Creating an Audiobook Part III: Tips from audiobook authors

This is the final part in my “Creating Your Audiobook” series. If you haven’t already reviewed Part I or Part II, click those links to do so. Part I and II build into Part III, which will provide more value for you reading this post.

As emphasized in Part I of this series, more people are purchasing audiobooks than ever before. In fact, 67 percent of Americans purchase e-books and audiobooks. It doesn’t matter whether you listen to audiobooks or not, respectfully, what matters is that you’ll be missing out on a fast-growing, less competitive reader market by not having an audiobook.

In Part II of this series, I gave you the specific steps to prepare, record, edit, and upload your audiobook. I also shared the specific equipment that I used to record my book in case you plan to DIY (Do It Yourself). I do recommended DIY, if possible, for numerous significant reasons. If you’re an up-an-coming speaker, learn to DIY!

Now, here we are in Part III where I want to share experiences gleaned and recommended from successful audiobook authors. They’ve given me their permission to share tips and insights for you so that you can learn from their experiences.

If you want to do what they are doing, do what they’ve done!

Our first nuggets of awesomeness come from my friend, fellow speaker, and author extraordinaire, Stan Phelps (StanPhelpsSpeaks.com). Stan suggests:

• Audible’s requirements are stringent. Make sure you get the formatting and labeling right. Once you’ve submitted, understand that each time you have to fix something, you are adding extra days to the approval process.You are the talent. If you want to get hired to speak from people listening, you should be the one doing the voice work.
• Spend the time in advance to prepare your book manuscript as an audiobook script so it makes sense and flows for the listener.

Stan is also the author of an amazing “Goldfish” series of business books. I highly recommend you visit him at www.StanPhelpsSpeaks.com

Marcey Rader is a multi-book author and founder of Work Well. Play More! (www.WorkWellPlayMore.com). Her advice on audiobooks “speaks” for itself. Marcey’s top recommendation is:

• Stand up when you record!

Additional nuggets of wisdom awesomeness come from another friend, fellow speaker, and author extraordinaire, Tom Triumph (www.TomTriumph.com). Tom suggests:

• Listen to several audiobooks with the intention of determining what you like (pace, range of inflection, narrative style, etc.) and what might be typical within your genre.
• Thoroughly familiarize yourself with the sound file and upload requirements, as these can be exacting, and noncompliance (even minor) will be unacceptable and result in delays.
•  [Whether] you decide to do the recording yourself, and regardless of the quality of the equipment used, the recording you make will very likely require significant post processing work (reduce ambient noise, eliminate pops and clicks, boost voice amplitude, etc.). Hire someone to do this for you if you have no interest in learning it.
• Get access to high quality equipment and a quality recording environment. This doesn’t necessarily correlate to high cost.
• Practice, practice, practice! Simple things make a difference (posture, consistent positioning in front of the mic, drinking warm liquid before the recording for instance).
• Practice using the recording equipment.
• Prior to recording your entire audible book, complete a portion of the book as a test. Meaning, record a suitably long portion and put it through post processing and listen to the final product to make sure it’s what you want.

Over to You!

I hope this “Creating Your Audiobook” series has been helpful for you.

Whether you decide to DIY or not, you have plenty of options to consider. But remember, you don’t have to do it alone.

Reach out to me for help and to schedule a call. You can also visit www.WriteWayPublishingCompany.com for a variety of affordable book publishing packages in print, e-book, and audiobook formats.

And one more time, don’t forget to download a free “Audiobook Tip Sheet” (click here to download) from Write Way Publishing Company. It’ll walk you through how to prepare your book, your mind, and your body to optimize your recording and avoid costly mistakes in both time and money.

To your success!

– Kevin

Kevin C. Snyder, Ed. D, co-founder of Write Way Publishing Company, is a professional keynote speaker, multi-book author, and experienced speaker/author consultant. https://www.kevincsnyder.com/ Kevin@KevinCSnyder.com