What It's Like to Record Your Audiobook

tl:dr it's fun!

POV: You’re recording your audiobook

Hey friends!

Last week, I recorded the audiobook for WRITE THROUGH IT: An Insider’s Guide to Publishing and the Creative Life, coming to you June 10th wherever fine books and audiobooks are sold. And if you want a signed copy, you can order it here! I love audiobooks and being the narrator for mine was a high priority for me.

How I Got the Gig

Months and months ago, I recorded about five minutes of reading my book, just using my iphone. No one asked me to, but as an audiobook fan and a publishing professional, I knew I had to and wanted to audition to read my own book. I have definitely turned off an audiobook because I found the narrator’s voice distracting, and I was willing to listen if my audiobook publisher said yeahhhhh, no to me reading it. And then my agent and I emailed everyone many, many, many times to pester them to decide to let me do it.

Because there’s so much of my voice in the book, and because it’s non-fiction, I really wanted to read the audiobook. If this was a novel, I would not have pushed so hard to read it myself. Narrating fiction is basically acting, and I am not an actor. At first, my audio publisher was a little resistant to having me read. I don’t fault them at all for this. I am not a professional voice actor. I don’t have an in-home recording studio. It was going to cost MUCH more to rent a studio and hire a producer, as well as take longer, to let me narrate the book. But I really wanted it and I made the case that for this book, for my audience, readers would expect me to read it. In the end, they agreed, and booked me four days in a studio in midtown Manhattan for the recording. And yes, they’re paying me a fee to record it, too.

Recording My Audiobook

I was nervous! And excited! And a little trepidatious about how much work it was going to be. I was booked for four 5-hour days in the studio, and you know what? That’s a lot of time to read out loud. My producer, the AMAZING Cat, told me it was like running a marathon in a chair and she was exactly correct.

I sat in a recording booth, the one above, and read my book from an ipad. Technologically speaking, everything was easy. But technically speaking, it is amazingly hard to say some words 1,000 times over and over. Negotiate. Literary Agent. Specifically. Frequently. Edited it. There were many times I thought why did I write it that way?????? When I was first writing, I kept the audiobook in mind and avoided words I knew I never pronounced correctly (nuclear, vehement) as well as thought about how visual writing cues (ellipses, homophone jokes, punctuation for emphasis like ~~ or scare quotes) would sound in the audiobook. I didn’t think, though, about how the muscles in my mouth would have to form those words over and over again! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Now I know.

At first, I was worried about doing it “right.” I didn’t want to take too much—expensive—time. I was worried that too much stopping and starting would drive the editor bonkers. But producer Cat put me instantly at ease, reminding me it was not my job to worry about the audio editor’s job. No one records everything in one take. I let myself off the hook.

Recording the audiobook was a stark lesson in getting over myself. At times, I felt a little silly. It’s a performance, and that makes anyone self-conscious. Of all the attention-getting things I’ve done in my life, acting or being on stage is not one of them. But I’m 45 (almost 46!) years old, and I’m old enough to know how to get over myself quickly. I found that between every stop and start, after we took a break or I came out of a bit of flow, I had to take a deep breath and reset. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but it felt like a lot to me. Cat was in the next room, listening to every breath, every stomach gurgle, every rustle of my shirt, and to make her wait even three or four seconds before I started talking felt like a lot. But I needed that moment, to settle my breath into my diaphragm, and speak from there instead of high up in my chest. Again, I’m not an actor or a singer. This is just how it felt in my body, and the way it felt right. Taking that time made the rest of it go more smoothly, and was worth it.

OMG It Was Exhausting

This is not a complaint. But Cat was right that it felt like running an marathon in a chair. My brain was mush by the end of the first day. My back hurt from sitting up so straight in the chair—slumping wasn’t an option—and my arms and legs were tense from basically sitting at attention all day. The next day my throat didn’t hurt, but my teeth did. ??????? Cat told me that using all those muscles in my face and mouth could make my gums and teeth ache. Who knew? I took a Tylenol and drank a lot of hot water (not tea) that second day, and that helped a lot.

We averaged 67 pages a day, exactly the number I needed to finish the book in the allotted time. And that’s all my brain had in it each day. I would probably get used to it, like anyone would, if this was my whole job, but whew, I really did not expect this to tax my entire body, and not just my vocal chords.

I’m as Proud of This as I am the Writing Part

Recording my audiobook was everything I hoped it would be. I’m proud of it, and I think readers will like it. Yes, reading it again (for the NINTH TIME) did make me want to rewrite everything, but I expected that and I’m ok with it. This book is not perfect. The audiobook is not perfect. But they are both useful, will be useful, and I can’t wait for you all to experience it however you choose to. (Oh, and if I suck as a narrator, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.) If I write another non-fiction book, I will gladly read the audio again. When I write a novel, I will be leaving that to the professionals.

Thank you to Cat and everyone at CDM Studios for making this one of the most memorable experiences of my publishing career.

If you have questions about audiobooks and/or recording them, let me know. I’ll try to answer them best I can with my limited experience!

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PUB DAY CLIENT SPOTLIGHT!!!!!!

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OXOXOXOX,

Kate