[Studiotalk] Narrators for Westerns or other titles

[Stephen Lewis]

NLS's attitude is "a good narrator is a good narrator" and can thus narrate anything, regardless of the main character's gender.

We still have volunteer narrators who think in terms of appropriate gender for specific titles / genres but I think ultimately, its more about getting the material available for patrons to hear.

Of course there are patrons who only like specific gendered narrators, period. But in my mind, if I were a patron I'd rather be able to hear a book than not.

We also have male narrators read Romance genre books. And our recordings of HANK THE COWDOG have been read by many narrators and interestingly have likely been read by more women than men.

My attitude has always been that I am not a "producer" choosing the best talent for particular roles / books. Rather, I'm an administrator, trying to keep a steady flow of new recordings for patrons to read. I mostly let our volunteers self-select what they want to read next; only pushing them towards those high-demand books my Collections coworkers have indicated are a priority due to patron demand.


  *   SMiles

From: studiotalk <studiotalk-bounces at islemail.org> On Behalf Of Coffman, Linden
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2018 11:59 AM
To: studiotalk at islemail.org
Subject: [Studiotalk] Narrators for Westerns or other titles

Hi all,

I have a question concerning selecting books for narrator and in this case specifically westerns.  As I have more females narrators available would you see a problem with having some of them reading westerns.  I've always felt that the male voice is what goes best with this genre, but I was wondering if it really matters that much.  That also brings up another thought.   Does gender matter that much in regards to what you have you narrators reading or not if the book is non-fiction or fiction told in third person?  Haven't run across any guidelines on this. I've just been doing what seems to sound right.  Suggestions?  Advice?


Linden Coffman
Director
Indiana Voices
Indiana State Library
Talking Book & Braille Library
315 West Ohio Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202
317-232-3683
E-mail: lcoffman at library.in.gov<mailto:lcoffman at library.in.gov>

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