The Dogs of Mexico Audiobook |061 - Actors Talk - Come Inside The Acting Business

From The Novel To The Audiobook

From the novel to the audiobook. That's the journey we're taking in this episode. If you are an actor who wants to explore audiobook narration but don't know where to start, this episode will hopefully give you some information you can use.

In this episode I'll be talking with my good friend John Jones. In the interview you'll hear me refer to him as John J Asher. That is his pen name.

As John J Asher he has written a collection of short stories called Stories From Separation, Texas and the novels A Dignified Exit, Yellow Mesquite and The Dogs of Mexico. All of these works can be found at his website, JohnJAsher.com or on his author's page on Amazon.

This episode is a bit different in that it was not recorded via a Skype interview, it was recorded in person in John's home. Other than the intro and outro to this episode, all audio was recorded live on a Zoom H4N portable recorder.

A Little Backstory

John grew up in West Texas, in a town of about three hundred. His earliest artistic inclinations were not toward writing but drawing and painting. John tells me in the interview that he was always drawing and sketching as a youngster, even in the Baptist Hymnal at church. His favorite subjects to draw: Guns. Maybe he was just preparing for some of the action scenes he would much later write in THE DOGS OF MEXICO.

From west Texas, John journeyed to Southeast Texas to the Golden Triangle, though I'm not sure that's what it was called in those says. He worked at the refinery in the Beaumont-Pt. Arthur area and continued to draw. John met several local artists including Lynn Sweat with whom he remains friends to this day.

With layoffs happening at the refinery, John took the opportunity to take a severance from that job and head to New York. There he worked as an artist and illustrator. After having completed a significant number of paintings, John approached several New York galleries and made some promising connections. While waiting for an upcoming show that would showcase his work, John lost all of his paintings, over 50 in number, and collection of art books in a house fire.

The fire took a toll on John's aspirations in the art world. He spent the next several years designing and building a new house on the site where his house and all his paintings had burned.

John continued to work as an illustrator for many years in New York and later in Austin, Texas where he now lives and writes.

Audiobook Production at Home

I have talked and written previously about my interest in narrating audiobooks. I believe I've also mentioned some of the challenges associated with producing and narrating audiobooks.

The challenges can seem quite daunting. I know that for a fact. It was contemplating these seemingly endless challenges that kept narrating as a 'bucket list' item rather than a reality for far too long.

Let me give you an idea of what is required by ACX, the Audiobook Creation Exchange, to produce acceptable audio:

AUDIO SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS - FROM THE ACX SITE

Audiobooks uploaded to ACX must adhere to the following requirements. The ACX Quality Assurance team may reject titles that do not meet these standards, and their retail release may be delayed. The following requirements help ensure customers get a great listen.

Your submitted audiobook must

be consistent in overall sound and formatting and be comprised of all mono or all stereo files

include opening and closing credits and a retail audio sample that is between one and five minutes long

Each uploaded audio file must

contain only one chapter/section that's shorter than 120 minutes and the section header must be read aloud

have room tone at the head and at the tail and be free of extraneous sounds

measure between -23dB and -18dB RMS and have -3dB peak values and a maximum -60dB noise...