In a process that started way back in August of last year, the Tales of the Risen Tide audiobook is finally out, triggering the rollout of the book in all formats!
I’ve had a lot of questions about my approach to the audiobook, so I’m going to try to tackle some of them here.
Why create an audiobook when your book isn’t even out yet?
With the power of retrospect, I can see it’s not the ‘done thing’ – the self publishing industry isn’t really geared up for it. But it was always the plan and I wasn’t budging – here’s why:
I’m a firm believer that a written story is a substitute for the spoken word, not the other way around. We started out telling stories to each other around a fire, long before writing was even invented. And reading aloud is a huge part of my process: my phone is jam packed with recordings of me reading yesterday’s scenes back to myself so I can polish them before moving on to new material.
I always knew Risen Tide would be an audiobook, and that there are a lot of people out there who find it far easier to enjoy stories that way. Why would I lock them out of coming on the adventure for the first six months after paper release?
Why did you go for a full-cast reading? Nobody does that.
This was something I had to figure out along the way. Originally I was seeking someone to read the whole thing themselves, just like all the audiobooks I love to listen to. The idea of a full cast reading didn’t even cross my mind.
After listening to about 30 auditions, however, it became clear something wasn’t right. I scored everyone on various criteria: some readers had fantastic voices, some could offer a range of accents, some really got the prose and delivered it brilliantly, others made fantastic acting choices when performing the characters. Unfortunately though – nobody scored highly in all areas, and any one of those areas can really let the thing down.
In the end, I tried narrating some myself. Obviously I had a huge advantage in understanding the prose, and most people seem to like my tone of voice, but I knew there was no way I could tackle the voices (just ask my D&D group…).
I was skeptical about constantly cutting between voices, worried it would sound like a radio play, only with ‘he said’ crammed in between each line of dialogue. My good friend and audio engineer Ben made up a quick demo of the scene in the Smikken Sun though, and it was enough to convince me.
Now all I had to do was cast all the actors…
Why are you giving it away for free?
It’s my first book. I don’t have an audience. It’s more important to me at this stage in my journey that thousands of people enjoy my story for free, than a few hundred pay me for it.
I’m a firm believer that if the story is good enough, and the audience is big enough, it will pay for itself in the long run.
Who is in it?
I’m glad you asked – meet the outlaw crew of the Archon:
Luke Sumner (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) was the first hire. The charm of his audition tape and apparent ease with which he slipped between accents in our first meeting blew my mind. Unfailingly dedicated, Luke read the entire novel before getting started and spent weeks perfecting his performances for Jymn, Cap and the other Archonauts.
Gordon Cooper (Baldur’s Gate III) voices the older, male characters. He’s responsible for Tsar, Node, Lotan, Rasmus, along with various other piratical villains and preachers. I was looking all over to find the right voice for Tsar, and when I found him, it turned out he lived in the same sleepy corner of Devon as me. We must breed good pirates down this way.
Bryony Reynolds (Macbeth the Musical) brings Nix and Daj to life, and worked with me for a time beforehand to define the unique cadence of Nix’s hand-sign. That surname is no accident – Bryony is my cousin!
Mitchell Zhangazha (Save the Cinema) joined the crew fairly late after an extensive search to find a voice for Weylun that could conjure the right mix of vulnerability and yet confidence and excitement when he’s talking about teck.
Maxine Finch (Coronation Street) reads for Syrincs Ren – she might only appear prominently in two chapters, but each time she controls the scene, often with a deeper understanding of the characters around her than they themselves possess.
Eva Eklof (Aber Bergen), brings authentic Scandinavian tones to the Goodmother and Jenn in her latter years. For those of you complaining about the mispronunciation of various narrated scandinavian words throughout the book – Eva did do her duty as a Norwegian and tell me, I chose to read them my way anyway…
Hadley Karimloo (Best Interests). At just 15 Hadleyis the youngest member of the crew, voicing Gam. He recently doubled for Ethann Isidore on Dial of Destiny which meant hanging out with Harrison Ford for six months. Jealous? Me?
I always knew we’d need a real Kiwi to bring Caber to life, and Curtis Te Maari was our man. His audition knocked it out of the park, and we recorded the entire part in one remotely directed session with his local studio in Auckland.
Lastly comes stoic Balder – only 80 words, and the very last piece of the puzzle, Nicholas Contreras responded lighting fast to feedback rounds and got us over the finish line
The enormous task of assembling, editing, mixing and mastering was undertaken by my friend and collaborator Ben Pering, who has been in charge of all the interactive sound design for our Real Life Gaming series of films, such as Real Life Hitman.
And last but not least, long time collaborator Rob Westwood found time while composing for the new Asgard’s Wrath game to write an original piece of music for the title credits.
The audiobook is available for free (two chapters a week) on the Realm Pictures YouTube channel, as well as the Tales of the Risen Tide podcast, or you can find the full adventure on Audible, Spotify, Apple Books and more.
Have you listened yet? Who was your favorite? If you have questions for me or the cast – this is the place to ask.
