The Making of an Audiobook: Behind the Scenes with Narrator Maryann Carlson

By Patricia Beal | @bealpat

Hi! I’m thrilled to introduce you to Maryann Carlson, the narrator of my debut novel, A Season to Dance. She did an amazing job and is here today to share her experience with us. Welcome, Maryann 😊

If you’re a fan of audiobooks or an author thinking about turning a book into an audiobook, you may wonder what happens behind the scenes. Or maybe you’re a reader considering buying an audiobook for the very first time. In that case, knowing how it’s created could help you to decide.

Whatever brings you to this post, I hope you enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at how the magic happens from a narrator’s perspective.

Here’s how A Season to Dance became an audiobook.

Producing A Season to Dance was an adventure that Patricia and I took together with the goal of taking the listener on a wonderful journey. Recording an audiobook involves specialized skills. There’s a lot more to it than simply reading the book.

Book prep.

Before I started recording, I needed to prep the book. What does that mean? I sat in a comfy chair with my notebook beside me and read the whole book.

As I read, I created a character list and wrote down my observations of Ana, Claus, Peter, Jakob, Brian, Lorie, and all the wonderful characters. Things like:

What makes each character tick?
What are their needs and struggles?
How do they fit into the plot?
What’s their reason for being?
What’s going on for them in each scene and what is the relationship between each of them?

I also made a list of all the pronunciations that I needed to look up:

Blumenstraße
Hessisches Staatstheater
Les Sylphides
Ich liebe dich
And ballet terms like bourrée, pas de deux, and the ever so challenging “Pa, papa, papa, papa, parararapa…” and “Ta, dada dada dada dada dada dada dada, pa.” (That’s a story within itself!)

Then I made audio files for each character to reference how I was going to voice them.

Ready to enter the booth and take the listener to Ana’s world.

The booth is the recording studio. My studio is a small, enclosed, and sound-treated room with a professional microphone, a monitor screen to read the manuscript, plenty of water, and a nearby Chapstick.

Outside of the booth is a mixer and a computer with my favorite DAW installed (that's the audio editing software).

How does my recording day start?

First, I drink four glasses of water. Throughout the recording day I drink twelve to fourteen glasses of water. Why?

The microphone picks up all sorts of noises that our mouths naturally make, especially when the mouth is dry. Those noises need to be edited from the recording so it's best to minimize them on the front end.

Then I need to do a physical warm up. There are specific stretches that help support the vocal cords, so my voice will have the richness and flexibility it needs for the performance of all the different characters. Especially when Ana and Claus get into a heated exchange! Then I do vocal exercises and some cardio. Now I’m ready to join Ana on her many adventures. What an amazing world that is.

So I step into my private booth. It's just me, the book, and the microphone. In the intimacy of the booth, I get to become each one of the characters. What they’re feeling, what they’re thinking, and how they’re reacting to each other within the context of the rich and wonderful plot. I danced in Romeo and Juliet. I traveled to Prague, to Germany, and to Atlanta, Georgia. I walked through Callaway Gardens and saw the world through Ana's eyes, Claus's eyes, and Peter’s eyes. I was a mom, a dad, a stranger that Ana meets along the way, and much more.

The same way that Patricia wrote A Season to Dance to serve her readers, I performed each of these characters and told their stories with the listener in mind.

One hour of finished audio usually takes about two hours to record because I may need to do pick-ups along the way, which are retakes for things like a mispronounced word.

Then I leave the studio and the privacy of Ana's world, and it's time to edit the audio.

So how long does it take and what happens after I record the audio?

Editing takes the most time in the creation of an audiobook. It can take several hours to edit one hour of finished audio. And if I find additional mistakes, I need to record additional retakes.

When I record the original audio, I make note of the time of day it was recorded. Why? The sound of our voice changes throughout the day. When I do any needed retakes, I aim to record around the same time of the day for accuracy and consistency.

In addition to retakes, the audio file is edited for timing, pacing, and those pesky mouth noises.

Then the audio needs to be mastered. I won't bore you with the technical details of all that 😊

The entire process can take from two to four months, depending on the length and complexity of the book and the number of projects a narrator is working on at any given time.

When the audiobook is completed, a retail sample is created, it goes out for final approval and then it's ready for distribution.

Be sure to check out the sample audio of A Season to Dance.

A Season To Dance Audiobook from Maryann Carlson on Vimeo.

I took this adventure into Ana's world with Patricia every step of the way. We had a wonderful working relationship that made the book a joy to narrate and produce. I hope that joy translates to the listeners’ experience of the audiobook.

As an author, you may be asking yourself:

“My book has been out for several years. Isn’t it too late to turn it into an audiobook?”

It’s never too late to create an audiobook. Ultimately the book is written to serve the reader. You want to give your reader the option that suits them best. Some people want paperbacks or hardcovers. Some people prefer Kindle. Others want audiobooks.

It also gives you another opportunity to re-launch your book and introduce it to new readers/listeners. So go ahead and create your audiobook!

If you would like more information on creating your audiobook, you can contact me through my website www.maryanncarlson.com.

***************

Patricia here :) I hope you enjoyed the post. Isn’t Maryann awesome? We enjoyed our process and the audiobook so much that we decided we have to go to the Met together one day to watch the American Ballet Theatre. 
#bucketlist

About Patricia 

Patricia Beal has danced ballet her whole life. She is from Brazil and fell in love with the English language while washing dishes at a McDonald's in Indianapolis. She put herself through college working at a BP gas station and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Cincinnati with a B.A. in English Literature. She then worked as a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army for seven years. 

She now writes contemporary fiction and is represented by Bob Hostetler of The Steve Laube Agency. Her debut novel, A Season to Dance, came out in May of 2017 (Bling! / Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas). A Portuguese translation will be out in her native Brazil in August of 2018 (Editora Pandorga). Patricia is a 2015 Genesis semi-finalist and First Impressions finalist. She and her husband live in North Carolina with their two children. 

Goodreads - www.goodreads.com/bealpat 
Facebook - www.facebook.com/patricia.beal.author 
Pinterest - www.pinterest.com/patriciasbeal 
Twitter - www.twitter.com/bealpat 
Web - www.patriciabeal.com

A Multi-tasking Writer’s Best Friend!

By Morgan Tarpley Smith

I think you will agree with me that - while I’m very grateful for the 24 hours that God gives me each day - there are just too many things that are left undone. There are always more things to do around the house, for work, with friends and family and with my writing to have much leisurely time to do much anything else.

So I’ve been faced with quite the conundrum for some time now. As an amateur novelist, how do I follow the advice of countless other authors to read, read and read some more… If my days were already crammed full with other responsibilities, how in the world will I read? 

Then, I made a discovery that I feel like I should have realized years ago. And since that breakthrough a few years ago I’ve been able to read dozens and dozens of books with my prior average being about one to two a month. I’d feel so bad for my ever-growing TBR pile, and the answer to this dilemma is now on my phone in an app and what I call a multi-tasking writer’s best friend—audiobooks!

I didn’t know about Audible until I saw an ad for it on Amazon.com and checked it out. I signed up for a free one month trial membership, got hooked and now I’m a proud and very happy member! It’s quite the bargain in my opinion at $14.95 US per month (which includes an audiobook credit a month), and the rest are heavily discounted. There are also several other plan options as well.

Plus the added bonus is that since it’s an Amazon company if I order a paperback or Kindle edition of certain qualifying books then I can get that book as an audiobook for under $5. There is also an email update you can sign up for through the site that sends you a notice to what the Audible Daily Deal is for that day.

For optimum use of Audible, I downloaded the Audible app to my iPhone as well as downloaded the audiobooks straight to my iTunes account. It really couldn’t be easier. And once I’ve downloaded my audiobooks to the app I use my iPhone to listen to the books. I plug up my headphones, slide the device into my pocket and get cleaning or organizing. It turns tedious tasks into dually productive ones, and I can’t imagine how I’d get by with reading more books per month without using this service.

Of course, there are many other options for listening to audiobooks besides Audible.com and CDs, so here are a few to investigate:

http://websearch.about.com/od/booksandprintedmaterials/tp/Free-Audio-Books-The-Best-Ten-Websites.htm

https://www.scribd.com/audiobooks-join?source=google&medium=cpc&campaign=Audiobooks+-+US&adgroup=General&keyword=Audio%20books

http://www.audiobooks.com/learn_more

http://www.loyalbooks.com/

http://www.audiobooks.org/

https://www.youtube.com/user/audiobooksfree

Do you enjoy listening to audiobooks? If so, do you use another audiobook source like Audible? Do you use audiobooks to multi-task?

Morgan Tarpley Smith

Morgan Tarpley Smith is an award-winning newspaper reporter and photographer in Louisiana. She is also an inspirational adult and middle grade novelist. 

Besides writing and traveling to over a dozen countries, her interests include acting, genealogy, photography, and essential oils (Facebook:Pura Vida Louisiana). She resides in Louisiana with her husband and is expecting their first child in 2018.  For more information about Morgan, connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Goodreads.

A Multi-Tasking Writer’s Best Friend

By Morgan Tarpley

I think you will agree with me that - while I’m very grateful for the 24 hours that God gives me each day - there are just too many things that are left undone. There are always more things to do around the house, for work, with friends and family and with my writing to have much leisurely time to do much anything else.

So I’ve been faced with quite the conundrum for some time now. As an amateur novelist, how do I follow the advice of countless other authors to read, read and read some more… If my days were already crammed full with other responsibilities, how in the world will I read?  

Then, I made a discovery that I feel like I should have realized years ago. And since that recent breakthrough I’ve enjoyed about 15 books in the past two months with my prior average being about one to two a month. And I know I’m quite behind on the bandwagon but the answer is what I think is a multi-tasking writer’s best friend! Audiobooks!

Some of my audiobook purchases downloaded into iTunes

In the past, I have listened to audiobook CDs in my car but I don’t drive as much anymore for my job so I stopped being able to listen to them and when I played them on my home CD player I always missed important scenes when I had to zip from room to room with my tasks and couldn’t hear it. I ended up just being frustrated during my tasks.

I didn’t know about Audible until I saw an ad for it on Amazon.com and checked it out. I signed up for a free one month trial membership, got hooked and now I’m a proud and very happy member! It’s quite the bargain in my opinion at $14.95 US per month (which includes one audiobook) and the rest are heavily discounted.

Plus the added bonus is that since it’s an Amazon company if I ordered a paperback or Kindle edition of certain qualifying books then I can get that book as an audiobook for under $5. There is also an email update you can sign up for through the site that sends you a notice to what the Audible Daily Deal is for that day and recently they did a spring sale with everything in my wishlist being 50% off so I bought up quite a few books then.

My iPod with Audible app

For optimum use of Audible, I downloaded the Audible app to my iPod and iPhone as well as downloaded the audiobooks straight to my iTunes account. It really couldn’t be easier. And once I’ve downloaded my audiobooks to the app I use my iPod to listen to the books without any need for WiFi connectivity. I plug up my headphones, slide the device into my pocket and get cleaning or organizing. It turns tedious tasks into dually productive ones and I can’t imagine how I’d get by with reading more books per month without using this service.

Of course, there are many other options for listening to audiobooks besides Audible.com and CDs, so here are a few to investigate:

http://websearch.about.com/od/booksandprintedmaterials/tp/Free-Audio-Books-The-Best-Ten-Websites.htm

https://www.scribd.com/audiobooks-join?source=google&medium=cpc&campaign=Audiobooks+-+US&adgroup=General&keyword=Audio%20books

http://www.audiobooks.com/learn_more

http://www.loyalbooks.com/

http://www.audiobooks.org/

https://www.youtube.com/user/audiobooksfree

If you enjoy audiobooks, do you listen to CDs or do you use another audiobook source like Audible? Do you use audiobooks to multi-task?

Morgan Tarpley 

Morgan Tarpley is an award-winning newspaper reporter and photographer in Louisiana. She is also a historical novelist currently seeking representation. Besides writing and traveling to over a dozen countries, her interests include acting in her local theater, genealogy, photography, and singing. She resides in Louisiana with her husband.

For more information about Morgan, visit her website (www.morgantarpley.com) and blog (www.pensonaworldmap.com). You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Goodreads.

To listen or not to listen?

Recently, during a promotional visit to a bookstore in Melbourne, I received a wonderful surprise. A lady

with whom I had connected only via email in the past made a special effort to drop by and meet me in person. This lady works for an organisation that helps those with visual impairment or ‘print disability'--her role includes acquiring books for possible recording for the audio lending library this organisation runs. A few years ago, an elderly friend badly wanted to read my first two novels but the print was too small for her. She told this organisation about my books and asked if they could record them. After some time, they contacted me and the upshot was that, over the next little while, my first three novels were produced as audio books. I was sent a copy of each in their special DAISY mp3 format—and I thought that was the end of it all.

However, when this lady met me recently, she told me they had now completed my fourth and fifth novels and were about to start on my memoir Soul Friend. As well, she also wanted to purchase my latest novel The Inheritance, with a view to recording it. A few days later, she emailed to say she was forwarding the recordings of my fourth and fifth novels so I would have all my books they had produced so far.

But here is my dilemma. While I love having these copies, I have not as yet been able to bring myself to listen to any of them! I know they are  professionally produced—the person who narrated them is a well known and very gifted actor from stage and screen here in Australia and has a beautiful speaking voice. But I am certain that, because these were my first novels, I would want to change so much of what I would hear, which would definitely dampen my enjoyment of the whole experience. I imagine it is a little like artists might feel when viewing their early efforts at painting. Surely their fingers must itch to alter or touch up this or that!

Perhaps the best way to approach it all is for me to listen to those recordings with an accepting heart and mind, acknowledge the stylistic changes I would now make, and simply be thankful for how far I have come since those earlier writing efforts. We all learn as we go and we all have to begin somewhere. And, stylistic issues aside, the stories they contain still touch readers, I have discovered, who are often not as critical as those of us who write! Then again ... is it better not to listen and instead to keep moving forward, writing the best I can at this point?

What would you decide in this instance? Would you listen or not?

All questions aside, I am honoured and grateful that those recordings have been made—especially my third novel Laura, which is the story of a girl who becomes blind as a child. I love the idea that those for whom most books are inaccessible can choose to hear my books, if they so desire. God has ways of blessing us far beyond what we could ever imagine, don’t you agree?

Jo-Anne Berthelsen lives in Sydney but grew up in Brisbane. She holds degrees in Arts and Theology and has worked as a high school teacher, editor and secretary, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne is passionate about touching hearts and lives through both the written and spoken word. She is the author of six published novels and one non-fiction work, Soul Friend: the story of a shared spiritual journey. Jo-Anne is married to a retired minister and has three grown-up children and three grandchildren. For more information, please visit www.jo-anneberthelsen.com or www.soulfriend.com.au.