Do You Like the Sound of My Voice?

[benwesterham]

OK, so an unusual post this week. I’m looking for your help.

You’re probably thinking something along the lines of “Hey, Ben’s an author and he’s asking me for help. Must involve encouraging people to buy more of his great books. Well, I’d like to and all that, but…”

But stop right there, it’s got nothing to do with pushing my books, though you’re always welcome to do that, of course! No, what I want to know is, do you like the sound of my voice? Could you listen to my sweet, dulcet tones all day long or do you find yourself reaching for the mute button before I’ve even finished my first sentence?

Image

I can’t tell how I sound to other people. We never can. In fact, when we listen to ourselves, we tend to think we sound nothing like we do. It’s an odd and unsettling experience.

But this matters to me because I am looking to turn more of my stories into audiobooks and one thing I need to decide is whether or not I should do some of the narration myself. Hence why I’m asking you what you think. Happy to listen to me reading my books or prefer I go with an AI generated voice or use the services of a human narrator?

To help you decide this is a link to a short story of mine I narrated a while back and have up on my website for free access. It would be great if you’d have a listen and let me know what you think. Don’t worry about offending me. I want the truth, so speak up and say it how it is.

Thanks for listening.

Comments

[teamuksupport]

Hi @benwesterham,
Thank you for participating in the #teamuk curated tag. We have upvoted your quality content.
For more information visit our discord https://discord.gg/8CVx2Am

[slobberchops]

As an avid serial listener of audiobooks I can say your narration is decent and listenable. You don’t need to rent the services of Stephen Fry.

[benwesterham]

Thanks and I suspect Mr Fry would be way beyond my budget!

[zuerich]

I like the sound of your voice, and your accent. Is this "standard British"?

[benwesterham]

Thanks and, yes, from my point of view this is standard British, from the south-east of the country. There are so many different accents here it might sound very different if I was from another parts of the country.