Audiobook Narration

My apologies for the long delay since my last post, but life happens (as they say) and I have been trying to get my head down and work on Oracle. That being said, the Amazon Prime day on the 15th July has presented me with an interesting opportunity!

For a long time, I have been keeping a microphone in my wish list, one I read about when I first posted my books to ACX. Then, on Wednesday, the microphone appeared on sale at half price so how could I say no?!

So, being Prime, the mic and pop shield arrived yesterday and I have been setting it up and trying to sound proof the room I use for writing (full details of how to do this are provided on the ACX website) with the intention of narrating the X-Calibur books myself. Another useful tool is a program called Audacity, which I haven't used yet but I intend to try. It is an all-in-one audio file editor, and more importantly (to me at least) it's free!

Onto ACX, the criteria for the audio files is very strict, so I have been researching these before I begin recording. To summarise, they are:

Your submitted audiobook must:

• be consistent in overall sound and formatting and be comprised of all mono or all stereo files
• include opening and closing credits and a retail audio sample that is between one and five minutes long

Each uploaded audio file must:

• contain only one chapter/section that's shorter than 120 minutes and the section header must be read aloud
• have room tone at the head and at the tail and be free of extraneous sounds
• measure between -23dB and -18dB RMS and have -3dB peak values and a maximum -60dB noise floor
• be a 192kbps or higher MP3, Constant Bit Rate (CBR) at 44.1 kHz

Looking at these to begin with made my head spin, but reading more about them I think it is perfectly possible to provide audio samples to the stated levels. It's all about making sure that the finished product sounds professional, which having listened to several audiobooks I can understand completely, and I would like people to think the same should they listen to any of mine.

 

Again, the ACX website is incredibly helpful. For the opening and closing credits, they even provide a sample template of what to record!

 

Recommended Opening Credits:“[title of audiobook]"
Written by [name of author]
Narrated by [name of narrator]

 

Recommended Closing Credits: This has been [title of audiobook]
Written by [name of author]
Narrated by [name of narrator]
Copyright [year and name of copyright holder]
Production copyright [year it was recorded] by [company name]

 

So, here I am, about to dive into the world of audiobook narration.

 

Wish me luck!