Talking With Audiobook Narrator Extraordinaire Simon Vance

This edition of Talking With focuses on Simon Vance, who earned his 50th Audie Award nomination this year as he sets his sights to the screen.

For anyone who doesn’t know, the Audies are basically the Oscars for audiobooks. Simon has won 16 of them and even hosted the awards ceremony a few years back. His quintessentially English voice has also landed 7 SOVAS and 75 AudioFile Earphones, while earning a place in the Audible Narrator Hall of Fame, an Independent Audiobook Award for Best Male Narrator, AudioFile Magazine’s ‘Golden Voice’, and Booklist Magazine’s ‘Voice of Choice’.

With over 1,000 titles to his credit, if you’ve ever listened to best-selling audiobook, then you’ve likely heard Simon. These include George RR Martin’s FIRE & BLOOD, Stieg Larsson’s THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, Anne Rice’s INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, and Frank Herbert’s DUNE. Coming soon, Simon voices Lucien the Librarian in Neil Gaiman’s THE SANDMAN (ACTS I, II & III), and Rupert Holmes’ MURDER YOUR EMPLOYER with Neil Patrick Harris.

At the top of his game, Simon is now turning his attention back to acting in front of the camera. He wasn’t always just behind the microphone having previously appeared on the television shows “Nash Bridges,” “Criminal Minds,” “Masters of Sex,” and “The Evidence.”

To learn more, we are Talking With Simon Vance:

Congratulations on your 50th Audie Award nomination. What does it feel like to be the most nominated audiobook narrator ever?

Simon Vance: Thank you! I’ve found it surprising. I narrate because I love reading and when I began in the 1980’s in London I was giving my free time to a good cause (the RNIB) in a way I found enjoyable – at the time I never thought of it as something I was particularly special at, let alone earn money for. I can be annoyingly self-deprecating (I’m British, of course) and so when, a few years ago, someone did the research and found I was the most nominated narrator it rather blew me away. Just recently I’ve gone back over the archives of the Audies and I see my name among many more famous actors and it’s hard to believe I’ve been recognized with this honor so often.

Do you remember your first Audie nomination and how does that compare to the 50th?

SV: It was a non-fiction book called ‘Shackleton’s Way’ back in 2002 (it’s still available listed under my then ‘nom de voix’ of Richard Matthews – but that’s another story). At the time I was told narrators weren’t encouraged to attend so I didn’t go to the ceremony which I’ve since regretted. I’ve always been fortunate in being asked to narrate good titles so that first nomination differs little from the books I do today – although my two nominations this year are both for fiction titles.

We must ask – what’s been your favorite narration project? And, which one was the toughest?

SV: Well, my favorite changes from year to year and mood to mood… I have always loved narrating the work of Guy Gavriel Kay, recording the whole series of MASTER AND COMMANDER books by Patrick O’Brian was a real treat (sadly not currently available commercially thanks to rights issues), and Anthony Powell’s DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME novels were a joy. Maybe the most fun I’ve had over the longest period was handling Alan Moore’s JERUSALEM – one 2 hour chapter of that novel was also the toughest, where Alan wrote in the style of James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake!

The Audie’s are not the only awards you’ve received. So, what impact do you think these accolades have had on your career?

SV: Always hard to say… I know I’ve met some wonderful people at the ceremonies. Some of those meetings have resulted in long term friendships. I don’t know if awards directly translate into my getting more or better work, but they make me understand the responsibility I have to be always producing the best performance I can in each particular project. It doesn’t work to just rest on your laurels… however many you have and how comfortable they may make you feel when you lie back on them.

What helps you the most in bringing a book to life?

SV: I’ve always trusted my instincts. I once said that I feel a book tells me how it wants to be read… (that’s hard to explain and is one of the reasons I don’t coach other narrators. It also sounds a little pretentious…). But I think it comes from always being alive to the world around you. Absorbing how people interact and what sounds real, sounds true. Basically, I suppose, it’s simply having an actor’s empathy.

Have you ever been shocked by the success of one the books?

SV: To say I’m shocked by the success of any of them… would probably be untrue (but see ‘self-deprecating’ above). I don’t kid myself it’s just me - I think the success of an audiobook depends as much on the quality of the writing as anything else. I’m always in awe of good writers. If I were to name one book that became bigger than I expected, it might be THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO – I was in at the beginning of the whole thing and had no idea where that book was going to go.

Which audiobook did you enjoy the most -- that you didn’t work on?

SV: I listen to so few audiobooks, not really having the time between my own projects. But there was a time when I was on the road a lot between the SF Bay Area and LA and I used to love listening to historical biographies narrated by my friend Grover Gardner (Rockefeller, Carnegie, LBJ and so on) – he does such a good job.

As you head back into the on-camera arena, do you think skillset is completely different or the same?

SV: I’d say it’s pretty much the same – what’s changed is my knowledge of that skillset. In the years since I last worked on a set, I have never stopped learning (I’ve always taken classes – on camera and off - to improve my abilities as a performer even while I’ve been performing exclusively in the audio world). I think I’m much more aware of the needs of the work than I ever was before… but I guess we’ll see.

SV: That’s a good question… perhaps I just can’t get comfortable on my bed of laurels. I need to challenge myself. It’s always been in my blood to be an actor since my parents sent me to a drama school on Saturdays when I was only 9 years old and the acting bug bit deep, and at its fullest that means more than the solo work of a narrator.

The desire has been on a slow burn with me for years. Coming back from the extreme isolation of the pandemic made me recognize that I had no time to lose.

What inspires you the most creatively?

SV: Total immersion. That can be in anything…narration, writing, guitar playing, gardening. Anything that takes extreme focus… even answering these questions.

Finally, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

SV: A large part of the enjoyment of life is not knowing what’s going to happen next.

It can also scare the hell out of me, but I’m not going to stop now.

Connect with Simon Vance at: visit: SimonVance.com , Twitter: @simvan, Instagram: @simvance, Facebook: /simon.vance