The Audiobooks Explosion Has Some Roots in Santa Barbara

---

This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.

---

When’s the last time someone sat down and read you a story? For the growing number of audiobook fans, that could have been this morning.

“The world has exploded, and the opportunity has exploded,” said Pamela Dillman, a Santa Barbara voice actor, narrator, and producer.

It’s true. In June, the Audio Publishers Association reported that the industry’s revenue increased 9 percent in 2023 after growing by double digits for more than a decade. The Association reports that 38 percent of American adults have listened to an audiobook in the last year. The industry is now worth more than $2 billion.

Dillman, who has her roots in acting, said she started narrating audiobooks in the ‘90s, when there were fewer opportunities. She said the annual Audiobook Publishing Conference — the field’s major networking event — consisted of a few dozen publishers and 50 or so narrators. But over the past three decades, she said, thousands of narrators have flocked to the industry as more titles are recorded each year.

Narrator, voice actor, and actor Claudia Dunn said she’s one of those thousands. Dunn has a degree in music and dance, and worked in the White House Press Office in the ‘80s. After leaving Washington, D.C., she moved to Los Angeles to do on-camera work, with voiceover work, such as commercials, industrial narration, and video games, coming as a natural outgrowth. In 2019, she turned a serious eye to audiobooks, starting work with a private coach.

Dunn said she’s seen a growing diversity in narrators — especially since the pandemic, where she said the industry gained an influx of different voices and a greater awareness of authentic casting.

“People weren’t doing a Spanish accent anymore. You were getting an authentic first-language Spanish speaker. That was expanding the business and the whole industry,” Dunn said.

Narrating audiobooks is, Dunn said, an athletic endeavor that requires attention to the quality and consistency of your voice over several hours.

“As a beginner narrator, maybe you would have a ratio of six hours of prep and recording — this is kind of an industry window — six hours to one finished hour,” Dunn said, adding that the ratio goes down with experience.

For Dillman, there’s also an eye for perfection and endurance, such that the narration sounds consistent from chapter to chapter.

“If your tummy is grumbling, if you’re dehydrated, if you didn’t get enough sleep the night before, it shows in your voice,” she said. “So, if you’re picking up from the chapter you recorded the day before and then you happen to listen to them back-to-back, you’re like, ‘Wait a second. I need to record that whole chapter, because it literally isn’t a match and it will throw the listener off.’”

Within Santa Barbara, Dillman and Dunn said there’s a growing interest in recording and producing audiobooks, especially from independent authors in the area.

“What I think is especially unique about Santa Barbara is the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. It’s really a hub for indie authors,” Dunn said, adding that she’s presented about audiobooks for the last couple of years of the conference and noticed authors slowly gaining an understanding of the marketing power of publishing an audiobook and print edition simultaneously.

“When authors understand that, they start thinking in terms of releasing as an audio before they even finish their book,” Dunn said.

Dillman said that publishing an audiobook edition of a title alongside a print edition can also help independent authors catch the attention of a major publisher.

“The independent publisher and to a certain extent the narrator can help with that marketing because the more we are known and respected the more attention we will get for that finished product for that for that author,” she said.

Dillman’s production company, Unforgotten Books, came about during COVID-19, when she started learning the technical aspects of audio production. It initially focused on recording and producing books in the public domain.

“I began to become fascinated with how many books that were recorded in the early days of the audio world,” she said. “Perhaps it’s time to examine whether they should be rerecorded, and many of those are in the public domain now.”

From there, Dillman said, she started hiring other narrators whose voices suited particular texts, eventually expanding beyond the public domain to contemporary independent authors.

“That’s what I really have become really passionate about is the opportunity for independent authors to understand the importance of the audio realm in promoting their product and having it be seen and heard by a wider audience,” she said.

Audiobooks do reach a wider audience, from the visually impaired to those with reading disabilities or those with long commutes.

While audiobooks are on the rise, so is voice technology and artificial intelligence. Both Dillman and Dunn were honest about how AI is changing the industry. Dunn noted that they, as narrators, are constantly upping their game.

“It’s important that we don’t rest on our laurels, and what worked 10 years ago isn’t necessarily going to work now,” she said.

Dillman said that while AI is making strides toward realistic voices all the time, it’s still missing that “human element.” She said just the other day, someone sent her recordings made with AI, and initially, the voice sounded authentic, down to its breaths and quality.

“It was only when you listened for a more dedicated period of time that you realized, ‘Oh, wait a second, there wasn’t actually a reaction there,’” she said.

Ultimately, for both Dillman and Dunn, art comes down to the human experience.

“I don’t think human beings are going to eventually decide wholly to only engage in the non-human experience,” Dillman said. 

Both Dillman and Dunn received nominations for several 2024 SOVAS (Society of Voice Arts and Sciences) Awards in multiple audiobook categories. The Gala ceremony is held December 8 at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.For more information, see pameladillman.com and claudiadunn.com.