Elaine Singer Sounds Great - Voiceover Blog

Well, I’ve had almost a week to decompress. BookExpo Canada was definitely a learning experience. I was quite surprised at the number of publishers who had not even considered audio. I’m not talking about those publishers who decided that they were unable, for one reason or another, to do it at this time. I’m talking about those who looked at me as if I had come from outer space when I asked if they publish audio versions of their books. It was interesting how so many of them equate audio books with fiction. A typical remark would be, oh we publish boring scientific stuff – who would be interested in that! When I think of the proliferation of audio devices available on the market today, I simply cannot fathom why publishers would not at least investigate the feasibility of doing audio. When I mentioned iPods and mp3 players, all of a sudden you could see a light go on. There was a publisher of travel books and hiking guides whose material is eminently suited to audio. I will most definitely be following up with that publishing house. There were a number of smaller publishing houses that said if I were to take the audio rights and handle the audio side of the market, they were willing to talk. I’m still mulling over in my mind if that’s a route I’d like to take. The exciting news is that the day after the trade show, I was contacted by a Toronto publisher of educational material for children and we are currently looking at various options. Stay tuned.

On a side note, the author Joseph Boyden was there signing his book, Three Day Road. I had borrowed this book from the library a few months ago and loved it. It’s a great story, well written and obviously well researched. I asked him about the latter and he told me it took him years to do the research. So now I not only have the book, but it is autographed by Boyden “To Elaine – Sounds Great!”