The Process of Recording the Audio Book, Sisters On The Case

I am sorry I have not been writing as many entries here, and sharing as often over the previous two weeks or so, but I have been working in my booth so much, but I will not complain. It is a joy. I really haven’t had time for “goofing off” much these days with such a deadline and contractual committment. 50,000 words turns out to be about 5 1/2 hours of finished audio. And when you’re doing everything except the writing, it takes time…especially to do it right!

I uploaded story #9 out of 11 today, “The People’s Way” by Eve K. Sandstrom. I am having a really incredible experience doing this audio book. It has been time consuming, yes, but an excellent one.  I want to deliver a product I can be proud of.

After all, the packaging will have my name on it as the reader, and it will be sold on Amazon and Barnes & Nobel, so I am paying a lot of attention here!

I am expected to deliver a proofed, final recording. So here’s the rhythm  and the process I’ve experienced:

1)    Each new story comes as a Word doc, but was optically scanned from the book, and the type comes across very tiny. So I select all, copy into a text doc to lose all formatting, then copy back into a blank Word doc, and format the typestyle, font size and line spacing for my reading comfort.

2)    Once completed with the script prep, I print it.

3)    I step away from the booth and find a comfy place to sit and do my first review. I read the text, silently, to feel what the words are, and grasp the overall mood of the piece. I pay special attention to the dialogue, so I can work on voice characterization  and delineation.

4) Time to record. I like to begin in the afternoon, after I am totally warmed up  and have recorded any other projects due from my regular clients and other booked projects that had to be completed that day.

5) Edit. This still takes about 2-3 times as long as the recording. I am getting better and faster at editing. I am a stickler for removing mouth noise, errant breaths,and plenty of mis-reads. I may, during mid-read decide to pickup the previous sentence, for a stronger choice of delivery.

6)    Proof. After the edit. I take a break, to avoid eye and ear fatigue, then come back for the final listen, following the script very carefully and attend to any final adjustments.

Just two more stories to complete and it is done. And I’ll come in about a week before deadline. Tomorrow I’ll be reading a deliciously written treat called, “Steak Tartare”, by Barbara D’Amato. The imagery in all of the stories has gotten me back into love of literature and the joy of reading. I cannot wait to share these great works with other readers!