Michael Kramer and Kate Reading have become popular audiobook narrators, spending 62 hours at the microphone for one recent book.
ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST:
When I’m here behind the mic, you get me for two hours on Saturday, which is a drop in the bucket compared to how much time Michael Kramer and Kate Reading spend talking into microphones. They’re a married couple that have become the go-to audiobook narrators – particularly for Brandon Sanderson, the popular fantasy author whose new book is out now. It’s titled “Wind And Truth,” and it’s more than 1,300 pages long. For Kramer and Reading, that translates to 62 hours. NPR’s Andrew Limbong spoke with the duo about how they do it.
ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: Kate Reading and Michael Kramer have been doing this for a while – since back when audiobooks were an afterthought.
KATE READING: Literally, it was, like, do these as you can get to them.
MICHAEL KRAMER: Yeah. There was no rush.
LIMBONG: It’s not like that anymore. Especially not for books by Brandon Sanderson, whose fans helped him break records on Kickstarter and have kept him a consistent presence on bestsellers lists. His new book “Wind And Truth” is the latest in his Stormlight Archive series. And like other books in the series, it features audiobook narration by both Michael Kramer…
KRAMER: (Reading) Kaladin felt good. Not great. Not after spending weeks hiding in an occupied city.
LIMBONG: …And Kate Reading.
READING: (Reading) Shallan lingered atop Lasting Integrity, the great fortress of the honorspren, thinking about all the people she’d been.
LIMBONG: I spoke with them in their home, outside of Washington, D.C., in their basement near their two separate recording booths, where they spend roughly four to six hours a day locked into the story.
KRAMER: And to get in the moment, takes immense concentration. And that’s the first thing that usually goes. So it’s not your voice, generally. And when you get tired, that’s when you lose the sense of exploration, sense of play, inventiveness, all of that. Just goes. And that’s when you should stop.
LIMBONG: In the years they’ve been doing this, they’ve cultivated their own fan base, sometimes even separate from the author.
They’re fans of you guys rather than – no shots at Brandon Sanderson.
(LAUGHTER)
LIMBONG: You’re cool. I’m not – this is not hating. But I’m saying you guys have dedicated fans for yourselves, and, like, whoever – the words you’re reading, sometimes comes secondary. And I wonder if that’s a sense you’ve gotten from fans.
KRAMER: Yeah. I mean…
READING: Talk about the sleep aid.
KRAMER: OK. So we get a fan letter that says, you put me to sleep. And at first you’re, like, oh, great. So my voice is so boring that it puts you to sleep.
LIMBONG: And they ran into this fan at a convention.
KRAMER: And he said, no, no, no. You’re my safe spot. Your voice and this story become the place where at the end of the day, all the anxieties that I have get quieted, and I can actually sleep.
LIMBONG: So how did they do it? It’s not just that the books are long, but the worlds Kramer and Reading inhabit are vast. There are tons of characters with different allegiances and motivations.
READING: So, for me, it’s on the page. And when you read the book for the first time, you’re picking up all of these clues from the author, who’s telling you who this person is and what they want. And characters – I’m not going to say peoples’ because sometimes they’re not human – but characters’ intentions determine how they move, how they speak, how they act in the world – worlds.
LIMBONG: Most of us, if we are reading out loud, it’s not to hungry, high-fantasy fans. It’s to our kids or our grandkids, or to our parents or grandparents or to friends around a dinner table. And for that, Reading has this advice…
READING: Allow yourself the freedom to make whatever sound is necessary to tell the story.
LIMBONG: No matter what the story is. Andrew Limbong, NPR News.
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