To get a high-quality audiobook out which can sell on popular platforms like amazon.com, audible and I tune it is important to have three people in the assigned task. The narrator of the book or the voice artist, the producer of the book who will manage for a studio and assign time, also look after post packing and payments to the studio, his job will be to motivate the narrator and push the recording to increase productivity. The sound Engineer does the recording and prepares the equipment and the mike, he then does the cleaning of the sound and mixing of effects and sound beds, it is his job to liaison with the acx.com team and insure the audiobook has been correctly uploaded so that it can be internally audited by the acx.com team and then send to be sold on all platforms depending on the contract terms of your deal. Packaging thus becomes the task of the producer and the sound engineer.
Sound Bed: This is the basic cement and the underlying sound of the audiobook and the type of bed used purely depends on the content of the book and its a genre. A book on spirituality will have a soothing sound bed then say a book which is a murder mystery or even horror. Once the recording has been edited and the hiss removed and cleaned the bed underlay can be added.
Character Voices: I have tried to add character voices to some of the books, further you can use trained actor voices also to build a play and enhance the drama. If you have a few more artists they can add to the quality of the book.
Format; Give the sound engineer time to do his creative best and get the sound just right. Make sure you adhere to a format and have a Title, Introduction and Outré along with a five min sample of the audiobook, so people can gear the book and get a feel for the quality and the content of the book you are selling. Each recorded segment should be in the forms of the chapter’s so that they can be uploaded easily.
Mike: The mike is the most important tool of the narrator to make sure you are 6 inches away from the mike when you start recording. Have a bottle of water near you and keep drinking to clear your throat and mouth. Insist that when you pause of a fumble, you retake form where you fumbled. Most sound engineers give a three ticking sound that indicates when you can restart the narration and do a retake. Also, make sure the fumbles are cleared and removed from the recording.
Switch off Mobile: Make sure you switch off your mobile in the preceding session as it will ruin the recording and flow.
Session Duration: Ideally you should record for 4 to 5 hours in a day. Keeping each session to one hour max with 10 min breaks in the middle.
Equipment: Make sure the studio equipment is the latest most use pro tools and I Macs for mixing. There should be soundproofing and glass inside the studio, with a large door that lets outside sound at bay. Keep the air conditioning off at all times it increases background noise.
