A Day in the Life of an Audiobook Narrator
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A Day in the Life of an Audiobook Narrator
I’m always curious about the nitty-gritty workday details of cool and interesting jobs—they almost always involve more spreadsheets and less glamor than you’d think—so I ate up this day-in-the-life interview with an audiobook narrator with a spoon. How long does it take to get a finished hour of recording? What if you have to pee in the middle of a chapter? How do publishers determine what to pay a narrator? What about the AI of it all? Freelance narrator Emily Ellet goes into all this and more.
Zen and the Art of Understanding Colson Whitehead
Colson Whitehead, quite possibly the greatest living American novelist, is one of those writers whose work simultaneously drives you to recommend it and also refuses to be summarized into an easy-to-share soundbite. You could spend a lifetime honing a way to talk about Whitehead’s work, and lucky for all of us, Derek C. Maus is doing just that. Maus, a professor of English at the State University of New York at Potsdam, is the author of a new book called Understanding Colson Whitehead. This dialogue between Maus and John Warner at The Biblioracle is the best articulation I’ve come across of what it feels like to engage with Whitehead’s work. Talking about what makes a writer hard to talk about is a tricky thing indeed, and Maus and Warner pull it off beautifully.
Warner’s definition of his own work is an added bonus for all of us who have nontraditional careers talking about books: “I’m just someone who reads books, albeit professionally, instead of recreationally. I have an educational background which has given me access to some approaches to reading and thinking about books that I might not otherwise have, but I am also not a “scholar.””
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Reagan Arthur Reveals New Imprint’s First Slate of Books
Reagan Arthur, who returned to Hachette to launch a new imprint after being let go from PRH last year in a layoff that shocked the industry, has unveiled the first ten books that will come out under the Cardinal colophon. Arthur, who enjoys one of the highest Q ratings in the industry, is known for her ability to identify books that hit the sweet spot of literary quality and commercial viability. Cardinal will release six books per year, with the mission to “publish books that entertain and enlighten, across genres and across borders.” First up is Catherine Chidgley’s The Book of Guilt, due out September 16, with the rest of the announced titles hitting shelves between winter 2026 and winter 2027. May her efforts succeed.
The It Books of March 2025
On the Book Riot Podcast, Jeff O’Neal and I kick off every month with a knockout round analyzing 10 of the hottest new releases. March is packed with big new books—Laila Lalami! Karen Russell! Suzanne Collins!—and this one was a lot of fun. Listen wherever you get your pods.
