DoF 1 Bonus 2: PM7 Director's Commentary (Patreon)

How does it feel to listen to your own audiobook? What is the process of making one? Does knowing there will be an audiobook change how you write? These are questions that literally nobody has asked, but I'll answer them anyway.

The other day I got the mp3s from Podium for Player Manager 7. (As part of my deal, I get a paperback copy and the files. It's actually quite an effective perk. Everyone's always stoked when the book turns up.) Podium send out marketing ideas and bits I could post on my socials. 'Cut things out, but don't go over ten minutes in total.'

Ten minutes eh? Well, I don't post on social media much, but what if I cut out ten minutes of my favourite bits, or bits I personally found interesting and posted them here? I know some of you are audiobook-first guys, but I'm guessing most of you have only ever heard Luke's voice in the previous bonus content.

In this bonus episode I'll play ELEVEN clips from the real, actual Player Manager 7 audiobook and chat about them for a few sentences. But first, a quick Q+A. If you have more Qs about audiobooks, pop them below and I'll answer them.

What is the process of making an audiobook with a publisher?

When Podium signed me, they looked for a voice actor who could play Max and all the other Brits in books 1-3. They found Luke R. Francis and sent me some clips. I liked him a lot, but I had a check and found he had done football audiobooks before that got review bombed because he pronounced Glasgow Celtic 'Keltic'. Big no-no! (I mentioned this to him recently and he said he was in a room with a producer who kept going yeah it's fine, keep reading.)

Podium said 'don't worry, we'll send him a file with all the character names etc'.

We got lucky with Luke. He's brilliant. He has a big cast of characters that must be a nightmare to work with, and he adds life to the story. It was 10/10 casting.

How does it feel to listen to your own audiobook?

Because I know Luke isn't a mega footy fan, I'm mostly nervous listening to the files because I'm worried he'll get something wrong. In PM7 he says Gillingham a few times, but he says it with a hard G instead of a soft one. Apparently there is a hard G Gillingham in Dorset, but the football club one is like the name Jill. There's a line to that effect that I slipped into the story because I was thinking about the audio, but Podium took it out. Oops!

(The editors were worried about the line breaking up the flow of the text, and they were right, but now there's a different issue.)

The problem I have is that there's so much prior knowledge needed for this story. I send Luke (via Podium, in this case) a spreadsheet saying how to pronounce names. Ryan Giggs. Real Madrid. I even do footy chants. (If they are based on famous songs, Luke can't perform them because of copyright. If things sound weird sometimes, that's probably the reason.) But I didn't think to include place names because surely everyone knows.

So now I'm wondering what a Gills fan will think of this story. Does it lose all credibility? I think by this point no, but it must grate. That said, I looked it up and apparently LOADS of people say Gills wrong. So it's possible that only about three people will give a shit. It puts me on edge, though, and it's only when I get to the end of a first listen that I can relax and think, wow, that was great.

I especially loved Luke's Eight Views of Emma. I didn't include any of it here but it's a brilliant performance. If you remember, Max slows down when reading his beautiful poems, and Luke slows, too. He really aerates the wine glass in those scenes! It was very satisfying to listen to that. I love it when he adds texture to what I've written.

Does knowing there will be an audiobook change how you write?

Not much. I added the 'charcoal chicken and chips' scene (in a previous book) because I thought it would be funny on audio. Mostly I write in my usual style, including the weird text adventure chapter and whatever mad ideas I have, and think 'poor Luke'.

Okay, let's listen to some audio!

Snippet 1: Max, Henri, the Brig, Emma, Outside William Roberts' House, 8:58 a.m.

This is probably going to feel super lazy, but the very first scene in PM7 is one I wanted to talk about, and it just so happens to be the one that Podium sent as part of their marketing materials!

It's worth noting that I wrote this years ago so for me the book is full of surprises. In my head book 7 is 'the Grimsby one' and that's all I really remember. So I was delighted by this first scene. I don't think I sat down and tried to invent a way to show four characters in a few minutes, but this is a good reminder of who we're dealing with.

Max, bit of a madman, but when he leads, people follow.

The Brig, mature, serious, sober, but with a cheeky glint in his eye.

Emma, letting the boys get on with their silliness.

But it's Henri that shines. I'm pretty sure Luke has improved his Henri voice, or maybe I'm just giving Henri better lines in this book. I find him really funny and interesting. When he snaps: 'The seat that I CALIBRATED!' - mwah, chef's kiss.

This kind of scene, where someone is feeling impatient, can be irritating because the impatience spills over into the reader, but I think this is nicely done.

In the first audiobook, I was shocked to hear Luke call Henri 'Henry', like Prince Henry. He is, of course, Onriiii. I think it's okay that English people use the English version at first, but Onriiiiii shouldn't call himself Henry.

I said that after book 1 or 2 and I think that over time, Luke has been changing it so that most people say 'onrii', Onriii calls himself Onriiiii, but Max still says Henry. That feels like quite a Max thing to do (although actually he wouldn't do it with Henri and only does it with Beth because she changed her name AFTER they met) and I quite like that there's a random element to how people say the name. That would be totally reflective of Henri's experience in England!

Anyway, it just goes to show that you can write something and everyone who reads it will read something different. And when Luke tells the story, to some extent it becomes his own. I'm okay with that... I think.

Snippets 2-4: Max Versus Brooke, Round One.

I was really worried when this was approaching my ears. Two reasons. One, could Luke do a Texas b-girl accent? Brooke gets a couple of lines in Soccer Supremo 1 and she sounded more like Beth than anything, but I couldn't really blame Luke for not giving it the full welly when she gets to say about 8 words.

Two, lots of people don't like this scene. Max is rude, they said. He makes assumptions. He shouldn't talk to people like this. I was so in Max's head that I couldn't agree, but with all the time that had passed since its original release, I wondered how the scene would hold up.

I think Luke absolutely nailed it and conveyed the dialogue just as it sounded in my head. Max is direct and he's annoying, but no more so than with anyone else, and he loves it when Brooke snaps back.

As for the accent - I've just started watching Celebrity Traitors season 2 and Jerry Hall is in it. (NO SPOILERS PLEASE.) To me, Luke's Brooke sounds just like Jerry Hall. I personally love the voice! Texans, what do you think?

And at the end of the scene we get one of my favourite tropes - someone with an accent doing a different accent. Here's Max nailing Texan:

Snippet 5 - Curse Commentary

One of the most important parts of the story, obvs, is the match action. Here's what it sounds like.

The little pauses and hesitations and inflexions in the voice give it much more texture than on a screen. In Championship Manager you would just get flat text that would get more epic in your head when it was a big match. This captures some of that flavour, I think.

Snippet 6 - You Got Maxxed!

I think Luke is a trained singer, so when he does chants etc it's really good. Do you remember one time Max paid 100 quid to create a song to annoy Jackie Reaper? Luke went HARD at that one! I should dig it out and post it one of these days. For now, here's an example of a chant.

Snippet 7 - Jackie and Livia

Luke's Scousers are amazing. In this scene, Max has been annoyed by the slipping standards in the women's team so he had put on a demo of what's going wrong. Jackie and Livia come to watch and we get some solid banter.

Snippet 8 - A Sulky German

No explanation needed! I'm very happy with how Pascal sounds, and Luke had 20 hours of Soccer Supremo to brush up his German accents.

If you remember, Pascal was lovesick and Max wasn't using him in squads.

Snippet 9 - Flirty Max

I do enjoy writing a bit of flirty stuff. This comes on Valentine's Day when Max and Pascal are looking for somewhere to eat. Not heard in this clip: Pascal's thunderous disapproval, lol.

Snippet 10 - Donnie Wormwood

I don't have many southern characters in the story - they tend to be from Manchester, Liverpool, Chester, Newcastle, or Rest Of World, so I was excited to hear Luke do Donnie 'Scrubber' Wormwood, the champion boxer.

How better to check the authenticity of the accent than by skipping to the word 'fighter'?

Nailed it!

Snippet 11 - Max Has a Little Rant

After Max meets Donnie and calms down, they chat about his nephew, Danny Flash, one of the bad apples at Grimsby Town.

I thought 'wow, that part was fun' and went to clip it out. Here's the wave file. Can you spot the part where Max's mouth kicks into fifth gear?

Max, you beautiful maniac.

Do you want to hear it? Of course you do.

Lol. Margot Robbie, just good friends. The cheese must have been amazing that night.

Summary

In conclusion, Luke's great, he elevates the story, and I'm always buzzing when I see comments on reddit from people who say 'get the audiobook version, it's great!'