How to Prepare to Record an Audiobook

Yes. You've written a book and now you want to record an audiobook for it. First virtual high five for being awesome. I love audiobooks and listen to them while I'm walking to and from work. And I know a lot of people listen while they drive. So you're tapping into a market of people that probably wouldn't actually read your book, but they will listen to you reading it. So now how do you get yourself ready to record your audiobook? That's what we're talking about today, so stick around. Hey, I'm Julie the Book Broad. Award winning author and founder of a fabulous self publishing service company called Book Launchers. One of the things we help our clients with is audiobook production and distribution. If you have the budget for it. There are a lot of reasons to create an audiobook. We've already talked about whether you should do an audiobook and whether you should be the one to narrate it or not. Those videos are here and here. Actually probably both linked over here. And one of my favorite YouTube besties, Fio Shea, asked how to go about recording an audiobook. So today we're going to help you get ready for for going into the studio to record. And I guess that's something else to cover. Can you just grab a mic and hit record? Maybe. If you don't care about selling your book on audible. Audible has a really strict quality standard and a lot of books get rejected due to not meeting their audio quality. Not to mention the audiobook listener doesn't tolerate lower quality like a podcast listener might. But you can set up a home studio if you're okay to invest in the equipment for recording and soundproofing. That's what I did with my second book, the New Brand you'd. And I had the help of an award winning audio producer and editor who also acted as my voice coach. But she called the local Longam and Quaid store, had them set out the equipment I had to buy, and we tested and tested and tested until I had it all set up just right. Next time I'm renting a studio. All right, so getting ready for this, do expect to be in the studio for probably two to three hours for every 10,000 words in your book. And expect it to be physically demanding. I loved it, but I found I could really only do about six hours a day recording. And it was intense and I wasn't as prepared as I should have been. It was my fault. I expected it to be way easier than it was. So next time, here's what I'll do. And here's what I advise you and our clients to do. Number one Read your book out loud at least once before. This is a great way to finalize your book, by the way. You'll find things that you missed in all other edits, guaranteed. And it's also a great opportunity for you to find places that you need to pause, breathe, commas mean breathe, and also to check how you'll pronounce certain names and places that you might be uncertain about. Number 2 Record a chat chapter and run it by a voice coach. This is not the same as podcasting or public speaking. There are accepted techniques and ways to speak so that you are connecting to your listener and creating engagement with your book, especially after you've been in the studio for six hours. One of the big things I had to do was slow down my speech. As a few somewhat unkind YouTube viewers have noted, I get excitable and I speak really fast when I get excited. So with an audiobook, every single word needs to be read, heard and understood. So go slower than your natural pace in most cases. We also have habits. Maybe we don't pronounce our t's as well as we should, or we raise our voice at the end of sentences that are statements. A voice coach will help you with all of this. They'll also help you figure out when you should breathe. Like I mentioned, you breathe at every comma or period or you'll find yourself breathless a lot. But the coach will help guide you through this. Finally, on the day of recording, my advice is to avoid any foods or drinks that will give you phlegm. For me, that's spicy foods and dairy products. Also, avoid anything fizzy because you don't want to be burping. Seriously, you might be laughing at me, but this is so real. You do want to keep hydrated. Tea with honey and lemon, hot water, water, maybe energy drinks. But be careful because sugar and caffeine can dehydrate and have the opposite effect that you want on your voice. Bring snacks. Fruit and nuts are great options, I think. Sadly, chocolate doesn't work. I tried phlegm. Most important, have fun. This is your book baby, and you're bringing it to life in an entirely new and cool way. Enjoy the process and thanks for the question fee. If you've got a question, go ahead and post it in the comments below and I just might shoot a video for you. And while you're here, smash that thumbs up button because it makes me happy and tells YouTube this content is cool. And comment because commenting is super cool and we can become YouTube besties like I have with Fio Shea and other amazing folks like Gene Hobbs, Kevin, Obi Wan, Dave OT and David Wong. Thank you for being here, commenting and sharing. I am so so grateful. Now we've got so many other cool videos for you to watch. This one really fun and this one all about surprise in your writing and my husband played a little joke on me. Click on one and I'll see you there. I can't wait to hang out with you some more.