Adventures in audio book recording

I spent the past two days recording the audio book for Big Time (my next book, which is out May 5! Links to various retailers here.). The audio book market has changed a lot in the past two decades since I first started writing about this. Since iPhones weren’t quite so dominant in 2008-2010, the audio book market was more a “books on tape” (or CD) thing. If there was an audio of a non-fiction book, it was often read by a narrator.

That all started to change in the early 2010s though. Non-fiction authors in particular began reading their own books (a trend that accelerated as many authors wound up with their own podcasts, and hence people who knew their voices). I read the narration for What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast (fun fact: it hit #1 for audio books on iTunes! Remember iTunes?). I have also read the narration for all my books since.

(I did not read for 168 Hours, and I got a funny note once from someone saying I sounded much better on that one than all my other books…oh well. Can’t please everyone!)

This time around I went to a studio on S. 17th St. near Rittenhouse Square. So I’d commute down in the morning, park in my favorite garage (where I park for choir rehearsals) and head in. Reading my own writing is relatively painless. After all, I wrote it! I’ve seen these words before. I also try to write in order to be read out loud. As part of my editing process, I read my work out loud since I know that even people who are reading it silently are “hearing” the words in their heads, so that tends to make writing more clear and accessible. So I’d already practiced. We got through a whole book in two days.

But it is a very vocally tiring experience to read 60,000-plus words. I sat there in a chair in a studio in front of a microphone with my manuscript on an iPad. I’d scroll through and just keep reading. We tried to change anything that popped out as suggesting the book was being read and not listened to — so sometimes I’d change the language from “since you are reading this book” to “since you are listening to this book.” (At one point I joke about throwing the book across the room, so I had to think about how to change that! I wound up with “stop listening to this book” which isn’t quite the same, but I don’t think there’s an equivalent.) I sipped a lot of “throat coat” tea, which I am now obsessed with. I think I’ll start sipping that before recording my podcasts to get rid of scratchiness. We’d go through 2-3 chapters, break for lunch, then try to get another 2 in after lunch. I have one more day scheduled in April for “pick ups” — mistakes caught in production. Hopefully not too many.

The good news after going through every single word of my manuscript over the last two days is that…I do still really like this book. A lot. I don’t have favorite books, just like I don’t have favorite children, but I had a lot of fun writing this one, and I hope that comes across. I’m looking forward to sharing it with the world!