As a professional narrator, I listen to a lot of audiobooks, not merely for pleasure, but for research and to try to get some tips on performance (both what is great and....not so great). So, I decided that I'm going to start doing audiobook reviews on my blog! I know, there are a LOT of audiobook review sites out there, and they're all very important to our industry. They help us (narrators) know what listeners like and what they don't like. But, I'm going to review from a narrators point of view. I'll be talking not only about the things that 'normal' listeners talk about, but I'll throw in some technical reviews of the production - things like room noise, sound levels, differences in recording times of the book - that a non-narrator would probably not pick up on. My intent is NOT to cheese off my fellow narrators, but to offer an honest review, from a narrators point of view!
This time up, I'm reviewing a non-fiction title Optimize Your Site: Monetize Your Website by Attracting New Customers, written by Ronald Terio and narrated by newcomer Jason Rogers. I purchased this title myself, I do not know the narrator personally or am friends with him on social media, thus there will be no conflict influencing my review.
Synopsis: (From audible.com listing) Some might notice that you are getting tons of traffic but your sales are not coming in at all. The problem is that all visitors are not created equal. Some click and some don’t. Your visitors are probably on your site to read your stories and they really don’t want to click something and leave the site. Listen to this book and learn the strategies to your success.
Thoughts - Story: Well...another book designed to 'help you get the most out of your website'. Ok, the concept is good. I mean, who doesn't want to get the most out of their websites? Well, MONEY that is. This is a very short book designed to tell you how to actually make money from your website, like asking visitors for money through various 'support my site' organizations, linking to other sites and charging those sites for link throughs, or how to build a site to sell. Very basic stuff that is easily accessible with a simple web search. At $4, you kind of feel like you wasted some money because this is pretty much all information you can obtain for free. It's handy to have the info, but with a little work on your own, easily found.
Thoughts - Performance: When I was young, I was always taught that if you have nothing nice to say about someone, don't say anything at all. BUT...my job here isn't to make people feel good. My claim is to offer up an honest review, and that's what I'm gonna do! With that being said, Jason Rogers has a long way to go as a narrator. His voice is extremely one note, that is, completely ZERO emotion or even variety in his delivery. In fact, if it weren't for the consistent mouth noises (clicks, pops, mouth smacks) throughout the entire 24 minute audiobook, I would say with all certainty that this was a 'text to speech' software recording. Seriously. Sounds just like a computer talking to you. The tendency to O-VER PRO-NOUNCE each word is a death trap for new narrators, and Jason certainly delivers on that. This makes for a very unenjoyable listening experience. His performance is very monotone and lacks a decent pace. Every narrator can greatly benefit from a coach, and this narrator is definitely in need of coaching. All that aside, Jason Rogers could be a good narrator with some help from a vocal coach, acting coach, coaching on all aspects of the production process and some experience.
Thoughts - Technical Production: Where to start...well, the sound levels were actually ok. But that's kind of were it ends. Extreme mouth noise issues, the audio almost sounds overly compressed, very obvious punch in and out areas, pacing WAY off, the head of the audio (dead space before the 'performance' begins) is WAY too long, and the breaks between sections way too short. Some sections were louder than others, which is very off-putting and makes it difficult to listen to. At times, background noise can be heard, which again, is not a good thing at all. My advice to the narrator would be to seek the help of a professional audio person and have them evaluate his set up, and maybe even to evaluate his recording space and see if there are ways to better treat it for external noises.
Final Thoughts: All in all, Optimize Your Site: Monetize Your Website by Attracting New Customers is, at best, in written form, a PDF document that could be given away to friends, and, as an audiobook, not worth even a free review code. Mediocre at best as an informational audiobook, and not performed to what it should have been. However, with the training and coaching suggested, perhaps Jason Rogers will be a great narrator. And for the record, it's never easy giving a bad review, even on narrators I don't know personally. I take this seriously and only say the things I do because I am passionate about audiobook narrating, and want to see the industry thrive, and new narrators pointed in the right directions.
Optimize Your Site: Monetize Your Website by Attracting New Customers is now available on audible.com and iTunes.
Rating:
(Rating Scale is 1/2 to 5 stars)
