An audiobook narration is an actor with a voice who provides their voice to spoken word audio to create either an audiobook, and “book on tape” format. Narrative for audiobooks is the act of reading the whole text of a book in a loud voice for a long recording duration. In the realm of production for audiobooks, the narration is the job of the narrator to create an engaging experience for listeners. This includes interpreting various characters in the dialogue, blending into the narrative’s intensity, and maintaining the ability to speak.
The market for audiobooks is still among, if certainly not the fastest-growing segments of the publishing industry. In the process, more authors are publishing audiobooks each year.
Many authors prefer to have their audiobooks read by themselves. For some authors it is a successful method. Some authors are better off employing an actor to voice. The choice you make is based on the content of your book. Some helpful tips to follow on the steps to becoming an narration include:
How do I prepare
No matter if you’re an author or professionally-trained voice actor it’s always recommended to read your book in a loud voice before recording to make sure you are familiar with the subject matter. The author, naturally is familiar with the book and the reading before recording helps in a variety of ways that help speed up the recording process and the end product more professional.
- Try to time your reading to reach the 155 minutes of words. This is the average amount for books that are audio. Some authors are prone to get excited over their work and speed through the reading. The aim is to keep the flow going in a conversational manner.
- Find any tongue-twister sentences or words you have trouble on uttering. Try these out before heading to the studio.
- Learn to read on tablets or laptops. Make sure you don’t record using paper books since the microphone will pick the sounds of pages creaking.
Making recordings in the recording studio
There are a variety of things that can create background noise, or even changes in vocal tone that you will not even notice until you review your recording during the editing stage. Utilize these guidelines to decrease the time spent editing and boost general quality and sound of the recording.
- Sit still. Moving around can create the sound of your body. Simple movements in your chair could cause your headphones to move and strike something (yes it is true that you are wearing headphones) Or you could knock over the microphone or tablet stand.
- Keep the same distance from the microphone throughout the recording session. Turning your back away from your microphone does not just alters your volume, but also alters your tone. Tone variations cannot be fixed through editing and reduce audio quality.
- Always read on an electronic device in order to reduce the noise of your page. (Davis Sound is a good choice for tablets in case you don’t own one.)
- Read in a natural, conversational pace
You must also be skilled in using certain software for recording voice.
Recording time is required
If you record an audiobook, the time spent in the studio is greater than the time spent on final audio. Studio time can include setting up between chapters, recording mistakes and discussions of the most difficult parts in the text, and stopping for short breaks. If you’re an author who’s not familiar recording in a studio you should plan for 1.8 hours studio time for each hour final audio. Some authors record faster, however, it’s best to be cautious when scheduling time to make sure you’re able to complete the task. For a 9-hour long book, you should plan for 1.8 9 times, or about sixteen hours in the studio in order to complete the narration.
All actors, including professionally trained voice actors become exhausted and make a greater number of errors after 2.5 to three hours recording. Additionally, voices become tired and lose their expression with the course of. To ensure that editing is kept to a minimum and keep voice quality constant make sure you limit your recording time in 2.5-3 minutes per day. In the previous example of an audiobook lasting 9 hours 16 hours, in a day of three hours is 6 recording sessions most likely on 6 different days. When you’ve figured out the amount of sessions that you’ll require to record, you’ll be able to create an accurate timetable to your book.
Cost for the production of an audiobook that is narrated by an author
Many authors believe that they can save money by recording their own recordings instead of paying a narrator. However, this isn’t the case. The first reason is that people who do not have experience in the studio have a longer time recording books than experienced narrationists. Thirdly, all narrators, even professional ones, have mistakes. However, the amount of errors authors make is typically greater than professionals which significantly adds the editing process (and costs).
In this regard, the price for an author-narrated work is about the same as professional narration. The decision to narrate your work on the efficacy of the narration rather than the price.
The price of an audiobook that is read by an author depends on the words count in the text. If the book’s target read rate of 150 words per minute, or 9,300 words/hour the total amount of hours completed of audio is the number of words divided by 9300. If a book has eight thousand words, the amount of hours that have been completed will be 84,000/9300, which is 9.0 hours.
The cost of production for an audiobook usually is about $350 for each hour of audio. In the above example an audiobook that runs for 9 hours will be 9x 350 = 3,150. The price includes all editing, recording and final mastering according to Audible specifications. The final product will be ready for release on Audible.
In the end
In some kinds of books, like memoirs or personal stories It can be beneficial for an author to read their own book to give it personal touches. But the quality of narration might not be as high as the voice of a professional however, and there’s no benefit in terms of cost due to the longer time and effort of a self-narrated novel as compared to books that are professionally narrated. Think about all these elements to ensure that you’re ready to design your audiobook the correct way.
