,
degrades the strength of the audiobook experience. If the pronunciation is
incorrect and becomes a particular consistent matter, especially in nonfiction,
it loses credibility and authenticity. The listener must accept these failures
to continue. Often, they cannot and they move on.

Does the Narrator Fit the Book?

While this may not be of grave concern it is a reality. Some
listeners deal with audiobooks or feelings where the voice of the narrator does
not meet the requirements for the characters they are playing. Whether a
middle-aged male is playing a couple female characters, it can sometimes be
enough for listeners to not enjoy the audiobook.

Sometimes the narrator hits some of the most important
criteria for quality of an audiobook but something about the historical period
and setting, tone, genre, or narrative perspective that allows them to be
successful in one book but not in the other. This is tough because the narrator
may want range or are really great in general, but lack the specific
requirements of that audiobook.

The Count of Monte Cristo is a useful example of why the exact audiobook edition matters. Our page identifies the Richard Matthews recording specifically and keeps the narration evidence tied to that recording rather than treating every audiobook edition of the novel as interchangeable.

Single Narrator vs. Dual Narration vs. Duet vs. Full Cast

So, many narrations today have a much larger breadth of
narration. You can have one narrator who voices all the characters, while
another larger production has an entire cast or can pay for famous duet/dual
narrations. These are all different.

A single narrator is a performer who handles
everything. While in a dual narration you have specifically two
narrators who typically alternate chapters or viewpoints. In duets, the
narrators perform their respective characters throughout all the scenes rather
than switching based on POV. Lastly, you have full cast narrations where
performers portray different characters. Some instances they are a simple
number of characters in the audiobook, so the cast takes a single character,
while in other narrations, the cast take on several characters.

These various types of narrations have their place in the
audiobook world and provide important nuances that single, duet or dual
narrations simply do not. While having a cast of narrators can sound great, it
doesn’t mean its automatically better narration. Just like any story, you can
have a single narrator that has unbelievable range and can handle multiple
characters and different vocals throughout the entire audiobook. On the other
hand, that isn’t always or nearly the case. As a result, some characters can
end up being dull, fake, overshooting, pushing the bounds of a single narrator.

Counter, having multiple cast can provide a breadth of
differing voices that bring together a real active world or ecosystem. If they
all work together and on the same communication spectrum, the audiobook can
feel like you aren’t listening to an audiobook, but a symphony. It can often be
that having a full cast can breed problems with tone, pacing, loudness, and so
on. And that can really become disastrous.

So, it becomes a balancing act and to do it correctly
requires a great team who come together, work together, help each other. Not
just come in at different times to do their voice overs. Although a rarity
because their workload can be broken.

Genre Changes What “Good Narration” Means

Most resources agree that genre acts as the framework for
structure, tone, style, and audience expectations of a story. It directly
influences how the narrator effectively and meaningfully communicates to
listeners.

Narrators should understand the theory behind the atmosphere
around genre. In the 1939 Handbook of Radio Writing, the narrator
essentially interprets, creates atmosphere and anticipation, and acts as the
intermediary between the story and the audience. A narrator isn’t merely
reading the sentences on the page; they control the listener’s relationship
with those sentences.

For instance, one of the most classic television shows of
all time, The Twilight Zone, narrated by Rod Serling, is a masterclass
in creating tension with vocal restraint. Granted, the audience is watching
what is going on, but the theory remains the same. In bizarre, frightening, or
psychologically disturbing thriller-type audiobooks, using a more calm, slow,
and deliberate restraint with lines can create more tension in the reading and
for the listener.

Some genres and scenes make particularly effective use of
silence or pauses. From the 1946 Radio Drama Production Handbook,
utilizing longer pauses and silence can bring awkwardness or tension, while
restraint can create intensity in dramatic, romantic, comedic, thriller, and
mystery-based productions.

Some audiobook genres have more deliberate “narrative
distance,” where the narrator influences how close the listener is supposed to
feel to the character. You can sometimes feel the action directly in the voice
of the narrator when listening to the audiobook. Are they:

Telling me about someone

or

Putting me inside someone

In nonfiction, getting too close emotionally can undermine
authority, while in memoir, being too emotionally detached may undermine
authenticity. Radio drama theory later became more deliberate about concepts
such as the “point of listening” and “sound centre.” These concepts speak to
how deliberately the listener is positioned within the experience and whose
perspective they are acoustically inhabiting.

Sometimes, the narrator may need to pick a moment or section
where they need to alter their narrative distance within the book. This happens
in thrillers a lot, where the narrator seems detached then suddenly, they have
an intimate internal thought, a dialogue, then the immediate physical danger.

A good narrator knows these rules and has studied many of
these concepts. Someone like myself can feel when something is not right like
these subtle changes in genres like this, but we don’t have the nomenclature to
talk about it.

The Things Star Ratings Don’t Tell You

So, what is in a star rating. I can tell you when it comes
to audiobooks and narration, it’s not that. It’s all of that and more. You are
unable to differentiate or break down anything that is remotely important about
the audiobook experience. Just because something hits a 4.5 rating doesn’t say
anything towards the narration experience, the storyline, really anything other
than some listener liked it.

While many audiobook review networks or platforms are adding
to their repository of the information to provide its users, its not remotely
close to where the standards need to be. That is one of the driving forces
regarding me building Recommended Audiobooks. The platform we built out of a
friends frustration with the terrible narration quality making it hard for him
to continue listening.

How I Evaluate Narration at Recommended Audiobooks

When I started Recommended Audiobooks, I knew what I was
trying to tackle. But I didn’t necessarily know everything that made a great
audiobook. I didn’t know all the components. I simply knew that “great
narration” wasn’t the only driving force. Rather, there were multiple
dimensions, strong dimensions, that made up a great audiobook experience. The
DNA Recommendation number was developed to help listeners understand which
dimensions of the audiobook built that number.

“Why did this audiobook receive an 8.7?” What audiobook
dimensions built that number? Why do I see dimensions with lower scores, but
the overall DNA value is still high? There is a method to the madness. To even
be given a DNA value, the evidence we gather from the sources we can pull from
needs to meet certain strict standards. When those evidence requirements are
met, the audiobook receives a score, and the listener can see what that DNA
value represents, why it received that value, and which parts of that value are
particularly strong.

That also means sometimes not making a claim. On It Ends with Us, for example, the narrator and recording can be identified, but our current page withholds a detailed performance description because there is not yet enough qualified narration-specific evidence. That distinction is important to how I want the system to work.

Recommended DNA score is built across eight weighted Quality
dimensions:

1.     Narration Quality

2.     Story Quality

3.     Character Development

4.     Emotional Impact

5.     Audio Production

6.     Originality

7.     Replay Value

8.     World Building

As you see, the highest weighted dimension is narration
quality because the narration if the most important, focused dimension of the experience
comparatively to the rest. Moreover, the platform looks at additional dimensions.
We call them listener profile and listener fit characteristics.

There Is No Perfect Narrator for Every Listener

The aim of the article is that the narration experience of
an audiobook is extremely subjective. We all have our preferences and because
of that, listeners need more information to help understand what kind of
performances they’re getting before committing ten, twenty, or even forty hours
to an audiobook.

Some listeners want more dramatic performances, while others
require a more restrained narration. Some love a full cast narration, while
others find them distracting. I think many of the biggest companies for audiobooks
and narration have done their user base a disservice by not providing this.

So, while there are all these audiobook dimensions that can
alter the listening experience, most, if not all, require the narrator to interpret
the text and translate that dimension into an audiobook performance that the
listener can enjoy. Things like pacing, emotion, character differentiation,
tension, humor, and alike are ultimately provided by the narrator’s delivery.
They could technically be strong but still not work for every listener, which
is why simply knowing the narrator is good isn’t enough.

Great
Narration Makes You Forget You’re Being Read To

Great audiobook narration isn’t simply a beautiful voice
talking, it’s the culmination of multiple factors all occurring simultaneously.
The pacing, interpretation, consistency, character work, emotional judgment,
execution, even knowing whether the performance fits the story being told.
Strong narrators have dissected these pieces, and they do their best to take
you on the journey the audiobook is hoping for you to take.

Great narration, in my opinion, often disappears in the
background. Your brain can harmoniously fall deep into the narrative of the
story and time stands still. The sound of the microphone, the nuances of the
narrator, all go away while you live inside the story.