Audiobooks:

One of the panels at 2016’s Wester-con was on Audiobooks. Here are some of my notes.

Any inaccuracies or misinformation in any of these notes is the fault of the note taker.

AF & A = voice actors Guild.
Escape pod is a podcast
a CX: let you connect and narrators that can walk you through the process of his getting narrators for your book
There are two ways to pay a narrator 1. They get part of the profits (actors may not be interested in profit sharing with authors who they don’t know who they are) 2. You pay them in advance by finished our recording.
A CX: has a way to sell your audio version of the book on Amazon.
If you do it yourself use Odyssey to record yourself.
Turn off the air conditioner and any other possible noise distractions. This is why it might be good to record at night when there’s less likelihood of interruptions
Go to an audio store to buy a good quality microphone. Might have to pick up the pattern.
Speak to the left or the right of the Mike not directly at it.
ProTools is better than Odyssey.
A good mic is called Snowball about $50. You’ll also want to buy a pop filter and headphones and choose a quiet place to record.
Some people will put the mic in a pantyhose to cut down the popping.
If you don’t have a pop filter that can cause palms is recorded.
Avoid dairy products and fats before a recording as it influences your voice quality.
Avoid taking soda. It can make you belch.
Apple cider or juice lubricates your voice.
Narrators will ask, do you want me to present different voices.
Not having narrated voices can also be fine listening to a book.
As a narrator tells the chapter your book asked to listen to it so that you can make corrections along the way and avoid problems at the end.
See if you narrator can do specific variation of characters if you have on this important
Listen to the first chapters clear to the end and ask questions and clean again with the actor.
Have a say in the early recordings.
Can voices display at a higher pitch.
The key point is to let the story shine through.
Actors will do a facial expression and that will influence their voice
In the application process, you can have the actor do 20 to 30 minutes of selected passages in the application to do your book.
You pay for each word action read.
College radio students will sometimes be voice actors at a reduced price