Well, I can now add the title of director to my resume. As someone who does not want to “shoulda, woulda, coulda” my life away, I decided that the next challenge to tackle is learning how to take my books into the audiobook world. This past week, my YA book, Free As A Bird, went live on Audible.com!
I had no idea what went into the making of an audiobook. I honestly thought that I picked out a person to narrate, uploaded the manuscript, and magically, an audiobook was born. Well, it kind of works like that, but there are a few more steps.
The first decision I had to make was what kind of voice did I want the narrator to have. Male or female? What kind of accent? I had 63 choices ranging from General American to South African! Then there was vocal style. Did I want them to sound wistful, flirtatious, intimidating? Again, I had choices: 62 of them! Add to that, 7 different ages for the vocals. After I figured all that out, my head was swimming. I uploaded my choices and waited for narrators to audition for the role. A week went by without a single person applying. Not a great way to start.
I went back to the drawing board and this time, after listing out all the particulars mentioned above, I listened to narrators that matched my picks. One of them I really liked. So, I sent her a message and asked if she would be interested in auditioning. She accepted! Her name is Julie McCarthy and she is in Canada. (Her voice would be characterized as a storyteller, by the way.)
Next, I needed to give her production notes. I had to go back and decided how I wanted each and every main character to sound, and any other notations about their personalities or quirks. If I decide to do this with future books, I will be sure to start this document as I’m writing the manuscript! Julie only came back with one change. I thought it would be cool for Destiny’s counselor, Helen, to have a British accent. Julie wasn’t comfortable doing that, stating that a person with a British accent would know that it was fake and that she’d rather ‘hint’ at an accent like that than try to use it full on. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear that in the audiobook. I think it sounds more Scottish or Irish.
That settled, Julie next produced a 15-minute sample of the book so I could approve of how it sounded. Not knowing any better, I just said for her to do the first chapters. I think the next book I might choose a different section that showcases more voices or action. When I first listened to the sample, I got goosebumps. It was surreal hearing a stranger reading my words aloud. The way that she made Destiny sound was WAY different than I had in my head. I decided to let her keep going with it, though, because she made her sound more child-like than I had.
It took two months for Julie to narrate the book. I discovered that it takes around five hours of production time to produce a single hour of audio. Yikes! Julie told me that she read each chapter four times before she ever recorded it.
While she did that, I was trying to figure out how to make the cover for the audiobook. Once again, I had no idea what I was doing. I thought I could just upload the paperback cover. Nope. Audiobook covers are square. I had made the cover for the paperback and e-book myself, so I figured I could do this, too. It didn’t turn out very well. After looking at the top-selling books in the genre, I decided that I needed to hunt down a new cover for all the versions. My go-to place to find great covers is thebookcoverdesigner.com. Here, you can browse pre-made covers from multiple designers in a lot of different genres. (Way cheaper than having a custom cover made, too.) I found the PERFECT one! And wouldn’t you know it, it was made by the same person who designed my Family Collateral cover.
I listened to the final production while reading from the paperback. What a fun experience. I haven’t listened to any fiction books on audio before. I am embarrassed to say that I caught some silly punctuation mistakes along the way. Eeek!
I hope you have enjoyed this little peek behind the curtain for audiobooks. Since you read this far, maybe you would be interested in getting a free code for my audiobook. I’m looking for people who will leave an honest review of it on audible.com. If this is something you would do, please comment below and I will contact you with the particulars.