Voice-Over Artist Tristan Hunt and I have started a YouTube series of How-To's to help authors with the audiobook production process of their books.
The number one question I am asked about audiobook production at writer's conferences is, "How do I choose a good producer/narrator for my book?"THIS IS PART 2
Please comment and let us know if this is helpful to you, or if you have any other questions for us. Thanks for visiting!
The next thing to ask yourself as you begin to look for a producer/narrator is:
If it's written in third person, how many male and female characters are in the story?
If there are a majority of male characters in your story, then you should probably choose a male narrator. If there are a majority of female characters in your story, then you should probably choose a female narrator. But be sure to listen to the samples from the narrators you're considering to see if you like how they do voices for the opposite sex. You want your listener to be drawn into the story and held there by the voice of the reader, if a strange sounding voice is too jarring or distracting, it will yank the reader out of the story and they won't enjoy the experience as much as they could have.
Note: ACX is probably the best place to find the right narrator for you story and get production going.
Check back about once a month when she'll upload a new recipe... If you enjoyed this video and would like to see more. Please make sure you give it a thumbs up, share it with your friends, and subscribe to my channel. xoxo
Hello, my darlings!
According to my mortal lads and ladies, these sugar cookies are positively scrummy.
(This is my absolutely fabulous spin on the famous “Swig” Sugar Cookies)
Think of these for Valentine’s Day...
The Most Scrummy Sugar Cookies Ever
(US Measurements)
Addictive Cookie Dough
1 cup butter (unsalted) at room temperature
3/4 cup vegetable Oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons water
5 cups All Purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter
1 teaspoon salt
In a large bowl, cream the butter, oil, sugars, eggs, water, and vanilla together. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cream of tarter together. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Stir until thoroughly mixed. The texture should be very soft and easily scooped with a medium or small sized cookie scoop. Drop balls of dough onto either a stone baking pan, or a foil lined baking sheet. Dip the bottom of a glass cup into granulated sugar and smash each cookie a bit like you would smash peanut butter cookies. Bake at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes. These cookies do not brown, and they are done when they poof up a bit in the center.
Butter Cream Frosting
1 cup butter softened
4-5 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
half and half as needed
Beat soft butter and powdered sugar together until smooth. Blend in vanilla and then just enough half and half to create the spreadable consistency you would like. Depending on humidity, you may or may not need to add extra powdered sugar as well. Tint frosting with food coloring as desired.
(UK Measurements)
Addictive Cookie Dough
230g butter (unsalted) at room temperature
180ml oil
300g sugar
65g icing sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons water
640g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter
In a large bowl, cream the butter, oil, sugars, eggs, water, and vanilla together. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, and cream of tarter together. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Stir until thoroughly mixed. The texture should be very soft and easily scooped with a medium or small sized cookie scoop. Drop balls of dough onto either a stone baking pan, or a foil lined baking sheet. Dip the bottom of a glass cup into granulated sugar and smash each cookie a bit like you would smash peanut butter cookies. Bake at 180 •c or gas mark 4 for about 8-10 minutes. These cookies do not brown, and they are done when they poof up a bit in the center.
Butter Cream Frosting
230g butter (unsalted) at room temperature
560-650g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Milk as needed
Beat soft butter and icing sugar together until smooth. Blend in vanilla and then just enough milk to create the spreadable consistency you would like. Depending on humidity, you may or may not need to add extra powdered sugar as well. Tint frosting with food coloring as desired.
Starting now, I'll be posting to YouTube twice a week. Join me for exclusive interviews, audiobook recommendations, how to on audiobook production, book trailers, and Sophia's Messy Kitchen Cooking channel. Check back every Tuesday and Saturday for something new.
Up next, the audiobook trailer for Forever, book 3 in The Fateful Vampire Series! If you haven't had a chance to listen to books 1 and 2, you'd best get to it. To preview those, go to Soundcloud right now. Or go to YouTube and watch the trailers. ;)
A series on audiobook production via ACX by Cheri Schmidt.
Here is Jason Downs (aka Tristan Hunt) and Cheri Schmidt (aka that pale vampire) doing a Q & A for a writer’s conference. Second question: Can the author approve the voice of each character?
Jason brings up a good point. You've already been through the audition process, so there shouldn't be too many surprises. And you really should trust this person that you've hired to know what they're doing and allow them to do their job without you nitpicking over details that just don't matter. Let them have creative license with the story. This is a collaboration...
However, I feel it's important to note that you should take care in the audition sample you choose to post for the book. Make sure you have voices of the two main characters in there, along with some accents that might be necessary. I would also suggest choosing a scene with some tension and dialogue for both a male and female character.
Oh, and there's one more thing I forgot to mention. If you've described your characters well enough, the right voice for each one will be, or should be, pretty obvious to the professional you've hired. That's one thing that changed for me after I first heard my stories "performed." As I wrote, I could hear how it would sound as an audiobook. I couldn't do that before. I think it also improves your writing, because you know what will and won't work better than you did before
Thanks again for visiting my blog. Check back later for more... And please comment and share. ;)
A series on audiobook production via ACX by Cheri Schmidt.
Here is Jason Downs and an extremely pale vampire—I mean me
doing a Q & A for a writer’s conference. First question: How closely do
you work together?
(Note: I’ve never recorded Skype before and really had no
idea what I was doing. And I never really meant to post it to YouTube, but it
turned out to be too long for the conference. I was aware of the box in the top
corner, but was afraid of messing up the recording if I tried to get rid of it.
It finally went away on its own and I don’t know why. I also knew the mouse
arrow was on my shoulder, but was afraid I might accidentally minimize the
program if I tried to move that too.)
(Good grief! It was really hard for me to post that to
YouTube...)
Cheri’s additional thoughts on this question...
I think how closely you work together largely depends on the
author and how involved you want to be. But it is a creative collaboration, so
perhaps more authors should be more involved. That doesn’t mean that you need
to be nitpicky or annoying, though. That just means get to know each other a
little so you can make the best decisions for the story, and better market the
book after production is finished.
My guess is that producers and authors that have done a
royalty share deal are more likely to work together closely during and after
production, because they both benefit financially if sales are good.
Jason mentioned that he's had some authors who just approve
the audio without making any changes, and I wanted to comment on that. I don’t
know if all producers do it this way or not, but Jason would post chapters as
he finished them. Either one at a time, or a few at a time. I couldn’t resist
reviewing them right away, but I have heard of authors who don’t bother
listening to the chapters at all. And then when it’s finished they wonder if
they should listen to it or just approve it. I don’t think that is wise at all,
and I was surprised to hear from Jason that some authors actually do that. Yes,
producers edit their work, but things can still be missed by mistake. Just like
authors need more than one editor, so does a narrator. With ACX, I feel like
the rights holder is final QA, and if you don’t listen just to make sure there
aren’t any random repeats still in there, you’ll make your producer look bad
and that will affect his rating in the reviews. I have listened to audiobooks
with repeats in the finished product and it always surprises me, because it
wouldn’t have been all that hard to fix.
However, while reviewing the audio, remember that every
change you ask for could cause a change in sound. So be very selective. I’ve
heard of some authors who feel like that’s how they wrote it so the producer
had better not change a single word! Oh please, sometimes that just happens
when reading. But if it sounds natural and still makes sense, then leave it
like it is. That will be better for sound quality. And you'll likely have a
better working relationship with your producer if you're not a pain to work
with.
Thanks for dropping by, and check back for more videos of
this Q & A...
