There are so many good resources available for authors, publishers and writers, and I want to share some new ones with you, but in this post, thought it would be a nice refresher to take a look at some of the helpful posts that are already on the blog, including:
Self Publishing Book Service - Read this post about a self-publishing service, easy to use…this may not be for everyone, but it’s certainly worth a look…and it may not be the service you’re thinking of.
Self Publishing an eBook at No Cost - Do you think it can be done? Take a look at the post and you decide. There are a lot of helpful tips that will stimulate your thinking.
Making Your Own Audio Book - I have come across a lot on the web and in books about writing and publishing, but this is the first advise on making an audio book that I have found.
Help for Christian Authors - this post provided links for those who are particularly interested in publishing Christian books.
There are other helpful posts, use the categories along the right to find more, but these are 7 that provided information, or links to articles that I found to be particularly helpful.
As promised in the previous post, I did a little homework, and found a simple explanation on making your own audio book that someone had posted to a popular article site, very basic information…easy enough for even me to understand
This article was written a few years ago, so I don’t know what improvements have been made to the technique since, but this is a great start, enjoy!
————-
My name is Alan Twigg and I’m writing this article to offer advice to anyone thinking of creating their own professional audio books.
In the New Year I came up with the idea of creating professional children’s stories and offering them for download on the internet. The thing was, however, while I had someone to write the stories - my mother - and someone to market the stories – me, I knew nobody who knew about how to record the stories professionally. I knew it must be reasonably easy, since I only wanted to create an audio book containing speech.
I started doing research on Google - but all the articles I found contained so much technical gobbledygook – I was soon put off. So I went to my local music store for advice on what to buy. I decided to use my computer to create the audio books and this is what I bought:
1 microphone stand
1 pop-screen (that’s a piece of material that is placed just in front of the microphone to stop your “Ps” from popping)
1 studio microphone
1 software program (Wavelab)
1 USB Audio/MIDI interface (TASCAM US 122 with phantom power)
1 pair of headphones
It all came to 650 euros (800) dollars.
I connected my Audio/MIDI interface (this is basically a really good sound card in an external case) to my computer using the USB cable provided. I then set up my microphone and attached the microphone cable to the MIDI interface. After installing the software, I was ready to go.
The results have been great and I find Wavelab software powerful and incredibly easy to use.
Some Audio Book recording tips
I first get my entire copy ready before starting the recording. I pin the sheets of paper with the text that I am going to read in front of me onto the wall. Then, at about 8 inches away from the microphone, I start to talk. The more natural you can be the more interesting you will sound to your listeners. I found that the best thing to do is to stand in front of the microphone and make gestures in the same way as you would when talking to a close friend. If you stand there stiff like a statue, you’ll come across in the same way in your recording.
Another thing that I like to do before starting the recording is to get myself into a really good mood. Again, this will add to the impact of your recording. I always listen to a few uplifting songs and get enthusiastic before starting. You should also try to make sure that you keep the same distance from the microphone.
And that’s it – I hope that this article will save you a little bit of time setting up your own home recording studio and I wish lots of success with your audio books.
The author of this article is Alan Twigg. My business is Playtime books, which offers new and contemporary audio books for the 3 to 10-year-old age group. You will find this site at http://www.playtime-books.com.
Today I was visiting a site that has a selection of sound effects and music, and it made me wonder how many people have ever made their own Audio Book? With the technology that is available to record and save your recordings, then mix with background sound or music, it doesn’t seem impossible…I’m going to do a little research and see if I can find some “how too” information for you in my next post.
I remember when my grandmother was ill years ago, and bedridden, living hours away, I wanted to do something to cheer her, but was busy mothering young children. The idea occurred to me that I could read to her, so I made my own audio tapes to my grandmother, talking to her and reading to her from books. I loved doing this…and at that time recording was done with a small tape recorder and cassette tapes.
Now to think what I could do with my computer, recordable CD’s, and some music and sound affects from a site that offers free sound effects, music, and economical downloads, just tickles my imagination. I guess there are things that would have to be looked into, for example, I couldn’t just read ANY book and offer it for sale because of copyright laws, etc., but if it was something I had written myself, and wanted to makes my own audio of it, then it should be okay.
Thanks to audiomicro.com for inspiring my curiosity, I’m going to go look around a bit and see what I can find any information doing an audio book, and hope to be back with a post for you soon.
