Home Brew Audio Book

Hi, why not just let your publisher worry about audio books? Then you can spend your time writing books instead of reading them into microphones.

Listen to any audio book done by Frank Muller or George Guidall; they are two of the best in the business (or were, Frank Muller had an accident a couple of years ago that makes it impossible for him to continue). Stephen King also does a good job of narrating his own books. You will find that a good narrator makes all the difference in the world; I've stopped listening to some books just because the narrator did a poor job; and some where the overall audio qualify wasn't high (any of the older books-on-tape by Blackstone's generally fit that description).

If is done lightly, I don't really mind sound effects but I prefer to do without them.

I would also agree with John above. Have you self-published this book?

Drat. Here I honestly thought you were writing an audio book on home brewing. I was going to order a copy.

As far as advice, I'd go with johnzakour.

That said, the few audio books I've listened to only had one narrator for all the voices. Didn't have any music. Didn't have any sound effects. Or not that I noticed.

I agree with all of the above, let someone else, someone who is experienced do that. I loved Jim Dale for Harry Potter and ditto for Frank Muller and George Guidall. If the author reads the audio book, I don't listen to it because they read it so drab, compared to the stars in the field.

George Guidall, I've thought, is an amazing reader. Mostly what I've noticed him and Stephen Briggs (another wonder) do is, they have the tones and the inflections of a female voice. George pitches his voice a little tiny bit higher, but not much. Stephen Briggs just shifts his inflections enough that you know it's a woman speaking.

This is an interesting thread, because I was just talking about homebrew audio books/stories in the wandering thread about Books in 2007. I pointed out that one of the advantages of the internet and something I'd like to see is more authors using quality software and releasing their books on audio on the internet, either to match publication or as a way of informally bringing a book back in print.

The most important advice I have (well, a bit of it) is that when you're doing the audio book, actually have a crowd in your head that you're reading each part to. And always read a little bit slower than you're naturally inclined to.

I was thinking of it less for secondary income purposes (because I'm just not sure you'd make enough over an extended period of time to make it financially useful) but I think that it would be fun (potentially) and a good way to get popularity. People can throw Chapter One onto their iPod and decide if they like it sometimes easier than picking up your book and reading it.

Garpy said:

well yes, that's another bonus....it's a very effective form of marketing.

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I think VERY may be too strong of a word. It can be effective under the right set of circumstances.

I also think VERY is too strong a word. I think right now, it's an interesting idea and something to experiment with. But ti's why I've mentione dit on the forums a couple of times and done nothing very much with it. I'm not convinced it woudl do anything useful. Not quite yet.

More and more, audio books are being downloaded rather than purchased on CD or cassette. I do that from my local library (free).

The best readers are also performers.

My fav audio actor is the late Darren McGavin, who not only played my fav hero, Carl Kolchak on (the ONLY) Nightstalker TV series, but read a number of the Travis McGee novels. I treasure them and wish they would release them all on CD.

Fans of John D. McDonald will know Travis McGee is chock full of testosterone, and McGavin delivers on that--but he delivers on the female dialogue as well. He was one heck of a great actor.

Listen to how he reads and learn from his talent.

I wish you good luck doing your own audiobooks, though from sales on my titles, there ain't much money in 'em. I'm fairly well known in my genre, but the audio sales are just terrible!

alleycat said:

More and more, audio books are being downloaded rather than purchased on CD or cassette. I do that from my local library (free).

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I meant the entire concept of an audio book as being a marginally effective way of promoting. If you are a little known author your audio book is going to have a hard time attracting attention.

I'm not saying it's bad at all. I'm just saying don't expect a lot of sales without $ignificant marketing behind your marketing.

Garpy said:

Gill, if you don't mind me asking, roughly what % would you expect to get on an audiobook sale? I presume the usual 10%?

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That should be in your contract with your publisher.

I had one audio book company interested in doing audio versions of Plutonium Blonde and Doomsday Brunette. I'm not even sure if they ever came about. I know neither Daw nor my agent were all that excited about the income generated.

I think coming at homebrew audio books from the idea that you'll make useful money off it is probably not the best way to do it. If I released a short story in audio format to the world, I would do it very cheaply, and the purpose of it would be to have people hear the story and enjoy it (and maybe buy my book). I woldn't bother releasing it with the intention of pulling in a serious profit.

This also means I would be delighted by any sales that appear, and not disappointed by any sales that fail to appear.

Garpy said:

Has anyone here listened to many audiobooks where a male reader does female dialog? How did they deal with it? And was it successful?

Secondly, I was wondering, are there any audiobooks out there that blur the line between dramatization and book-read-aloud by adding ambient music/fx subtly into the background?

Thirdly, just a general question...what sort of things really bug you with audio books? Conversely, what really works well?

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I won't discuss the merits of you producing your own audio books, I'll just give you my views as an audio book consumer:

1) I've listend to a fair few audiobooks. Some have been read by women , others by men - and they were either professional actors or the writer. But all have read in the same voice, whether or not they read male or female dialogues.

If the dialogue isn't particularly well written, it can sometimes be hard to get who's talking (it's easier to get lost when listening then when reading - a short distraction and you have lost a few sentences), but I never find it weird that a male voice read a female part. Then again, I had parents and teachers who read out loud to me when I was a child, so I'm used to this.

2) A few audiobooks have sounded like a radio play: Different actors played different charachters (in other words, both male and female voices), and they had ambient sound in the background: doors slamming, sound of trafick in the background, wind or waves and so on. Some of these audio books leave out bits of the book so that it sounds as much as a play as possible.

3) I prefer the plain read. I cannot stand audiobooks with ambient noise or that sounds like a radio play. I want it straight and simple, like a book being read out loud, not acted out. Another important thing is that it's easy to listen to: the voice must not grate on the ear, and no silly accents, whispering or anything else that may make it hard to hear - I often listen to audio books when walking or travelling and the background noise from trafick etc makes it hard enough to hear what's being said on the iPod. So speak up, speak clearly and don't do silly things. As always: KISS

I agree. I never much cared for the ambient noises, or even the different voices.

A well written book that translates into a well read audio book (Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal" is a great example) is an absolute delight.

We have a lot of audio books. I like them. The wife listens on her hour or more drive to work. She says it's all that gets her through some of the traffic jams.

I like them when done (well) by the author. Frank McCourt was awesome with Angela's Ashes. Getting the writers intended influx can change a story or character completely from what you would have gotten from text. When someone else reads it, you get their interpretation which can be different from yours but not necessarily that of the writer. I'll take the writer's voice whenever I can get it.

If you are going to do it, you had best treat it as a production. It's acting in it's highest form. Don't just read it into Windows voice recorder. You need proper equipment. Production doesn't mean music and sound effects, though subtle effects in the back ground (if voice doesn't do it justice) I think are fine. In my story a siren draws the attention of a character and I might have a siren envelope lightly behind the voice. But mostly it would be voice. And sound effects would be rare.

But even if you don't intend to release an audio book, there is some merit in reading your work out loud and trying to feel you characters. I think this is a good way to realize the depth of personality you write into your characters.

ETA: Voice change should be subtle. Don't "girly it up". Just lighten it for female.

Garpy said:

Yeah, it is 10%. So anyway, getting back to the point. The point being, you can either let your publisher get round to selling the audio rights, and to be fair to them, it's not a huge priority. Or, if you've got the tech and the time...it's worth doing - at the very least, it's another marketing tool.

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True, but so is spending time writing a second book. I find sales of my old books increase whenever I release a new book. The more new books you have out there the better your old books do.

To me, writers write books and let the publisher worry about doing audio (or video) versions of them; but that's just me.

If you want to do an audio book for your own satisfaction that's great, but I wouldn't think of it as a marketing tool at least not a very strong one.