First things first: you’re the Audiobook Rights & Acquisitions Manager at Bolinda Publishing. What does your job entail?

I have an incredible job, as a lot of what I do is reading manuscripts to assess what’s right for our list. My job is to curate our publishing schedule with the best Aussie and Kiwi titles, so I work closely with publishers, literary agents and authors to hunt down engaging, moving and award-winning titles for us to publish as audiobooks. A key part of what I do is also considering the production needs of each title, so once I acquire the rights I hand over to our production team, briefing them on everything from the type of voice we should cast to the music or sound design required – and any additional quirks that come up from time to time.

Many of our readers think that Black Inc. produces audiobooks in-house, but that’s not the case – we pitch and sell the rights to our books to audio publishers like Bolinda, and you then produce and distribute the audio editions. Can you run us through the process of purchasing audio rights, and why some books are selected for audio over others?

The process typically begins with a pitch, sometimes in person and sometimes over email. The brilliant Sophy Williams at Black Inc. will present a title to me and share the manuscript so I can dive in and assess whether it’s the right fit for Bolinda. There are a few things I’m looking for when assessing a manuscript – for example, if it’s a non-fiction title, how well will it adapt to audio? A lot of non-fiction books have graphs, charts and illustrations throughout – it’s my job to decide whether the audiobook will be as powerful without these visual elements, and if they are required, how we can adapt these into the narration so that listeners get the same experience as readers. I’m also considering the content itself – some genres perform better than others in audio, so I have to take into account the commercial side of publishing our audiobooks and ensure that I have a good spread of genres in our publishing schedule each month. We publish around 100 audiobooks a month at Bolinda, so considering the diversity and range of our list is crucial.

Producing an audiobook isn’t quite as simple as finding a narrator and getting them to read a book aloud, is it? Can you tell us about some of the aspects of audiobook production that readers may not have heard or thought of?

If only it were that simple! We’ve been publishing audiobooks for 30 years at Bolinda, so we consider ourselves experts at audiobook production. We’ve learnt a lot in that time, and we have the production workflow down to a fine art! For non-fiction titles, it’s common for the author to narrate their audiobook as they are the expert in the subject matter, so our first step is to assess the skill set of the author to narrate. The voice narrating can make or break an audiobook, which means it’s our responsibility as the audiobook publisher to ensure the final product we release into the world is as strong as it can be. When an author narrates, we give them narrator coaching to ensure that they’re ready to get behind the mic – there’s a lot that goes into narrating an audiobook that people wouldn’t necessarily consider, like pacing, stamina and voice prep. A typical day in the studio is about five hours of reading, which can be exhausting for narrators who aren’t prepared.

When the author doesn’t narrate – which is usually the case for fiction titles – we make the author a part of the casting process. We ask authors to fill in a narrator briefing form to highlight specific character voices or accents and pronunciations of names, and to flag any languages spoken in the book other than English. We use this as our source of truth when collating auditions, which we then share with the author for feedback. The narrator we cast then needs to go into prep mode, reading the manuscript multiple times to feel comfortable with the text, and that also gives them the opportunity to flag any questions they may have for the author before the record begins.

In the studio our producers work their magic, directing the narrator in real time and ensuring the continuity of accents and voices throughout. When a narrator stumbles – even the most experienced narrator makes mistakes from time to time – our producers will cut and get the narrator to repeat the sentence before their mistake, so that they can seamlessly edit on the fly. Once recording is complete, our producer moves into post-production, tidying up the entire recording and where necessary adding sound design and music throughout, before sending the audio for proofing. A proofer listens to the audiobook with the manuscript in front of them and flags any errors that may have snuck through, which we then fix in pick-ups – getting the narrator back in the studio to re-record anything that needs to be changed.

Depending on the length of an audiobook, production can start as far out as six months ahead of publication. The quality of our audiobooks is our number one priority, so we happily spend months working on each title so that we always produce an audiobook the author is proud of.

We’re super excited to see David Marr’s Indie Book of the Year Award-winning Killing for Country and Anne Manne’s new book Crimes of the Cross both recently released in audio. Why do you think these two titles will be popular as audiobooks?

We’re very proud to be publishing both of these incredible titles at Bolinda, and I personally am looking forward to seeing the listener feedback in the coming weeks. Killing for Country is already an award-winning title, so we are truly excited to have the audio out as of 1 April. David actually made amendments to the manuscript for the audiobook so our edition is revised and updated from the edition published in print last year – so even if you’ve read this powerful title already, the audiobook will appeal to you.

Crimes of the Cross is a deeply emotional title, one that will be confronting for a lot of listeners due to the nature of the story being told, but we feel we have a duty to publish Anne’s searing exposé and in doing so, honour Steve’s courage in sharing his story. Storytelling has long been an oral medium, so we don’t shy away from telling stories of this nature. I also want to praise the brilliant narration by Fiona Macleod in Crimes of the Cross: Fiona brought a beautiful vulnerability to the narration and deserves recognition for taking on a project like this. It takes a special narrator to deliver this story with poise, emotion and conviction, and Fiona has done so brilliantly. Our audio edition is publishing simultaneously with the print, so it’s available now where all good audiobooks are found. 

Non-fiction is an incredibly popular category in audiobook publishing, so I have no doubt both titles will perform very well as a result. People often prefer to consume their non-fiction titles via their headphones than on the page – whether that’s through audiobook listening, podcasts, or talk radio. Both of these titles appeal to that audience, who feel that each story is one they should engage with, even if they wouldn’t immediately pick up a copy from their local bookstore. Non-fiction audiobooks are more accessible to the casual reader and are easier to consume on the go.

Bolinda is the founder of BorrowBox, your library download solution for audiobooks. Every library in Australia runs BorrowBox, so you’re able to listen to both Killing for Country and Crimes of the Cross on BorrowBox using your library membership to log in. A big part of why both of these audiobooks will be successful is the strength of BorrowBox and the marketing we can do in-app to promote these titles to library patrons across the country. We work closely with libraries to boost sales of key titles and ensure that libraries can meet the demands of their patrons. If your local library doesn’t have either title in their BorrowBox library, we encourage you to request they purchase a copy!

If one of our readers would like to see a particular Black Inc. title released as an audiobook, is there anything they can do to encourage Bolinda to purchase the rights?

Absolutely there is something they can do! Get in touch with the team at Black Inc. to express your desire for an audiobook – I assure you that that feedback will reach me and the rest of the Rights team at Bolinda. When there’s clear demand for an audiobook, it makes my job a lot easier! There is so much that I assess for our list that I wish we could buy, but we only have so many studios to record in so I am limited by our capacity to produce a set number of titles per month. Your feedback and eagerness for an audiobook edition of a book may be what sways our decision. The best thing you can do, however, is listen to the author’s previous audiobooks and leave them positive reviews – I encourage everyone reading to spread the love and give your favourite authors five stars!

Read the previous instalment of Behind the Book, a Q&A with author and poet Samantha Faulkner. 

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