All Books Aloud

Is being an audiobook narrator a dream job? Interview with Laura Horowitz

Elizabeth Brookbank & Martha Brookbank Season 2 Episode 6

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Have you ever wondered what it takes to be an audiobook narrator? Or is it perhaps your dream job like it is for Martha? In this episode, we interview audiobook narrator extraordinaire Laura Horowitz.

Laura tells us how she got into the business, what a day in the life for an audiobook narrator looks like, how she connects with authors and fans, and what the rise of AI might mean for audiobook narrators like her. This interview was so fun and informative! It’s one you won’t want to miss. 

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Books we're reading in this episode:  

  • The Plated Prisoner series by Raven Kennedy
  • Wings So Wicked by Emily Blackwood (Golden City #1)
  • Blood So Brutal by Emily Blackwood (Golden City #2)
  • Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
  • The House Witch 2 by Delemhach
  • We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
  • I Ran Away to Evil by Mystic Neptune 

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Intro and outro music: "The Chase," by Aves.

Do you have thoughts, questions, or ideas for future episodes? Email us at allbooksaloudpod@gmail.com. And if you want to learn more about the podcast, visit our website at allbooksaloudpod.com.

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Read on!

[All Books Aloud theme music and intro]

Martha: , hey, Liz.

Liz: Hi, Martha. How are ya?

Martha: I am great. I'm really excited because we are talking to audiobook narrator, Laura Horowitz. If you listened to our season one episode about audiobook narrators, you'll know that one of my dream jobs is to be an audiobook narrator. Whether or not I'll ever have the skills to realize that dream is still, uh Up in the air.

 But Laura is amazing at it. So we're [00:01:00] really excited to talk to her today. Laura Horowitz is an award winning voice actor and audiobook narrator. She in fantasy, romance, and thrillers, but works in all genres of fiction and non fiction. So welcome, Laura.

Laura: you very much. I'm so happy to be here.

Liz: We are very happy to have you. We always start our episodes off by talking about what we're reading right now. So do you wanna, do you wanna get us started with

Laura: Sure. Okay. So as a human person, not as a narrator, I have not read all of the Plated Prisoner series. I haven't read the most recent books. And so I always have to go back and reread the whole series. So I'm starting back at book one. And getting hold back in the world. So I really like it. And then as a narrator, let's see, I finished yesterday.

I finished a women's fiction family drama, , beautifully written. I was called perfect family, heavy, heavy. I mean, we're talking DV, , living through trauma. So it was [00:02:00] beautifully done. Really, really deep emotional. I cried a lot and I had to break a lot. And then today, I, I finished that yesterday and this morning, I started a brand new book.

It's actually book two in, , Emily Blackwood's, , Golden series. Book one was Wings So Wicked and I'm doing book two of two, uh, , what is it, Blood So Brutal? Yes, Blood So Brutal, there it is.

Liz: That's so interesting, that one that you were talking about having to take breaks because you were crying. I've actually thought about that when we were doing our audiobook narrator episode. I get so into books, I cry all the time. And so I'm like, I don't know how I would keep the emotion, but just taking breaks, that makes

Laura: yeah, you, yeah, you can, it's okay to let the emotion fill your voice. It's not okay to make it sound wet and gooey and gross and snotty. There's a fine line between , I'm really into it and I'm going to go blow my nose and come back in 20 minutes after I've, cleaned out. 

Martha: What are you reading, Liz?

Liz: I am, reading two books. So my print book is Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. 

And I'm [00:03:00] not very far into it, but I already love it, which I'm really happy about, because I actually started and abandoned two books between this one and the last book that I read. After only getting 10 or 20 pages into them, they just weren't doing it for me.

But this one immediately got me hooked. It is about a recently widowed woman named Tova who forms a relationship, I want to say, a friendship with an octopus at the aquarium where she is the night janitor. And she's dealing with recently losing her husband, but also has been dealing with grief for the past 30 years after her son went missing when he was 18.

And I'm not going to say much more than that. There are several points of view, and . I'm still getting into the world of the book and figuring out how it all works.

And I also obviously don't want to spoil anything, but , there are some chapters that are interspersed that are from the perspective of the octopus. It's a giant Pacific [00:04:00] octopus named Marcellus. And that sounds really strange, but , it totally works for me. , the writing is beautiful and , it's been really captivating.

It's already pulled me in. And, there's a mystery involved, which I assume is going to involve her son, but I'm not totally sure. So yeah, I'm really loving that one. 

And then my audio book that I am reading is It's the second in the Housewitch series, which I'm not going to go into because Martha and I have talked about it on this, on this podcast a lot, because she read it and then she got me into it, but it's a cozy fantasy and , I'm really liking the continuation of that story.

So what about you, Martha? What are you reading right now?

Martha: , as always, I'm also reading a couple of books right now. My physical book is We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. , this is a book club pick. . for my local book club. We wanted a horror light, and so the moderator of our book club suggested this one.

 It was written in 1962, and [00:05:00] the publisher describes it as . A deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family, and the dramatic struggle that ensues when an unexpected visitor interrupts their unusual way of life.

So I just started that, and I'm listening to an audio book that might sound familiar to Laura. I ran away to evil, book one. 

Laura: love that series. I just finished recording book two. That

Martha: Oh, awesome.

Laura: next couple months, yeah.

Martha: The author is Mystic Neptune, and it's narrated by Laura and Jonathan 

Laura: Woo woo! 

Martha: And it's a cozy romantasy, but what is really fun about this, and I've never read a book in this genre, it's also a lit RPG.

Laura: Yeah! That's exactly it. Yep.

Martha: Have you heard of that? Liz, have you ever heard of that?

Liz: No, tell me more.

Martha: So it's a literary [00:06:00] genre that combines the mechanics of role playing games with fantasy and science fiction elements.

So if you've ever played a role playing game, which the only one I've really ever played was Boulder's Gate growing up, Michael and I were obsessed with that game. So it, yeah,

Liz: playing.

Martha: so it sprinkles in, , the characters have I don't know, Laura can probably describe it better than I can at this point, but it's really

Laura: Yeah. No, it's, it's like a book narrating a video game. So there's life points and mana. In this game, we have to call it mana, which just kills both, both Jonathan and I, we have to pronounce it mana. So it's like, you know, my husband screams, about mana. That's like your blood, basically your life points.

And so, yeah, it's narrating , a fantasy 

 Marker

Laura: story in a world where you have to keep track of how many potions you have in your backpack and how full is your backpack and how heavy is it. Do you need to gain more strength so we can carry more stuff in your bag? , it's so fun. Gosh, Mystic Neptune is so wonderful.[00:07:00] 

There's, book two actually focuses on the Bard, her best friend Brownie, it shifts to her story, and she's a singer, and , I can sing, but she's meant to be this enchanted, because she's gotten so many points in her music and her singing, I'm like, I don't know that I can be , the highest level singer ever, and thank God, Mystic Neptune is a beautiful soprano, and so her, her singing is, I don't have to sing a thing.

She does all of the things. I won't take credit for it. In book two, if you hear gorgeous singing, it's not me. it's the author, Mystic Neptune.

Martha: That's great to know. Yeah,

Laura: Yeah.

Liz: now.

Martha: Yeah. It's been a super fun read so far. I'm about a third of the way in, and because it's cozy fantasy, there's also baking involved, Liz, so a little something for everyone in this book. So that's what I'm reading.

So that's a perfect segue into our conversation today.

So Laura, tell us what it's like to be an audiobook narrator, maybe even just a day in the life.

Laura: Okay, so let's see. I'll back [00:08:00] it up a little bit and how I got into it. So most narrators , come into it from an acting background, many from stage acting or screen acting. I came at it because I am a passionate reader. I have my master's in writing. , I started listening to audio books a long time ago when I was getting my master's in writing, just because I never listened to audio books, but I couldn't keep up with the course load.

I was working full time. I was in school full time. And so I started listening to audio books. In my commute to and from work, fell absolutely in love. I'm the type of person that listens to two, three, four audio books a week. And I still am. I work, I read all day long and I hang up and I put my cans away and then I put my earbuds in.

I start listening to other people's audio books. I just love them. I'm just very, very passionate about the art and storytelling of, of audio books and auditory processing and multiple literacies. My degree, I took classes on multiple literacies, literally meaning, you know, street art , as a way of communicating and braille and, and the philosophy.

And so also very passionate that audiobooks are reading. So, so, so that is, , one of those things that I [00:09:00] think , we've , firmly, set in stone, but you know, for your audience, it is reading, 

Liz: Yeah, our very first episode, I would say the impetus for this podcast, , was

Laura: I knew I liked you guys.

Martha: Yeah,

yeah. 

Laura: So, so I just came on it from a , very passionate reader's perspective, which means I had basic acting training. I acted in stage plays in college, so I had to get a lot of acting training. I have the, , vocabulary and pronunciation and I understand the English language.

So that came simpler to me. It's so much more acting and also so much more tech. than I anticipated because we're all at home. I'm in my home studio. , and not only are you narrating from your screen, you're also recording yourself. And then several narrators, especially when we first started out, they also editing their own audio.

So it's learning how to not only record yourself, but take out those gross breaths. And every time your mouth clicks really grossly, what kind of software do you need to pull those out? you guys know you're doing like, you know, how gross your mouth sounds. And[00:10:00] 

Martha: Mm

Liz: Yes.

Laura: much, you know, a dog barking in the background absolutely ruins a beautiful take.

So I took several years to build up, , before I even started auditioning. I worked for about eight months directly one on one with a coach, , for about eight months before I even started auditioning. So it was a long buildup. I also had little kids at home. They weren't in preschool yet. And so I didn't have the time to devote to it full time.

So as soon as my kids were old enough to go to kindergarten, I had already been doing it. I'd been, I would call it tinkering and learning for about two years and then I got real serious and I started, I went full time, , the year that they went to kindergarten. So yeah, it's been four years that I've been doing this as my full time career now.

So and I just love it. It's the best career I've ever had. 

Martha: I love that. That was one of our questions, too, was how did you get into it?

Laura: yeah, sorry. That was a very long way to day. I did not tell you a single thing about my day, so I can do that now.

Martha: Yeah.

Laura: Okay. A day in the life that was, I have to go in my brain. I have to go systematically. Okay. So a day in the life. Let's [00:11:00] see. Okay. Bye. I work every minute that my kids are in school. I try really hard to be done with my day, at least with my recording day, when they get out of school.

So for me, that's about eight to two 30, , so I dropped them off at school and my voice is already warm. , I get up, I make their lunches, I do a yoga or a stretch or some kind of workout. And while I'm doing that, I'm doing my vocal warmup. So I look like a crazy lady doing yoga going, you know, all.

And my kids just know that that's just mom's just don't listen to her, you know? So I am warm by eight o'clock on the dot every morning. My voice is warm. My body is warm. So I can come and go straight to work is my goal. And if I'm not all the way warm, I always have a cup half full of water with a straw and I sit and I literally, and I read through my emails and I go like this.

Martha: Mm

Laura: Blow bubbles and it's the best thing. If I do nothing else, blowing bubbles into a, in a cup of water through a straw, it has to be through a straw. Is the most relaxing, soothing thing I can do for my vocal cords. And so I always do that while I'm going through emails, eight to eight, 30 or eight to [00:12:00] nine, depending on how many emails I got overnight.

I handle if that's auditions, if that's getting back to producers, if we get pickups, meaning pickups are the mistakes you made on a book. You've already recorded. And your editor says you made 50 mistakes. You said his hands instead of his hand. And you said. Onto instead of into all of those things I go through and I look and I make my list of to do's of what things are urgent pickups.

They typically want within 24 to 48 hours. So I know I need to do them that day that I got the email. , authors asking me , can we meet and have a call? , I'd love for you narrate my book. Can we talk? And I love doing zooms like this or , with my authors. And so I try to build up my day that I can at least be recording from.

nine to about eleven. I can't go any bigger blocks than two hours. My voice just won't hold out. , if I want it to be consistent through the entire book and throughout the entire day, if I work two hours straight, I have to take an hour off. So I really, really try to work only an hour and a half, so I only have to take a half hour break.

but it just depends on the flow. I am extremely detail oriented. I don't like to end [00:13:00] midway through a chapter, so I like to finish a chapter, which sometimes pushes me into that two hour range. So. My days vary on how long I record. Essentially, my personal goal as a full time narrator for me, that means I must get two finished hours of audio every single day, every single working day.

 I have about a two to one ratio, which I've worked for years to bring down. So it takes me two hours of recording and work for every single hour of a finished hour. Which is fast. , my ratio used to be six to one. Because there's just so much to learn and there's so much involved.

, so between the hours of about two different recording blocks of two hours. So four hours total, my goal. So it's a, it's a push to make sure I get two hours every day because there's always pickups. There's always emails. There's always zooms. And then I do zooms like this at the end of my day at three o'clock.

So that way my kids can be loud and hopefully not too loud, but they can be loud because as soon as they get home, they have to be silent. If mommy's still recording and , that's not my goal. My goal is mommy when they're home and recording every second that they're gone.

Liz: Yeah, wow.

Martha: Yeah, that's [00:14:00] so interesting. It's such a good example of how every job is still a job, even if it's something you love doing and having a structure and having a, standard operating procedure helps so much. And it sounds like you really have it down.

Liz: that is quite a system. I did wonder, I did wonder about how you kept your voice fresh, so that's really interesting to hear about your, formula for how long you talk and how long you have to take breaks.

Martha: Mm

Laura: Yeah. Yeah. So at the end of the day, this is my voice a bit fried. I could record if I needed to, but I'm hoping to be done at the end of the day. Cause my voice already lends itself to vocal fry. It just naturally, I have that, that effect. , but yeah, it's not fun when you start getting nasally , cause , the listeners you assume are listening straight through.

So chapter 15 sounds drastically different than the end of chapter 14. It's grating and you don't want that. If I can avoid it, I try to avoid it.

Liz: Yeah, of course, that totally makes sense. So you, you've talked a lot about what you like and what you don't like about it, but what's your favorite type of story [00:15:00] to read?

Laura: , Morally Gray romantasy with Fated Mates. Very specific. I, no, I love contemporary romance, but that is not, when I started doing this as a reader, I only read fantasy. Epic fantasy, Brandon Sanderson, like, I, I thought that was all I was going to get hired to do, because I, I, that's all I read. I was not a contemporary romance reader, and so I had never read Any contemporary thing.

 the closest I got was Outlander for the first like 40 pages and then, you know, then she goes back in time and it's fantasy, , you know, or at least, or at least it's historical fiction. , so when I started getting hired, when I was auditioning, I'd audition for anything and they always tell you that, that you'll be told , what you're best suited for.

I didn't get to decide my voice lends itself to romance. It just, it's got that, I've got the cadence, . My natural speaking voice is a little bit higher, but yeah. In general, I'm lower on the register. , I've got a lower end voice and that's just, it's so I've got that smokey, I can be sexy, you know, it's, it's, you can do that dragged out and gravelly , [00:16:00] sexy stuff.

So I get hired a lot. And especially early on, I got hired a lot for Contemporary, we're talking why choose, I mean, taboo contemporary romance. And so, , I kind of had to fill that out and I had to start listening to, to romance books because I didn't listen to them. So I had to listen to what, what does, what are the biggest narrators in, in contemporary romance doing?

 How are they handling sex scenes? Because that's important. are they actually moaning when they say she moans? Because that's something. As an actor, I had to ask a coach that it seems like, I guess you would think I used to be embarrassed. I don't remember. It was so long.

It's like, I don't remember being embarrassed about sex stuff anymore. Um, because it's so ingrained in my daily routine that it's like, Oh yeah, you, you do moan. It depends on the set. But if it says he moans, you're moaning, so not too much,

Liz: exposure therapy. You're not embarrassed anymore after some Yeah.

Martha: I think that's how we found you, Laura, is on Instagram, because you like to post bloopers and stuff. I think, I think, am I right, Liz? That's how we both [00:17:00] found Laura, is, is that way.

Liz: Yeah. And when you said that your favorite is morally gray, I was like, this is an Instagram reel basically. I don't like it.

Laura: that's it.

Martha: , what's the funniest thing that's ever happened to you while you've been narrating? Or , maybe just something recent.

Laura: you know, if you ever watch me live or you watch any narrator live, we stumble a lot. But because we're so trained in our technology, we, most of us record in what's called punch and roll style. So meaning we stop, if we make a mistake, we don't just let it roll. That's called free roll or open roll. I don't do that because it costs so much more for my editors to go through and take out the mistakes and also then it's out of my hands.

They choose what they think is the best take versus the actor making an acting choice saying, this is my best take and this is the one you're going to hear. so it's an interesting thing. When you make so many mistakes and you're constantly going back and forth, , it can take me six takes to say something if it's almost tongue twisting, not intentionally from the author, but it's tongue twisting , it gets, funny.

So when I'm live and I have to stop every two minutes, if I'm [00:18:00] stopping every two minutes, it's just one of those things that you do. So when you're live and you're not sure when I'm on Tik Tok, especially when I'm on Tik Tok, I never know exactly what words will trigger getting kicked off because it happens for random things.

And so on the one half, I am actually trying to get recording hours, recordable hours done. On the other half, I'm trying to entertain an audience and get them engaged and all of that. And so. When I know that I'm going to say dagger or sword, hopefully this won't trigger your things, but you know, because those words, because I do so much fantasy, I'm doing unsheathed their dagger.

I can't say those words on TikTok. I've been kicked off for the word blood. You know, it doesn't matter what it is. , So I have to start getting creative knowing that I can't actually use this audio, but that I want to finish this scene because I'm like, okay, I just stopped recording and I just read the scenes for the people that are there.

If I have a hundred people there and they want to hear, okay, I'll get to the chapter and it's a really juicy scene. And then I have to start being like, and then the bee came out of her arm and she put back her D and it's like, I don't know what I'm saying. Like half the time, like, I don't know if you're listening to what I'm [00:19:00] saying.

Or, or, you know, he was, he was unalived by the long metal thing in his hand, you know, and it's, so that's, that's always funny and, and, and awkward, but

Liz: Oh,

the world of algorithms 

Martha: yeah, it almost becomes like a Mad Libs situation.

Laura: And I'm like, you guys don't even know what I'm saying. I don't know what I'm saying anymore. And that's, and that's almost always the very end of my day.

I've always hit, when I go live, , I've probably already hit my two hours. So at this point, it's just, I'm ready for some engagement. I've been sitting in a four by six foot box all day. I've been alone. I've had no human interaction. , and I am an actor. So it's like I need someone to interact with me.

And so my recordable hours are done. And if I get more fabulous, if I don't, and I just get to talk to humans, that's, , it's inspiring. It builds me back up. It gives me energy to go do the rest of my day.

Liz: Yeah, that makes sense. It's funny also when you were talking about, reading a sentence that is a tongue twister that maybe wasn't on purpose by the [00:20:00] author because I'm a writer and so I actually am working on editing a novel right now and I've been reading it aloud to myself to try to catch typos and weird words.

And it is so It's funny. different reading it out loud to what I thought was on the page in my head. What I thought I typed when I actually read it out loud. I'm like, wow, that sentence sounds really weird. So yeah, I don't know if every author does that,

Laura: That is, 

Liz: a writer. 

Laura: yeah, that is always my advice. If they say, well, what can I do to prepare? Like, I want to use you, but it's not going to be out until next year. I say, read it aloud. As one of your steps of editing, I know you've got 50 editing phases. As one of them, either have your husband or your spouse, have somebody read it aloud to you, or you read it aloud.

Because it changes The dynamic of, oh, I don't need a character tag there. Oh, God, I just said that because , your brain is processing it, your eyes are seeing it, but your mouth helps you shape the world a little differently. And I, it seems it's, it does help me, of course, in the long run, [00:21:00] but I think it just, it makes it more palatable to all readers going, oh, I didn't, oh, I don't have to say that Suzanne said again, they know the inflections there.

Martha: Mm 

Liz: it definitely , is making the writing better for sure. I met you, Laura, at a book festival for self-published romance authors called Hot and Steamy in Portland. , so I was wondering is that, you talked a little bit about other things that you do besides, , actually recording, but do you go to events like that a lot?

Is there a lot of marketing involved in being at a.

Laura: do now. So I told my, I told my husband, he's my agreement with my husband was I would do two out of state events a year or two narrator , events a year. And there's so many and I get invited to so many , now, because of social media and because of exposure there, I get invited to things.

And so I told my husband, , I know that. In the past, I've done two, but the year 2025 is going to be my yes year. So starting, basically starting in 2023, because I was planning ahead, I said, I would like to go because [00:22:00] the industry is changing. The way that you used to get books is not how narrators are getting in now.

Now my exposure on social media, I get most of my work through social media, from authors finding me on places like TikTok and Instagram. , then , they go to my website. And . So Meeting people and being out there is how my job will continue because with the onset of artificial intelligence and voice cloning, and there's a whole world, I don't know that I'll be able to do this full time for the rest of my life.

 I don't know what career is safe, certainly, 2025 looks really great. I think 2026 will be great. I don't know that I'll be able to do this sustainably. , I've heard the AI of my voice and it's damn good. It's damn good. I've heard my own voice.

It doesn't have my inflection. It doesn't know what it's reading. So it's not the right tonality. Like there isn't, it doesn't connect, but it might by 

Liz: But it might be passable.

Laura: it sure, it sure might. if it's passable now, it's probably going to sound just like me in 2027. So, 

Liz: Wow. 

Laura: that, that's all to say that the readers are passionate, the authors are passionate about human expression, expressing human [00:23:00] emotion. , so I don't think I'll be out of work. I just don't know that I will be able to do this to the extent that I'm doing it now where I'm doing 60 books a year, , or I'm doing a book a week.

I love it and I'm passionate , and I want it to be, , so I told my husband, it's like, I will do everything I can to keep my job and I will go to every event that I'm invited to and I will go and I'll meet everyone , and be the human that I am. And if they like me and and they want to engage me and that's, then that's my job.

My job is now also to be utterly human, flawed and all, and go and meet other humans , and share in these bookish Environments and journeys and all of that. And it's also super fun. all of that to say, it's super fun to go have a glass of wine with all new bookish friends and chit chat and do all of that.

So, yes. I plan to do, I'm going to five in the next, , 13 months. And I'm missing some. , there's some big ones, especially for me, for fantasy. Fantasy is still my primary. , genre. I really want to make it to a Polycon. I couldn't make it work in 2025, so I'm really going [00:24:00] to push to go in 2026.

, but I am, I'm going to Ireland in, at the summer. I'm going to, that is Belfast Books and Ballgowns, so I'm flying my whole family. My business is flying my whole family. out to Belfast, , this coming summer, and then we're going to Texas for Villains and Vixens, I'm flying to LA for, , some of the, and it's also important for me to make that touchstone because I, I love this job so much.

I want to keep doing it and I want to meet, I want to meet the readers. I want to meet the people that are passionate about humans performing this job because you're the ones that I, that I'm doing it for. It's the whole reason I'm doing it.

Liz: Yeah, gosh, that's fascinating. We've talked so much about AI, but that is one that yeah, of course, it makes so much sense. But

Laura: Yeah,

Liz: yeah, that's really

Martha: Yeah, we need to do our episode on AI soon.

Liz: Yeah, yeah.

Martha: Well, Laura, we don't want to take up too much of your time, but we did want to ask you, where can people find books you've narrated and find you online?

Laura: oh, fabulous. , my website is just [00:25:00] my name. So my name is Laura Horowitz. It's l a u r a h o r o w i t z, laurahorowitz. com. , that's the easiest, if you want to hear samples, that's the easiest place to go. If you want to hear just quick little excerpts, , you can go, if you want to find my actual books, If you're on Instagram or you're on TikTok, , my handle is just my name, Laura Horowitz.

Sometimes I think it's at Laura Horowitz narrator sometimes, but if you type in Laura Horowitz, generally I come up first on things. Just quick factoid for you, Laura Horowitz is actually Winona Ryder's real name. And so, I used to be, when I first started, I didn't have any presence online. And so you type in Laura Horowitz and it would be Winona Ryder.

And I

Liz: Oh my god,

Laura: so the day that I overtook Winona was a big day for 

Martha: Yeah. 

Liz: was today years old when I learned.

Laura: That is her real legal name, is Laura Horowitz. And when I overtook her, um, you know, not, I didn't overtake Wynonna, but I took over her, her Laura. And that was a big day. So if you find, you can find me on Google [00:26:00] searches, on Audible, you can, just like you type in a search of a title, you can search a narrator's name that'll pop up my couple hundred books.

And. So you can find them all. , and then I do have an Amazon storefront. So any of those, , social media on, on TOK, if you go to my profile and actually , click on my link, it'll take you and it will show you. So we'll just take you directly to Amazon. , so I, I am an affiliate, so I do get a couple of pennies.

So if you buy it from me, thank you very much. You've also paid me additionally, not just Amazon. So thank you.

Martha: That's great to 

Liz: Awesome. Yeah, we'll put all we'll put all of that in the show notes as well. The link to your to your different profiles into your website.

Laura: Thanks very much. 

Liz: Thank you so much for talking to us, Laura. It was a pleasure. I feel like I could talk to you easily for another 30 minutes, 

Laura: good. I'm sorry.

Liz: no, no, we'll let you run. But this has been really interesting, and we so appreciate your time.

Martha: Yeah.

Laura: my pleasure. Thank you, ladies, so much. Truly my pleasure. So nice to meet you both.

Martha: Thank you.

Liz: Oh, wow. Listening to her describe her day. [00:27:00] made me feel like I need a nap. I'm like, in awe of that schedule.

Martha: it's crazy. , it's like I said in the interview, even a dream job, quote unquote, is still a job and I think it's important to know that and see a snippet of her day. I'm like, Oh, maybe, maybe I don't want to be an audiobook narrator. I don't know. I mean, it sounds super fun, but it is a lot of work.

So that was really cool to hear. 

Liz: and she clearly loves it, so that's why she's willing to, schedule every nanosecond of her day. But yeah.

Martha: makes me that much more grateful for audiobooks now, hearing about all the work that goes into it and her passion for the art of it and the human side of it. I just loved hearing about that.

Liz: Yeah, I know. Ugh. I hate the idea that she's not sure if it's going to be able to be a full time job because of AI. That just makes me so angry because she is so good at it, and [00:28:00] she has thought about it so much, and she's so detail oriented, and she obviously will do a much better job than technology would do.

 That type of job I think is so important. For a human to do? , can't we have the machines do other jobs

Martha: Yeah.

Liz: are not, filled by someone who's just so passionate and inspired about what they're doing? surely, I don't know. That's a rant for the AI episode, I guess.

Martha: Yeah, and I know there's a lot of discourse about this exact topic in a lot of different artist communities all over the world, so hopefully as a human race we'll come to some sort of conclusion about what we think AI should and shouldn't do, but like you said, that's a conversation for another time, I guess.

But if you want more bookish content, make sure to follow us at AllBooksAloudPod. If you have any feedback or you want to ask us any questions about Laura or anything we talked about today, you could send us an [00:29:00] email to AllBooksAloudPod at gmail. com. Make sure to leave us a positive rating and review because it helps other people find us and read on, my friends. 

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