I got the idea to create an Audible book after seeing ads and suggestions from other authors. I perused the Web site and thought, this could work easily for me, because my son and his wife are VO artists and have all the equipment. Well, my daughter-in-law was very agreeable to being the narrator, and I thought “Yes!” I can have a professional narrate my book and I don’t have to pay for it. Problem. A year has passed and still no product. Turns out, I added one more thing to the already over-crowded plate that is her life.
So I started thinking. How hard could it be? Right on the Web site is a section for authors as narrators and a film clip telling us authors that readers love it when the author narrates, and you don’t have to sound like a VO artist, be yourself. Well, that sounded good. So I set about trying to find equipment that wasn’t too expensive. I searched on “microphone for book narration” and found info for the Samson QU1. It was $49.99 at Amazon. I ordered it and it came the next day!!!
Then I found freeware that came highly recommended for recording and editing. The software is called Audacity and it is quite simple to figure out. You can cut an paste in your clean up of mistakes. Delete extraneous noises.
The microphone is unbelievable. It is not sensitive to sounds other than my voice or if I hit my desk accidentally. No “P” pops.
In short this process has turned out to be fun. I will put both my books into Audible MP3 files.
Yeah.
