Most of the work on a true-crime audiobook happens before I record a single word. I read the whole manuscript twice, check every name, place and term, and mark up the script, so that by the time I’m in the booth the decisions have already been made.
The old carpenter’s rule comes to mind: measure twice, cut once. A mistake you catch at the kitchen table costs you a pencil mark. A mistake you catch in the edit costs you a re-record.
Why read the whole book before recording?
Because you can’t voice a story you don’t know the end of.
The first read is just for me, as a listener. I want the story, the people, and the shape of it. The second read is with a pencil, and that is where the real work starts: who’s speaking, how they speak, and where the mood turns.
The Betrayer is a good example. On the face of it there’s one voice, Guy Stanton telling his story. Read it properly and it’s a three-person job: the narrator, Guy speaking in the first person about what he lived through, and the man he was pretending to be. You only see that when you’ve read every page.
How do I check names and pronunciation?
Thoroughly, because these are real people. In a true story, somebody’s family may well be listening, and getting a name wrong is a small disrespect they’ll notice straight away.
I keep a running list as I read: people, places, slang, legal and official terms. The Betrayer was full of Customs acronyms and foreign place names. How to Rob a Train meant getting the Great Train Robbery crowd right, from Bruce Reynolds and Charlie Wilson to Buster Edwards.
Checking with the publisher or author is not always an option, but resources such as YouTube, Howjsay, Forvo and YouGlish all help. It’s always better to check a couple of sources if you’re not quite sure.
What do I mark on the script?
Three things, mainly.
Who’s talking. In a memoir the author often slips into reported speech, or quotes someone mid-paragraph. I mark every change so a listener never has to wonder who’s speaking.
Where the tone shifts. A true-crime chapter can go from dry procedure to real tragedy in a page. I mark the turn before I record, so the change is a choice and not something I improvise mid-take.
Where to breathe. Long sentences written for the eye don’t always work for the ear. I mark where a pause lets a fact land.
Why go to all this trouble?
Because with a true story, accuracy is everything. A novel can survive a stumble. A memoir that gets its own facts wrong loses the listener’s trust, and that’s hard to win back.
The preparation should be invisible. By the time I press record, the script is covered in notes nobody will ever see. All the listener should hear is the story, told clearly, by someone who knows exactly where it’s going.
If you’d like to hear the result, start with The Betrayer or How to Rob a Train.
About Karl
Karl Jenkinson is an award-winning British audiobook narrator and voiceover actor.
Book Karl for narration