Audiobook
A handful of my friends and associates have told me they bought copies of my book but for various reasons (visual impairment, dyslexia, etc) they find it difficult to read anything book-length. "Is it available as an audiobook?", they've asked.
My publisher, Sunstone Press, has never discussed the possibility of either of my books being released in audio format, but I've read selections out loud at several author's presentations (discussion groups, book clubs, library featured author events, etc) and I got to thinking -- I have decent recording software available to me (I'm a musician after all), so I could record myself reading my own books out loud easily enough.
I decided to proceed with that. I figured I'd get feedback from the friends who had told me reading my book was a problem for them, and if they say my voice is sufficiently clear and easy to understand, I'll contact the publisher and see if they're interested.
That puts the audiobook format of the book only into the hands of people who already bought the paperback, so they shouldn't object, and they might wish to make it officially available for others who'd prefer an audio copy.
I'm using Sound Studio, a basic but reliable shareware product from Felt Tip that reminds me of the old Macromedia SoundEdit 16 I used back in the 1990s. Designate the input source (I use the Logitech USB headphones that I use for Zoom and softphone purposes, it has a good microphone optimized for speech purposes), click the Record button, and begin narrating.
Now and then I stumble. I make a mushy inarticulate rendering of a word, or I accidentally skip a line or insert a word that doesn't belong or leave one out... I hit the stop button. The sound wave patterns of what's been recorded up until then are on the screen in front of me, and although I can't look at the wave patterns and discern exactly what sounds they represent, I've learned the basics. I can tell where a phrase or sentence likely begins, highlight it, and play it back to be certain, verify that yep, as I thought, I made an utter hash of that, then open a new window, record just that little bit, copy, switch to the main window, delete what I've got selected, paste, then go back and replay it to make sure I've done it better the second time.
The book I'm working on is the first, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet. Typical chapters are 30-45 minutes, although it starts off with a couple short ones and will end with a short one.
I save as I go, in full-quality uncompressed AIFF format. Then I do a playback, listening through the headphones, stopping whenever some section seems lacking in enunciation and clarity, and again re-recording the snippet and pasting in a better replacement.
Sound Studio lets me fill in MP3 tags (track title, artist, track number out of how many total tracks, album name), so I do all that (using book name for album name, author name for artist, etc) and then do a Save As and save the file in MP3 format.
It took me a long time to appreciate my speaking voice. Nobody's voice sounds to them on a recording the way their voice sounds inside their head when they're speaking. The resonances you hear from within your skull aren't the same as the resonances that go out into the room. My recorded voice always sounds more hesitant and less clear, and thinner, than I think I sound. To me, when I'm listening to recordings of myself speaking, I sound like all the words run together as a sound puddle asifIwasn'tproperlypausingoremphasizingwhereonewordstopsandthenextwordbegins. Fortunately, that part, at least, is better when I'm reading from something that's written down, including my own work. I also had a challenge getting used to the tone of my recorded voice. The timbre of it is strange. My trans women friends are jealous, because I get ma'amed on the phone by default and I've never made any effort in that direction, it's just how people gender my voice when they hear it and don't have the visual of the bearded tall person with a prominent larynx in front of them to offset that impression.
I've done the first seven chapters, with ten more to go.
-----
My first book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, is published by Sunstone Press. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback, hardback, and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.
My second book, That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class, has also now been published by Sunstone Press. It's a sequel to GenderQueer. It is available on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble in paperback and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves. Hardback versions to follow, stay tuned for details.
My third book is in post-first-draft corrections and is being circulated to beta readers for feedback. Provisionally title Within the Box. Contact me if you're interested.
Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page, for both published books.
-------
This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
--------
Index of all Blog Posts
My publisher, Sunstone Press, has never discussed the possibility of either of my books being released in audio format, but I've read selections out loud at several author's presentations (discussion groups, book clubs, library featured author events, etc) and I got to thinking -- I have decent recording software available to me (I'm a musician after all), so I could record myself reading my own books out loud easily enough.
I decided to proceed with that. I figured I'd get feedback from the friends who had told me reading my book was a problem for them, and if they say my voice is sufficiently clear and easy to understand, I'll contact the publisher and see if they're interested.
That puts the audiobook format of the book only into the hands of people who already bought the paperback, so they shouldn't object, and they might wish to make it officially available for others who'd prefer an audio copy.
I'm using Sound Studio, a basic but reliable shareware product from Felt Tip that reminds me of the old Macromedia SoundEdit 16 I used back in the 1990s. Designate the input source (I use the Logitech USB headphones that I use for Zoom and softphone purposes, it has a good microphone optimized for speech purposes), click the Record button, and begin narrating.
Now and then I stumble. I make a mushy inarticulate rendering of a word, or I accidentally skip a line or insert a word that doesn't belong or leave one out... I hit the stop button. The sound wave patterns of what's been recorded up until then are on the screen in front of me, and although I can't look at the wave patterns and discern exactly what sounds they represent, I've learned the basics. I can tell where a phrase or sentence likely begins, highlight it, and play it back to be certain, verify that yep, as I thought, I made an utter hash of that, then open a new window, record just that little bit, copy, switch to the main window, delete what I've got selected, paste, then go back and replay it to make sure I've done it better the second time.
The book I'm working on is the first, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet. Typical chapters are 30-45 minutes, although it starts off with a couple short ones and will end with a short one.
I save as I go, in full-quality uncompressed AIFF format. Then I do a playback, listening through the headphones, stopping whenever some section seems lacking in enunciation and clarity, and again re-recording the snippet and pasting in a better replacement.
Sound Studio lets me fill in MP3 tags (track title, artist, track number out of how many total tracks, album name), so I do all that (using book name for album name, author name for artist, etc) and then do a Save As and save the file in MP3 format.
It took me a long time to appreciate my speaking voice. Nobody's voice sounds to them on a recording the way their voice sounds inside their head when they're speaking. The resonances you hear from within your skull aren't the same as the resonances that go out into the room. My recorded voice always sounds more hesitant and less clear, and thinner, than I think I sound. To me, when I'm listening to recordings of myself speaking, I sound like all the words run together as a sound puddle asifIwasn'tproperlypausingoremphasizingwhereonewordstopsandthenextwordbegins. Fortunately, that part, at least, is better when I'm reading from something that's written down, including my own work. I also had a challenge getting used to the tone of my recorded voice. The timbre of it is strange. My trans women friends are jealous, because I get ma'amed on the phone by default and I've never made any effort in that direction, it's just how people gender my voice when they hear it and don't have the visual of the bearded tall person with a prominent larynx in front of them to offset that impression.
I've done the first seven chapters, with ten more to go.
-----
My first book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, is published by Sunstone Press. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback, hardback, and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.
My second book, That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class, has also now been published by Sunstone Press. It's a sequel to GenderQueer. It is available on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble in paperback and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves. Hardback versions to follow, stay tuned for details.
My third book is in post-first-draft corrections and is being circulated to beta readers for feedback. Provisionally title Within the Box. Contact me if you're interested.
Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page, for both published books.
-------
This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
--------
Index of all Blog Posts