[Ainsley]

I've been talking with a fellow writer who I've known for a while. She's always been a fan of my voice and seems to think I may actually be good for narrating romance/YA/PNR. I've always been told that I have a great voice and I do have a background in theater but writing is my first love. That said it made me curious as to whether female listeners would be open to a 'sexy' male narrator even though the protagonist is a woman?

Thoughts?

 

[Kate.]

Hmm. Is the story in first-person or third-person?

Third person should be okay. I'm more used to audiobooks with the narrator's gender matching the protagonist, but it's not impossible to find the opposite.

First person would probably seriously confuse me and a lot of readers. "I twirled in front of the mirror, admiring the hot pink skirt and thigh-high boots" spoken in a deep, sexy, manly voice could be very entertaining, though. 

 

[JeffreyKafer]

3rd person you can get away with, but would probably be better suited to a female narrator, if the book is geared toward women.
1st person female MUST be a female narrator. No way to get around that.

 

[Atunah]

Phil Gigante is popular with many romance readers, he does romance, urban fantasy and other stuff looking at audible.

I know I read the highlander series by Karen Marie Moning, which is time travel romance and I listened later to one of the books and I liked it a lot. But in general romance I read is not in 1st person. A lot of the newer NA/YA/contempo tends to be, but usually its 3rd person.

There was another male narrator I have heard talked about but I am drawing a blank at the moment.

On the other hand, if you sound anything like Richard Armitage or Alan Rickman, then you can read the phone book and I'll listen. 

Just browsing the historical romance section now by best selling on audible there are quite a few male narrators. Browse through and check out some of the samples. All the ones I come across are 3rd person though. As Jeffrey said, 1st person would sound really silly I think.

 

[JeffreyKafer]

I narrate a ton of romance, but not necessarily YA romance which is usually teens/college age people falling in love. I narrate lots of the macho firefighter/alpha pack leader/Delta Spec ops romance stuff.

 

[Ainsley]

Hmm. Is the story in first-person or third-person?

Third person should be okay. I'm more used to audiobooks with the narrator's gender matching the protagonist, but it's not impossible to find the opposite.

First person would probably seriously confuse me and a lot of readers. "I twirled in front of the mirror, admiring the hot pink skirt and thigh-high boots" spoken in a deep, sexy, manly voice could be very entertaining, though.

Lol yes I'd be doing third person. First person would be... interesting though. Who knows maybe that's a new niche waiting to be discovered!