How to Write & Narrate Better Audiobooks with Tom Parks

Here on the Christian Publishing Show, we’ve been doing an audio-focused series over the last few episodes. It’s an important topic. If you haven’t yet listened to episode 23 on the future of audio and podcasting, I highly recommend you go back and check it out. I make the case that audiobooks are not just the future, but they’re also the past. In that episode, I said every book should be an audiobook. But I realize I left some of you hanging. You’re convinced, but now you’re asking, “What do I do next?” To answer that question, I interviewed Tom Parks.

Tom has narrated, directed, and produced over 400 audiobooks for authors, including well-known names like Rick Warren and Danielle Steele.

Walk us through a day in the life of an audiobook narrator.

Tom Parks: There are a lot of moving parts, but the actual narration might seem akin to watching paint dry. I have a studio in my basement, and on a typical narration day, I roll out of bed, grab some coffee, head downstairs in my pajamas, warm up my voice, and get started. That’s one perk of working from home.

Narrating is pretty straightforward, but I don’t see myself as just a narrator. I’m a small business owner within the publishing industry. I’m constantly looking for work for myself and for the other narrators I produce. I also do audiobook proofing, engineering, editing, and mastering.

I’m working on a book called Parenting is Hard, and Then You Die by Dave Clark. It’ll be about eight and a half hours when finished. I started it yesterday after wrapping up another project, and I’ll finish it tomorrow morning. Today, I’ll probably record four and a half to five hours of that book.

How long can you narrate before you need a break?

Thomas Umstattd: Your voice is perishable. You can’t just record 18 hours straight. How long can you go before you need a break?

Tom Parks: I aim for four and a half to five hours of finished audio per day. Depending on the book’s complexity, that takes me about seven to seven and a half hours of actual work. I build breaks into my day. Some are planned, like food breaks, and others are interruptions, like handling business emails.

The human voice is like any muscle in that the more you use it, the more stamina you develop. If I’m reading an easy, conversational book, I can go longer. But something dramatic or emotionally intense shortens how long I can record.

Thomas Umstattd: Your setup as a solopreneur with a home studio might seem odd to some listeners. They might picture a fancy LA studio with a producer in thick glasses behind the glass, but it’s not like that anymore.

Tom: Audiobook recording is very different than it used to be. I recorded my first audiobook back in 2009 or 2010 with a company that specialized in audiobook production. At the time, Audible was pushing to record every book that had ever been written.

To meet that demand, the studio expanded from four studios to ten. For about a year, all ten studios were running at full capacity. Some weeks, they ran two shifts so narrators could come in and record at night.

But around 2014, things changed. Audible realized that trying to record every book wasn’t a great idea. Around the same time, the cost of recording equipment started to drop, and narrators realized they could set up studios at home. Publishers also saw how expensive it was to lease studio space or fly narrators and authors to professional studios.

That’s when the home studio model took off.

I don’t have exact numbers, but I would guess that most audiobooks today are recorded outside of commercial studios. Most of what you hear on a daily basis is being produced by narrators like me, who’ve been doing this for a while. We learned the craft of narration and also how to handle the technical side. We created space in our homes to do the work, and that’s where most audiobooks are being made now.

Thomas: That’s true for voiceover work, too. Even network announcers are working from home now. Even radio stations often have staff in different cities recording remotely.

Tom: A good friend of mine manages a major Christian radio station in the Chicago market. Their traffic reporter lives in Denver and works from home, while their weather reporter is based in California and also works remotely. They each record their segments at home and upload them, and those recordings are then broadcast as part of the station’s programming in Chicago.

Thomas: What’s driving this shift is how affordable the equipment has become. In the past, you had to go into a professional studio because they had $100,000 worth of gear that you something you couldn’t replicate at home. But now, most residential neighborhoods are quieter than busy commercial areas, especially if you’re working from a basement. If you’re already in a quiet part of the country and you invest in some basic equipment, you eliminate the commute and can produce high-quality audio at a lower cost, which physical studios can’t compete with.

What kind of books do you narrate?

Thomas: Do you do mostly fiction or nonfiction? What’s the difference, and which do you enjoy more?

Tom: Primarily, I work in nonfiction. I do a lot of faith-based books, as well as business and business-related material. I also cover some science, technology, and occasionally historical content.

The audiobook industry is more closely related to acting than to traditional voiceover work. Producers are looking for the right voice to tell the story of the book. They want someone who can embody the tone and message. Since I focus on nonfiction, my role is to represent the author’s voice as accurately as possible and to match their tone and style in a way that brings the book to life.

From a personal standpoint, I enjoy the faith-based projects. Most of evangelical Christianity traces its roots back to the Baptist tradition. I’m theologically Arminian, and I spent 24 years as a Nazarene pastor. So, when I’m narrating a book that doesn’t align with my theology, I sometimes find myself debating the author in my head.

But my job isn’t to inject my own beliefs. It’s to portray the author’s perspective clearly and convincingly, whether or not I agree with it. I’ve narrated political books that are very pro-Trump and others that are strongly anti-Trump. It’s not about promoting my views. It’s about being the voice of the author and faithfully communicating their message to the listener.

Thomas: There’s a real advantage to your focus on Christian literature, especially with your background as a former pastor. You naturally know how to pronounce words like Ecclesiastes, which might be confusing for someone who’s never been part of a church. And while we may not always pronounce Hebrew and Greek terms exactly as they’re meant to be said, at least in the American church, we’re all mispronouncing them the same way.

Tom: I got my first recording gig with a major Christian publisher because they had just finished recording a commentary on the book of Hosea. They used a narrator they had worked with many times before, but it was a rush job and didn’t go through proper proofreading. After the audiobook was released, they discovered he had pronounced Hosea as “José” throughout the entire commentary.

The producer happened to know an engineer friend of mine and said, “Hey, I know a guy who’s a former pastor who could probably fix this for you.” That’s how I landed my first project with that company. I re-recorded the entire book. I had the background and familiarity with Hebrew and Greek pronunciation, which made me a good fit for the job.

Thomas: My grandfather recorded books for the blind for many years. He had been a medical doctor, and this became his retirement project. He focused on scientific books because he already knew his way around Latin. To become a doctor, you have to learn to pronounce those terms, so he had a natural advantage.

As more books are being turned into audiobooks, more narrators are choosing specific niches. These niches give them an edge because pronunciation and accent matter so much. It’s not easy to look up the correct pronunciation for 250 technical terms. If you’re not already familiar with the field, you’re at a clear disadvantage.

What makes a book a bad fit for being adapted to an audiobook?

Tom: There are two main types of books that, in my experience, don’t make great audiobooks. The first are books that simply don’t have anything to say. They’re poorly written, lack a clear argument, and don’t contribute meaningfully to any larger conversation. That’s probably a broader issue with publishing. Just because something has been written doesn’t mean it should be published, and even less so that it should be turned into an audiobook.

The second category includes books that just don’t translate well to audio. For example, I once narrated a book by a well-known Christian author, the first half of which focused on lifestyle changes, but the second half consisted entirely of recipes. There’s nothing more boring than listening to someone read four and a half hours of recipes.

Tom: Occasionally, you’ll get a book that has a lot of charts and data embedded in the text. We try to adapt that for audio, but some of it doesn’t compute. It’s hard to narrate a spreadsheet.

Thomas: That’s true, although it can also be a marketing opportunity. For those of you with books that include charts or data, the best practice is to put those visuals into a downloadable PDF on your website. This gives you a chance to collect the listener’s email address or, at the very least, bring them to your site, where you can start building a deeper relationship.

It’s not easy. I appreciate it when narrators take a step back and give a big-picture explanation of a graph instead of just punting with something like, “To see this figure, visit the author’s website at….” I appreciate the narrator’s efforts to explain whether the numbers are going up and to the right or down and to the right. Give the listener some context.

A fascinating example of an audiobook that was adapted in an interesting way is How Music Works: The Science and Psychology of Beautiful Sounds (affiliate link). It explains things like how sound waves function, and in the print version, there are figures to help illustrate the concepts. Those sections didn’t work very well in the audio version. You could look them up, but it broke the flow.

However, other parts of the audiobook were enhanced by audio. They added samples of the sounds being discussed so you could hear them through your headphones. That made the experience even better. It’s one of those rare cases where you need both the print and audio versions to get the full picture.

What makes a book a great fit for audio?

Tom: I think the best books are the ones where the author’s personality shines through. When a nonfiction subject is presented in story form, it makes for an outstanding audiobook.

One of the most compelling books I’ve ever narrated was Sellout by Victoria Bruce. It’s about rare earth minerals, which probably sounds incredibly boring. But it turned out to be one of the best-written, most interesting, and most engaging books I’ve worked on.

Instead of just laying out the facts and history of rare earth minerals, she tells a story. It starts with a man who wants to buy some hunting land, only to discover an old abandoned mine filled with rare earth minerals as a waste product. He then learns that the Chinese have essentially locked down all the copyrights and patents related to the technology that uses these minerals. From there, the book explores international politics, lobbying, and historical context.

It’s incredibly well-written and immersive. By the end, you feel like this could be adapted into a good movie. Despite its dry-sounding subject, it’s a fantastic nonfiction book told through the power of story.

Thomas: Another great example of this is the book Moneyball. It’s not really a book about sports; it’s a book about spreadsheets about sports. At first glance, that doesn’t sound exciting. “Oh, great, a book about spreadsheets. Sign me up!” And yet, it became a New York Times bestseller. I read it cover to cover, and they even made a successful movie based on it.

What gave the book its power was the narrative. If you’re working on a nonfiction book, find a way to weave a story through what you’re teaching.

God modeled this in Scripture. The Bible isn’t just a list of commandments; it’s filled with narrative. In fact, much of the New Testament and all of Jesus’ teachings are delivered through stories. That’s not accidental. Stories are how people remember and connect with ideas.

The story in the book about rare earth minerals was a true narrative. That’s what made the book compelling.

I can look up the Wikipedia page on rare earth minerals, find court case links, and get raw data online. If I’m going to invest time in reading your book, you need to offer something I can’t get from Wikipedia. A well-crafted narrative is exactly how you do that.

Tom: As a former pastor, I’m sometimes frustrated with faith-based books that are overly complex but written for lay people. When I was pastoring, I led a blue-collar congregation of people who simply didn’t read. They didn’t read the newspaper, and they didn’t read books. They just weren’t readers.

So, when I’m narrating faith-based material, I often think, “This is good content,” but it’s written so technically that the average person I used to pastor wouldn’t make it past page three or four. That’s a problem because what authors are talking about in these books is vitally important.

Even Paul’s letters were rooted in real-life situations happening in the churches he was writing to. They were contextually specific. People could read those letters and say, “Oh yeah, he’s talking about Bob.” It was relevant then, and it’s still relevant now.

But a lot of what I record today in the faith-based space is disappointing, not because the ideas are bad, but because the writing is so dense and unnecessarily complex. If your book only connects with a small audience of pastors and you’re trying to reach the broader church, you’ll have a hard time. That frustrates me because I deeply believe in Christian publishing. I think it plays a critical role in the ministry of the church. But we have to find ways to say these important truths in a narrative-driven, culturally engaging way. We live in a time when people are not only biblically illiterate but reading less overall. If your message doesn’t have a strong hook, people just won’t engage with it.

Thomas: A great book to help with this is Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (affiliate link). I’ve been using it as an agent for nearly a decade to coach my clients, and the feedback has been incredible. It’s all about the science behind effective communication. Essentially, it took 2,000 years, but science has finally confirmed that the way Jesus communicated is the most effective method for getting ideas to stick.

If you’re curious about how scientists analyze Jesus’s communication style, this book breaks it down. As far as I know, it wasn’t written by Christians, and it doesn’t focus on Jesus in every example, though it easily could. I almost feel like the authors had to intentionally limit their use of Jesus as a model to keep the book more accessible to a general audience.

Still, it’s incredibly helpful and packed with practical tips for taking complex topics and making them easier to understand.

If you do this well, you don’t lose your pastor audience. Pastors can still appreciate and benefit from clearly written, accessible content. But by writing simply and clearly, you also open your book up to a much larger audience: everyday people.

Frankly, that’s who most authors are trying to reach. When I look at book proposals, almost none of them say, “This is just for pastors.” Sure, some people write specifically for church leaders, but most dream of writing a book that reaches regular readers, not just scholars or theologians, but people who want to grow, learn, and be inspired.

What advice do you have for an author who wants to narrate their own book?

Tom: The narrator in me wants to say, “Don’t narrate your own book,” but I won’t go that far. I work with narrators all the time, and if you’re seriously considering narrating your own book, it’s absolutely worth bringing in a director who understands audiobooks.

Don’t just head down to your church sound booth and say, “Skippy knows how to use Audacity. Let’s record an audiobook.” That’s not going to cut it.

When I work with narrators, my focus is always the same: how can I help that person’s voice truly be heard?

I once worked with an author who came to my studio to narrate her book. She had done a few audiobooks before, but they hadn’t been well received. So I went back and listened, and there was no personality in her recordings. Then I watched some of her YouTube videos, and I thought, Wow. On stage, she was incredible. She held the room in the palm of her hand. She was a gifted communicator.

When she arrived at the studio, I focused on making her feel comfortable and at ease. I told her, “I want to hear your voice, not a performance of what you think an audiobook is supposed to sound like. Just talk to me. Let your personality come through.”

We worked together for three days. Sometimes, she would slip back into old habits, but as a director, I could gently say, “You’ve got such a powerful story here, and I love this section, but it doesn’t sound like you right now. It sounds like you’re just reading someone else’s book.” Then, we’d work on bringing her back to a place where her voice and personality were leading the narration.

Thomas: That’s a great point because the rules are different when you’re reading your own book. When you narrate someone else’s book, you have to stay true to their words. You can’t interpret or editorialize. That’s a cardinal rule of narration. Even if you disagree with the content or find it amusing, you can’t let that show.

But when you’re the author, it’s a whole different dynamic. It’s like a painter embellishing a printed version of their artwork by adding real brushstrokes to make it personal and unique. As the author, you can do the same with your audiobook. You can provide commentary, break away from the script, and read with a tone or emotion that adds meaning not obvious in the written version.

Some authors even treat it like a director’s commentary, offering insights or reflections as they read. As the author, you can do that. When done well, it adds a powerful emotional layer to the experience.

I was listening to several Christian audiobooks for the Christian Book Awards, and in some of them, the narrators teared up during especially emotional moments. And it worked.

But that only works if it’s your story. If a narrator did the same thing with someone else’s book, it could feel manipulative or overdone. You probably couldn’t even get away with that take.

So I appreciate the advice to bring your whole self to reading your own book. Be emotionally present. As someone who’s read my own book about some painful parts of my life, I can say it’s not easy. It’s much simpler to read with clinical detachment as if the story happened to someone else. But to read it with genuine feeling means revisiting those painful memories, and that can be tough.

Tom: It is exhausting. Many authors I’ve worked with come to the end of a recording day and say, “I had no idea it would be this tiring.” I’ve even had narrators finish a book and say, “Yeah, I’m probably never doing that again.”

Narrating is a very different experience. Vocal stamina is a real factor. We’re constantly managing things like mouth noises and vocal fatigue, which professional narrators learn to handle almost instinctively. But as an author, you’re probably not even aware of those issues, let alone how to correct them as you go.

That’s why I strongly recommend that if an author wants to record their own audiobook, they should invest in a studio that truly understands audiobook production. It’s not the same as recording music. At the very least, bring in a director who knows audiobooks and can guide you through the process.

Those of us who direct aren’t looking for perfection; we’re looking to help you give your best performance. Our goal is to create an environment and offer the coaching that helps the narrator, whether it’s the author or a professional, bring the book to life in the most compelling way possible.

Thomas: Has remote direction taken off yet? Are you directing people over Skype or Zoom?

Tom: It absolutely has. In fact, I recently worked on a book with a well-known congresswoman from California on one of her memoirs. Her schedule was tight, with maybe two hours available one day and three hours the next week. So we did all of it remotely, and I directed her via Skype.

I work with several narrators this way, and it works well. You can still give real-time input, even if the narrator is in a studio local to them.

The main challenge, as with many things in publishing, comes down to the budget. The question is whether the project can afford to bring in that extra person to direct.

Thomas: A lot of publishers, when they decide to have an author narrate their own book, start by flying the author to a different city. Then they pay for a hotel for three nights during the recording, and finally, they fly them back home. By the time it’s all done, that can cost $1,000 to $1,500, depending on where the author is flying from.

But if you don’t spend that money on travel and lodging, you suddenly have a budget available to bring in a professional director instead.

Tom: Plus, when you fly an author out to record, you’re taking them out of their comfort zone, possibly to a different time zone, staying in a hotel where they might not sleep well. All of that affects their performance. You’ll hear it in their voice.

The more we can help a narrator feel comfortable, the better the performance will be.

Thomas: I believe this is the future. The idea of flying an author to a recording studio in another city made sense in the 20th century, but it doesn’t make sense anymore in the 21st.

These days, every city has access to good recording studios, and they’re not hard to set up. In fact, the $1,500 you might spend flying an author out, hotel, meals, and travel could be used to buy them a decent home recording setup. It wouldn’t be top-of-the-line, but it would be more than good enough.

It just makes more sense to have authors record locally, sleep in their own beds, and use that same budget to hire professional directors, editors, and engineers who can elevate the project. That way, you can produce more and better audiobooks.

And yet, I know authors who, even as recently as 2019, were flown to another city to record their audiobooks. I just shake my head. There’s a much smarter way to spend that money.

What mistakes do new narrators often make?

Tom: One common mistake new narrators make is not warming up properly. Another is inconsistency in their voice, where you can clearly tell where one day of recording ends and the next begins.

Pacing is also a big issue. In fact, I’d say the number one complaint I hear about audiobooks is that people who aren’t experienced narrators tend to read way too fast. We’re constantly trying to get them to slow down.

Another mistake is coming in and trying to perform with a “narrator voice” instead of just being themselves. Most people listen to audiobooks in their car or through earbuds. And if I’m listening through earbuds, I don’t want someone yelling at me or projecting with a big booming voice. I don’t want to feel like I’m being preached at or that you’re delivering a sermon.

Just talk to me like I’m sitting across the table from you. Or better yet, talk to me like your voice is six inches from my ear. How would you speak if we were that close and sharing something important with me?

For authors and narrators, the key is to relax and just be yourself. Have a natural, conversational tone. That’s what makes a good nonfiction audiobook. The goal is clear, engaging communication, not dramatic performance.

Are you accepting new clients?

Tom: Absolutely. I work on a variety of projects directly with authors. Just yesterday, I recorded an audiobook for someone who had purchased the rights to an out-of-print book and wanted it produced in audio format.

There are so many ways to work together now. That’s one of the great things about living in this technologically connected age. Individual authors have access to the tools and resources they need to have their audiobooks professionally narrated, and it can be done in a way that doesn’t break the bank.

Books Mentioned

How Music Works (Affiliate Link)
Made to Stick (Affiliate Link)

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