Meet Massiel Pena | Owner and Founder, Executive Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Massiel Pena and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Massiel, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
I have always been a bookworm, love reading and listening to audiobooks. In 2018 when I started to really enjoy the audiobooks, I realized that there was not a diverse pool of narrators with a Latina background. This is how I started to dip my toes into audiobook narration, I believe that representation is important and diversity is beautiful. After couple years into it I discover that there was very few beside the main publisher houses working with Spanish Audiobook productions, especially with indie romance authors who had no idea how to produce in this market. My first idea was to actually work with authors that already have their books in Spanish, but to my surprise not many had. Most of the time authors had to sell their rights to a Spanish publisher in order to get into the market and not all of them were ready or feel comfortable doing so. On the other hand, trying to find somebody to translate your book and actually make sure is well translated without speaking the language is a scary thing to do. Right there I just knew I need to create a company that would help with this need. So that was settle, I created Sirena Audiobooks Productions where we would take care of the full book translation including editing, proofing the manuscript, making sure that what the author is actually trying to convey is what is actually translated in a neutral Spanish without getting lost in translation.

What should our readers know about your business?
Sirena Audiobooks is a boutique Spanish translation and full audiobook production company. We specialize in neutral Spanish, there are so many Spanish speaking countries in Latin America and including Spain (where is Spanish Castilian) and we make sure that the translation is done so anybody can understand it. When an author gives us the trust to work with her book baby, it becomes our book baby as well. We not only work with translating the book, we edited, proofed, and go through corrections as if has been written for the first time, which if you think about it, it is because we need to make sure the grammar, and the story makes sense in Spanish. After that the book goes through Spanish beta readers so we can make sure the translation is well received. Once we are done with the translation part of the process we dive into the audiobook production, which goes from casting, coordinating, recording, post production, and finally delivering a high-quality final audiobook production. We also put together and coordinate book tours and blitz services to help promote the release in the Spanish speaking market, I wanted to make sure the whole process is hassle and worry free for our clients, I know how busy and how much a romance indie author has in her plate, and from the get go I knew I wanted to make the process enjoyable.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am such an introvert, my idea of fun would be cuddle up with my kindle LOL, but I’m a foodie so probably would take you to eat and drink to Port City restaurant, it has beautiful views of Lake Norman. Maybe a walk in uptown Charlotte and ending up watching a Knights baseball game.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Jocqueline Protho and Andi Arndt, both ladies guided me in the beginning of my journey and I am so grateful for it.

Website: https://www.sirenaaudiobooks.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sirenaaudiobooks/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sirenaaudiobooks/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SirenaAudiobook

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SirenaAudiobooks/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmMDM0t3AY8oWEw0S6K_fGQ/