Creating an audiobook: 7 tips to make your writing sounds great

Creating an audiobook: 7 tips to make your writing sounds great

Despite the huge popularity of audiobooks, a majority of books has never been recorded. It is an inexcusable authors’ mistake.

Audiobooks market is a billion-dollar industry. The audio version of the book protects authors from risks related to popularity explosion of their books and publishers’ inability to give the readers the needed number of copies. It amplifies writers’ audience to those who prefer audiobooks and use the printed books as an interior decoration.

Advantages are evident.
And the best part is that you can do it by yourself.

If yesterday, it was expensive, long and laborious, today, owing to new technologies, writers can record their books by themselves. The essential ingredients of creating a great audiobook are your voice, proper atmosphere, and the right equipment.

Sounds simple, but the trick is that the writer handles the quality of the audiobook solus.

Every medal has two sides. The single responsibility scares, but also makes things easier. You have not to communicate with actors and choose the right one, you needn’t compromise, you needn’t make changes you don’t want to make. And who can record your book better than you?

So, relax, believe in yourself and do your best with the help of the following tips.

1. Read the book out loud

You know your book, its characters, its style. But you know it in your head.

Reading the book out loud will astonish you. Words don’t sound like they did in your head. Combinations of words sound indecently. Characters become more vivid. You’ll realize, how your perception differs when you read to yourself and out loud.

Read the book out loud to find mistakes, which you didn’t catch reading to yourself. So, you can correct them straightway which saves you the time for editing the audio version.

It can show that your novel needs a reduction. Sure, it is not a desirable step, but if you see the story is long-drawn-out, you should consider it. This is the chance to make your audio book pithier.

2. Experiment with your voice

Voice is the most important part when creating an audiobook. It sets the mood. Before recording the book, you need to find the volume which makes your voice sound the best. Everyone has such own volume. Practice and experiments will make things clear.

NB. As a rule, such volume is lower than habitual one. When we speak quieter than usual, it makes our diaphragm shimmy which makes voice deeper and clean.

Try to abstract from the narrator sex. Think about his/her temper, features, life experience. Concentrate on the message the narrator needs to give.

3. Polish your tone

In everyday communication along with words, we use body language. It gives our words different meanings.

Narrators use only their voice. They must express irony and sarcasm, reverence and disregard using just voice. They show it doing pauses, changing intonations, raising and lowering their voice, etc.

The pauses are extremely important. They help you to get the air, prepare to read the next sentence, switch the intonation if the next replica belongs to the other character. Moreover, they make your narration smooth. The listeners needn’t exert themselves to catch every word. They would enjoy your storytelling.

4. Do articulation exercises

Sure, a book recording requests inner work, feeling the book’s characters, ability to put their shoes on for a moment. Though, your technical skills — articulation — are important too.

To improve them, you can make use of special exercises which help anchormen and radio speakers sound plain.

NB. Take the right posture. It is better to stand up, align and lift the chin. This posture prevents subdued sounding and words swallowing.

To start, you could try tongue-twisters. No wonder, tongue-twisters are the most common orator’s exercises. They work.

5. Prepare your writing

If you want to read from the IPad or ebook reader, I recommend you not to do it. Though we are used to reading books from electronic gadgets, the majority of narrators read the printed version.

You could accidentally turn the page or have troubles reading the word due to screen’s glint or bug.

When you’re reading the old-fashioned book (the writers have to agree with me), you have a different mood, the classic one. And that is what we need.

To make sure, your intonation is correct, take a color pencil and underline sentences using different ones. For example, parts where you need to be sad, underline with blue pencil, angry — red. Those colors will be your lighthouses to not go astray.

6. Organize your surroundings

When you will record, inform your inhabitants in advance. Make sure, no one interrupts you when you are narrating. Any interference can confuse you and you’ll need much time to catch the right mood again.

NB. Today market offers a huge amount of special soundproof equipment. Consider buying it. Those things are very helpful. Nothing has to mislead you.

Before record your voice, record 10 seconds of silence. Then listen to the entry. It helps you to recognize noises you didn’t hear earlier. Remove these sounds.

7. Choose the proper equipment

Though your voice is your main weapon, choose the equipment scrupulously.

The microphone for recording should have foam. In case it has not, make sure it has a pop filter. Choose the highest quality of the recording. It is preferable to record in stereo.

Use headphones. They allow hearing real sound while sound from loudspeakers is distorted and changing due to surroundings.

The majority of narrators record in the Audacity, but it is not obligatory. The audio market offers many alternatives. Pick what you want. The usability of the recording program impacts the quality of your audiobook as the uncomfortable interface is the obstacle we are trying to avoid.

With practice, recording the audio versions of your books could turn into a fun and exciting hobby. You’ll never know until you try.