Welcome to the continuation of how I self published my audio book! In the first part I shared about how much I wanted to get my books on audio, but don’t have that kind of money to hire a professional reader. I also shared about how I found out about self publishing audio books and the tools to use for it. In this second part I explain where I do the recording, how my husband helps and how long the process takes.
Since I don’t have a sound recording room where I can record myself in quiet, I had to figure out the best place to do it. It turned out to be my bedroom. I would go to my bedroom, close the door and lock it. Next thing I do is plug my apple headphones with microphone into my iPhone. When I’m ready to start recording myself I hit the microphone picture and then I hit record and talk. Because I do not have a sound room we adjust the audio after it has been recorded.
The first time I did this I literally read a chapter. I then had my husband listen to it. He listened and told me I needed to do it in a way so that it didn’t sound like I was reading my book but rather telling someone the story. It took a couple of times, but once I figured it out I was able to record myself with confidence. Sometimes it can take up to five takes before I have a chapter done without any errors that I can hear. At times I get very frustrated with myself because I can be almost done with a chapter and I know I made a big mistake. That means I have to start the chapter all over again. If you’re wondering if the phone ringing while I’m recording is an issue, the answer to that is I don’t know because my phone has yet to do that! What I can tell you is, I have received text messages and FaceBook message while recording, but that didn’t interfere. I can either ignore it and it goes away or I clear it away. After each chapter is complete I ask my husband to listen to them. He makes sure it sounds good and lets me know if I have to redo a chapter. So far I haven’t had to redo that many chapters.
Once all of the chapters have been narrated I do the conclusion, where I let people know who I am, about my books, and blog. I also let them know about my other books and where they are available. After that I record the the title of my book the copyright and the fact that I’m the author and narrator. After ALL that is done I ask my husband to listen to it to make sure they are good, then they get uploaded to my Google drive for a backup.
When the recordings are done and the backups are completed then it’s my husbands turn. That’s when he uses his laptop to put everything together from beginning to end. This is the time where he makes sure the volume is set to where it needs to be. Not too loud or soft. He uses a program called Levelator to fix this. He then uses a program called “sox” to add a second of empty sound at the beginning of each file and two seconds at the end. This can take him anywhere from one – two days. Sometimes longer depending on how busy he is with other things.
Once that process is done he then uploads each chapter to ACX for their approval. It can take from a day to a week before we find out if the audio that I did is good and if the adjustments my husband made were right. So far we have only had one or two minor adjustments that my husband needed to make. Once the audio version is accepted by ACX then I have to wait 7 -14 days before they make my audios available for people to purchase and listen to. This waiting period is difficult for me. Only because I can’t wait for my books to be available on audio for people to listen to.
The first audio book I did is called – Miscarriages My Story – and I’m pleased to say it has sold 4 copies in the first month. That may not be a lot to some people, but to me it’s something. My second book which just became available for purchase is called Brooklyn Raised Livin’ Upstate. In this book I talk about what it was like growing up in Brooklyn, meeting & marrying my husband, figuring out the differences between Brooklyn and Upstate NY and lastly how I dealt with my mom’s death. I am currently working on another book. This book I will not give the title out yet, but I am just as happy with it. And look forward to being able to write and narrate more books in the future.
Kathleen Smith is an indie Author, blogger and she has her own podcast Kathleen’s Korner. You can read or listen about her life in Brooklyn and Upstate NY . You can also either read or listen to her personal story of how she and her husband kept their marriage together through 3 miscarriages in Miscarriages My Story