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(Grumble.) Aside from that, things went pretty well. The tracks came out fine – but they could be slightly better if I had read my own advice. If the level is too soft, you won’t have the ideal amount of head space for the mastering and will have to crank up the volume first, which will diminish the fidelity.” Did I check the first couple of chapters for volume before I narrated the whole book? (In the immortal words of John Belushi: “Noooooooooooo.”) So, I had to boost the volume of the tracks as the first step in the mastering process. Did I re-read my notes before I started? (You can guess, right?) When I finished the last of 41 chapters and sat down to work on the mastering of the edited tracks, I pulled out the reminder/instruction sheet and the first note was: “Check the first couple chapters to ensure that the volume (RMS) level is high enough.
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I had a printout of all the instructions and reminders about the audiobook production process. This time, the ACX review took 4 weeks, but I got approved without a fight or re-submission.īy the time I started narrating book #4, Fatal Infraction, I was confident that I had it down pat. It’s absolutely true that things get easier with practice. It was much easier the third time, and I had a ton of fun working out the new voices and reading all the chapters of the new book. So, when I finished the writing and editing in July of 2020, I immediately set up my basement studio and narrated the audiobook. (Although, there was a lengthy fight with the QC gatekeepers at ACX first.)įor book #3, Lethal Voyage, I wanted the audiobook version to be available on launch day – at the same time as the Kindle edition and the paperback. I finished the narration for books 1 & 2 by January of 2020, and the books were available in audiobook format by April. The audio quality was much better, and by book #2, I had developed a pretty consistent voicing for all the main characters. I did much better when recording Deadly Enterprise, book #2 in the Mike Stoneman series. By the time I realized the error, it was way too late.
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Instead, I recorded the whole book with the software set on the default microphone – the one built-in to my laptop computer.
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The biggest was that I didn’t change the settings on my audio capture software to set the microphone input to my newly purchased professional microphone. I made a ton of mistakes narrating Righteous Assassin. In early December of 2019, I set up a studio in my basement (following the advice from all the blogs and You-tube video tutorials I could find) to start narrating my own books.
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So, I asked my wonderful wife, Sharon, to buy me a home recording studio kit for the holidays (under $250). But, the up-front cost of hiring a narrator, booking studio time, and hiring a professional engineer/editor was beyond my marketing budget.
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I said, “No, not yet.” I said “yet” because I kept telling myself that it could happen someday. At least a dozen people asked me: “Is it available as an audiobook?” (OK, the question was really “Is it available on Audible,” but I’m trying to be more inclusive here.) I had to give the answer I had been giving ever since the question was first asked of me after the publication of Righteous Assassin, the first book in the Mike Stoneman Thriller series.
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Chapman Two years ago, I was trying to talk up the first two books in my crime-thriller series to some colleagues at a conference.
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