If
you’re an author who has delayed making your novel, novella, or anthology into
an audiobook because you were feeling daunted, you’re not alone. Most of my
author friends tell me that they have not tried converting any of their works
to audiobooks, citing either expense or unfamiliarity with the process. My
reply to that is that self-publishing via Amazon to make a kindle or print book
is a more complex process, in my opinion. As for expense, an author can spend
hundreds of dollars per finished hour of a book, spend nothing, or any amount
in between. Sound doable after all? Good, let’s get started!
1.
First, go to www.acx.com. This is the website where you will create your
audiobook, so you must register yourself. After you are registered, look under
the Projects tab and assert the title you want to make into an audiobook.
Follow the prompts, including noting what you are looking for in a narrator
(male/female, specific or no accent, tone, etc.), information on your book and
who the main character is, and an excerpt of your book which will be the
narrators audition script. Note that you want to choose a section of text that
represents the majority of your book, which is different than the kind of
“exciting” excerpt you might choose for a promotion. When these sections are
all full, review everything, then click approve to make your proposal available
to accept auditions.
2.
3.
Listening to
auditions/audio samples from a narrator is next! You will get a message via
email saying that you have one of the previous audio files on ACX. Log in and
listen to it. This step is crucial! Think about the narrator’s voice as
they speak; are they saying each word clearly? If you were listening to them
speak without knowing the story, could you follow it? Are they mispronouncing
words or names? Are there any noises in the background? An audiobook is rated
on not just the story being told, but also on the speaker telling the tale. It
doesn’t matter how great a story is, if the person telling it is hard to
understand with a heavy accent or slurred speech, odd pauses or background
noises, or mispronounces words, listeners will almost always mention it in
their reviews in an unfavorable way.
To be continued...
Check
out my audiobooks on Audible!
For
codes to obtain free copies of Audiobooks for review, check out my titles on www.audiofreebies.com
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| Tara Fox Hall |
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