Should You Turn Your Novel Into An Audio Book?
As
the owner of an “indie” recording studio called Straight to Audio
Productions, I'm often approached by writers who want to know if they
should turn their novels into audio books. The popularity of audio
books is on the rise so there is definitely an audience for this form
of media. However, there are a couple of things I would encourage
writers to consider before heading down this path.
Authors
who are working with an agent or publisher should consult with their
representatives before making any plans to produce an audio book.
For self-published writers or those who don't have a broker, there
are a few key matters to deliberate. First, decide who your audience
is. This might sound like a silly issue, but the answer will give
you a better understanding of how to best proceed. For example, if
you have written a short story which may only be of interest to a
small group of listeners, you might want to record it yourself. If
you believe your story has mass appeal and you're willing to invest
some money, you could hire a professional to produce it for you.
Chances are, there is a studio in your home town which can help you
accomplish this, or you can utilize some of the services available on
line.
The
good news for do-it-yourselfers is that the cost of producing audio
books has dropped dramatically. Like many studios, I use ProTools
to
edit my productions. ProTools
is remarkably user-friendly and offers lots of features to help
editors achieve broadcast quality audio. Want to try before you buy?
Check out the free editing programs offered by Audacity
www.audacity.com
or Cool Edit Pro
www.softpedia.com.
If
you're not oriented towards audio editing, there are lots of great
companies to do it for you. I highly recommend ACX
(Audiobook
Creation Exchange) www.acx.com.
ACX connects
writers with narrators and studios. This is a great place to listen
to potential narrators and shop around for the best studio to produce
your audio book. Better yet, if your product meets the standards of
ACX,
you can apply to sell you work as an mp3 download on
Audible.com www.audible.com.
Once
you have hired the talent to voice your project and a studio to
produce it, the next thing is to figure out is how to deliver your
audio book to listeners. With
Jitters-A Quirky Little Audio Book,
I produced it in “wave” format which any cd player will
recognize. Jitters
was 6.5 hours long which meant it required six cds to accommodate the
wave format. The discs were professionally replicated and
professionally packaged. The product looked fantastic, but this was
an expensive route to take.
When
I produced Yikes!
Another Quirky Audio Book, I
tried a different approach. Once again,
I had my product professionally manufactured, but this time I did it
in mp3 format which greatly reduced my cost. Yikes!
is10.5
hours long which would have required at least ten discs to be
available in wave format. I believe many audio book fans are
listening on devices like iPods so making Yikes!
available
as an mp3 seemed to make more sense anyway.
There's
never been a better time than the present to turn a novel into an
audio book. The cost of producing audio books had gone down while
the quality of sound has improved. Through programs like Audible.com
and Amazon.com
it's easy to make the finished product available to the public.
Better still, both Audible.com
and
Amazon.com offer
lots of free tutorials to help you increase the size of your
audience. The only other piece of advice I can offer is this: enjoy
the journey!
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