Audiobooks? Do you listen to them? Seven years ago, after I published my first book, my cousin asked me if I had thought about producing an audiobook—that she would love to hear my words in my voice. I bought a mic and played with it, but I realized I needed more instruction. Then I got busy with writing five more books, and I forgot about audiobooks.
For the last couple years, I’ve heard repeatedly I needed to have my books in audiobook format! So, I jumped in!
Here’s Some Interesting Audiobooks Statistics:
“More than 45 percent of American adults responding to recent annual surveys now claim to have listened to an audiobook at some point in their lives. . .”
https://www.statista.com/topics/3296/audiobooks/#dossierKeyfigures
“In 2020, the association’s report says, more than 71,000 audiobooks were published in the United States, up 39 percent over 2019.”
My New Effort
So, in December 2020, I bought a video training program to learn how to do audiobooks, Audiobooks Made Easy, by Derek Doepker. Excited, I viewed the first couple of videos. One of them identified what equipment I needed, so I bought it all immediately:
- Microphone
- Microphone stand
- Music Stand
- Pop filter
- Ear phones
- 2 TB external hard drive to save to because my laptop has limited space
The boxes came in and I gathered them together in a pile in our walk-in closet. Then my new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? took over my life! Every time I walked by the stack of tech supplies, I winced and thought, “I have to do the training so I can get going on my audiobooks.” But I had no extra time.
Then this summer, Lin, my husband, gingerly asked one day, “When are you going to use that stuff?”
Embarrassed, I defended my time commitments with my new book and then promoting it and promoting my other books.
He encouraged me, saying, “I was just wondering.”
That became the impetus to get me going. I set up a schedule to finish the training and wrapped it up.
I had been mulling over in my mind where to record. We have a large walk-in closet off of our bedroom, so the back end became LHM Recording Studio (Lin’s name suggestion). I had 3 seven foot poles I used in a Native American unit as a teacher to make a lifesize teepee for students to read inside. Remembering them, we used one to hang up a quilt to cut down the size of the space.
Next, I recorded several two-minute samples to send to Derek to see how my sound was. Yes, I said several, because it was a learning curve. After a couple of samples, Derek suggested I review the videos on editing, so I did, and it helped tremendously.
As I continued, I had an embarrassing moment. The microphone has a blue light that comes on whenever I plugged it into my laptop. Because of the blue light, I thought it was on. I had never checked to see if it was on. No, it wasn’t! How it recorded any sound was mind boggling, but it did faintly.
Then when I set up my pop filter in front of my mic, I followed the picture on the box of the pop filter. It had the mic pointed straight up, so that’s what I did. I took pictures and sent them to Derek. He questioned why I had the mic pointing up instead of towards my mouth!!
Finally,
I sent a sample to Derek, and he gave me the go-ahead! Yahoooo!
I plan to finish Let Me Tell You a Story, using a schedule of two chapters a day. Then I will record my current book and hopefully do a couple more of them. Two of my books—A Time to Grow Up: A Daughter’s Grief Memoir and Just Another Square Dance Caller: Authorized Biography of Marshall Flippo are too long for the audiobook format.
Another great resource: Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasts and Voice Technologies by Joanna Penn.
What’s your thoughts? Would you be interested in one of my audiobooks? Let me know!
Visit my website to find out about my new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? and my other five books and three cookbooks: https://laradasbooks.com
Check out Cyber Week Specials at my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft, on select books! 40% off of select Individual books, 40% off of select bundles and 50% off of digital copies! These books make the perfect gift for your friends and family.