Audio recording your self-published book

As a person who uses audiobooks I quickly (read: immediately) stopped buying anything not done by some kind of professional voice talent. It just wasn't nice to listen to. Unfortunately voice talent costs a fortune.

I just thought of a website, when I first saw this thread. I'm going to post it, not sure if it'll be useful, but it might.

http://www.radioplaycontests.com/

Hi, this is Lee, the admin of Radioplay Contests. I discovered this forum thread while checking my website stats.

Thanks to Truelyana for posting my link.

III, you can post an ad there if you want. Just post it in the "Upcoming Radioplay Productions" section. Maybe someone there will be interested on making an audio version of your book especially for commercial purposes.

III,
My grandmother craved historical romances. When age took her sight, she tried getting my grandfather to read to her.
Now, mind you, he was an old professional wrestler, and very rough around the edges (he was known as The Thing, Brother Frank, and wrestled big names like Gorgeous George).
When he would read her romances, it was akin to having George Carlin in the house; commentary was vulgar, funny, and down right rude as it stole the ambiance of the story.
Anyhoo, eons later, when audio books were invented, even though in the early stages, my grandmother was elated. She could finally 'sink' into her favorite genre, and be whisked away to worlds that had been closed to her for so long.

So, make your book available in audio format?
YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT!!!

People wonder who will read this stuff? Travelers not wanting to be bogged down with weighty books?

Pfff. The biggest market always forgotten about are the senior citizens who don't see as well anymore. My other grandmother loved audio books because she had Parkinson's Disease, making it impossible to hold a book for too long.

III said:

I've recently had a couple friends tell me they don't have time to read or simply "don't read", but say that they'd definitely be interested in an audio version of my book.

So this may sound kooky, but has anyone recorded an audio version of their self-pubbed book? If so, did you record it yourself or pay someone to do it? Did you make it available as an MP3 or on CD? I'm really considering doing this myself simply becuase it is such a weird idea. Heck, if I sell the CD's for $5 I'd be making a bigger profit than I do on the book. Hmmmm . . .

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Hmm, I'm remembering this thread...I just read through it and checked, all the audio links appear to be dead:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51879
And look what I found!
http://web.mac.com/raymond_k_wong/iweb/Stories of My Life/Podcast/Podcast.html
I listened to one for a few seconds and thought, Gee, Ray sure has a funny voice. Then I realized it's a text-to-voice computer-generated voice thing. Not bad compared to the older "Stephen Hawking" computer-generated voice I'm used to, but still, I think I'd prefer a real person, even with only a little speaking talent. Also, it could use a small bit of reverb or 'room tone'.

III said:

Hmmm, I got to the page through the link, but couldn't get the audio to play, even after I installed the ActiveX. I'll have to try it on a different computer. Ben, were you a private detective in a past life?

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I looked for audio on absolutewrite, and that link happened to be in one of Ray's posts. I can't find which one now, but I know it was there...

The search string I used in Google is:
audio site:absolutewrite.com
I went through many pages of results, as most hits were irrelevant (I wanted to pick up things that using more keywords might miss). It's all in knowing how to use a search engine.

I too have had people beg me to have my books in audio form. I note that they never offered to pay for the transcriptions! Nonetheless I scouted around to see what's available.
This is what I learned:
Professional sound studios are the best equipped to produce a product without background noise. They can also provide sound effects e.g. slamming door or creaky staircases.
A good and relatively inexpensive place to find a suitable reading voice is any local college with a drama department.
If there is no college around you may find a drama league or theater group.

I believe (many disagree) that whoever reads your story should be someone who likes, enjoys, or best of all "loves" your genre. Don't ask the local parson's wife to read your latest lesbian romance or a Native American to read your version of How The West Was Won! These people may have great reading voices yet they most likely would not do your work justice.

The most costly part is the audio studio. Some theater's have studios so this may be an option.

C

III said:

Thanks Citymouse! That's a great suggestion. Although now I'm thinking how funny it would be to do a home-produced audio recording and have my kids yelling in the background the whole time. Sounds like an SNL skit.

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I have a five Welsh Corgis. Anyone who has one can tell you they love to bark. Recording at home is not an option for me!

C

III, for what it's worth, I record chapters of my book all the time in my studio so I can listen back in the car on my drive home. My studio is a composing studio, meaning it's not nearly quiet enough for professional recording (too much equiptment hum for one thing).

I have a Neuman TLM 170 R, a pretty good mic, and I record digitally into Pro-Tools. I read directly from my laptop, using the "page down" key so I don't have to click the mouse, and I sit as close as possible to the mic. The result is fine for me and my kids, but that's it, just okay. I'd kill to have George Guidel read my story, or Jim Dale (Harry Potter) or Brendan Fraser (yes, Brendan Fraser is a great reader, listen to "Dragonrider" by Cornelia Funke).

It's hard to do voices and act out the lines and all that, but it's worth it, and you get better as you try. Go for it, you'll be glad you did when you're old and decrepit.

III said:

Thanks Ziljon. I had to laugh when you mentioned reading from your laptop because the thought never occured to me. What a great, simple idea. And I love the thought of reading your WIP to listen to it in the car. I used to do that with music all the time but never thought to do it with writing. I've got a Soundblaster Audigy soundcard and Cubasis software which used to work great, but I've been through a few computers and I can't get Cubasis to work properly on my current one. I'm pretty good at troubleshooting, but this one has driven me INSANE! I'll probably break down and get one of the college kids from church to fix it (we've got some uber computer nerds).

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Is it Cubasis or the audio drivers? Just get Audacity and try it. If Audacity works, the problem is the other recording software (and you don't have to go back to it, just use Audacity), if not, it's the audio drivers or hardware.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Audacity is cool!

I've used audacity to record several audio episodes of one of my novels. the kids loved it. I used a not so great microphone plugged right into my computer mic input and then used some Beethoven for intro music, etc. It sounded pretty decent when I compared it to some other things I've heard by people podcasting their novels with great success. Listen to some free podcasts of novels--scott sigler had great success with podcasting his novels--he's got a deal with CROWN now due to his loyal podcasting audience for his novels!

Anyway, audacity is easy to use and very effective -- best of all it's free!

James

Hmm Interesting!

So totaly newbie here for this sort of thing. I would like to make audio CD's for several reasons, one being one of my friends is blind. And i have other stuff i want to record.

So if i use "audacity" can i use that with my laptop to recoerd directly onto the comp. And what is the quality like? James you say "Decent" but how decent?

OK I will down load audacity and get back to you.

BTW III if you want i could write the screenplay(s) Movie or TV series??????? If it is as you say X-men meets the O.T. then that should make a good TV or movie!! I did start to read bits from you web site but then had to go to work or something. Anyway if intrested PM me and we can talk more!!!

Kevvers