Jeff and Jamie from Deyan Audio join us on the podcast this week to discuss all things audiobooks! Jeff and Jamie have a combined 23 years of experience at the award winning production company, and they share their expertise by giving us an insider look at the audiobook production process from casting to quality control and every step in between.
- Jeff and Jamie tell us about their respective roles as Director of Global Business Development and General Manager at Deyan Audio, and explain the role a producer plays in the creation of an audiobook
- They discuss the casting process and the challenges they encounter, how they go about searching for “unicorns” (the narrators that require extremely specific skills), and what authors should consider when casting their own audiobooks
- Jamie and Jeff explain how in-home studios gained popularity with the rise of author-narrated books, and how Covid-19 has increased the use of remote narration and remote engineering
- They discuss the major changes they’ve seen in audiobooks throughout their careers, including an increase in diversity (in both narrators and the books being produced), the advent of audio-original content, and they discuss how smart speakers such as Alexa and Siri have expanded what types of books can be made into audio content
- Jeff and Jamie give advice for authors considering narrating their own audiobooks, and they explain what authors should consider before starting the audiobook process and why their mantra is to plan ahead as much as possible
- They tell us some of the highlights of their audiobook production careers, including celebrity narrators and the time they produced 700 audiobooks in a single season (!!!)
- Jeff and Jamie explain what common errors they encounter when doing quality control on audiobooks, how AI technology is helping them catch more errors than ever before, and they debate the benefits and pitfalls of AI narrators and the future of technology in audiobooks
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Jeff Guillot, the Director of Global Business Development at Deyan Audio, originally joined the team as an editor back in 2009. He has worked in every single role involved with audiobook production since then. As Studio Manager, he oversaw a team that produced an incredible number of titles and won countless awards. These days he keeps his eye on developing technology and seeks out publishers and authors all over the world in order to help them with the production of their audiobooks. In his free time, he hikes through Southern California, surfs, and enjoys spending time with his wife and their 4.5 pound chihuahua, Gizmo. Also, he’s vegan.
Jamie Robert Dupras is the General Manager at Deyan Audio, the world’s largest independent producer of audiobooks. He has been with Deyan Audio since 2008 and has won multiple Audie awards, among others, for his work as a director, editor, quality control engineer, and mastering engineer. In 2012 he headed up the team at Deyan Audio that fully produced an industry record 700 titles in 60 days. Combining his passions for technology with audio production, Jamie is also responsible for keeping up with and incorporating the latest technological advances into audiobook production, continuing the tradition at Deyan Audio of being an innovative leader in the audiobook industry.
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