Click the covers below to visit the author’s Amazon pages.
“Pat – It is such a gratifying experience to hear Ruth’s story told by someone who really seems to appreciate her life and times. I know the biography is a roller coaster ride of emotional extremes and hardships, but you maintained true to the words, controlling the narrative with whatever tone was required to illustrate the scene. I really appreciate you breathing life into my words. Thanks for putting your heart and soul into this project.”
Cynthia Hamilton
Listen to the retail sample
“Absolutely thrilled! I like that you alert your voice to reflect different speakers. Your voice tone for my mom when she’s my mom (and not the Alzheimer’s ravaged person) is so perfect – soft, clear!”
Elaine C. Pereira, MA OTR/L CDP CDC
Click the picture to hear a sample.
“Pat did an awesome job narrating my new book, ‘How to Go from Broken to Blest.’ Her professionalism, patience, and great author services she provides are stellar. I love my new audiobook!”
Adele M. Gill – How To Go From Broken To Blest
Click the picture to hear a sample.
“Thank you, Pat, for doing such beautiful work! The Audible is fantastic, folks! Pat has a beautiful voice with great expression of emotions… the sadness … the joy … the love … the triumph … I could not have told my story better!”
Joni darc Shepherd – Rio ♥ A Love Story – How My Dog Saved My Life
Click the picture to hear a sample.
“Thank you so much for being amazing to work with. Beth and I absolutely adore you! Thank you for being so supportive and helpful during this process. We appreciate you and your fantastic work!”
Wendy K. Benson and Elizabeth A. Myers – The Confident Patient
Click the picture to hear a sample.
Audiobook listening is on the rise, according to Edison Research and Triton Digital’s The Infinite Dial
Why not tap into this market and convert your book into an audiobook?
Here are some Frequently Asked Questions
Can I really create an audiobook all by myself?
With the proper recording equipment and setup, anyone can record their own audiobooks, but several factors must be considered: Quality equipment is mandatory for quality sound. If you’re recording for Amazon’s ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange), there are specific guidelines. This project will take significant time, and there is a learning curve. And finally, if you have poor-quality files, you stand a good chance of having your entire book rejected by ACX.
If you want to record on your own and have system requirement questions – OR – if you have recorded your own files and want me to review them to ensure they can be mastered to ACX specifications, contact me at pr@speakuptalkradio.com, and I will review them at no charge!
What if I want to turn the entire project over to you? What happens?
Here are the steps I take to narrate and produce a quality finished audiobook:
Step 1: Script Preparation and Research
I read the entire manuscript to thoroughly understand and feel the content, identify pronunciations or accents, and furnish an opportunity to ask the author questions about specific elements of the script or character notes.
Step 2: Recording
I record the text of the book. A general rule is about 1.5 to 2 hours of recording for every hour of raw audio.
Step 3: Proofing and Pickups
When the narration is complete, I listen to the audio while following along with the manuscript to note any errors where there may be a deviation from the script, a mispronunciation, or an awkwardly spoken or paced passage. Finally, I re-record any noted excerpts from the manuscript.
Step 4: Editing
- Removal of extraneous and distracting noises from the audio, such as lip and tongue sounds
- De-breathing
- Modifying the pacing of the narration.
- Dividing the chapters into individual files and preparing their heads and tails with room tone to ACX’s audio submission guidelines.
A note on De-breathing – The time it takes to de-breath audio is typically 2-3 times the length of the recorded audio. It is a manual and tedious task that, in my world – is mandatory. Each breath has to be removed and replaced with a clean room tone. Herein lies the fine art of de-breathing. Simply cutting out each breath without adjusting the timing between words leaves a read that doesn’t feel like the original. After ten years of producing my radio programs for stations like Salem Media Group, I know when and how to remove breathing sounds to create a natural read.
Step 5: Mastering
The final, edited audio is mastered, which means applying audio processing such as equalization (“EQ”), compression, and other filtering to ensure the audio is consistent, sounds good, and follows ACX guidelines.
Step 6: Quality Control and Review
A final pass over the mastered audio is made to listen carefully for any issues that may have been missed during the earlier phases or that cropped up during the mastering process.
Step 7: Ready for Production
Prepare, label, save, and upload files according to ACX guidelines.
What if I want to narrate or have someone else narrate? Can you still do the production work?
Yes! The process begins with step 4 above.
If the audiobook is to be narrated by the author or someone else, the cost is the same. Authors typically do not have the studio experience of professional narrators and generally require more editing. Therefore, the extra time required offsets the cost of the narrator. We may make exceptions if the book is narrated by a professional narrator who leaves little editing issues.
How do you get paid:
Pay Per Performance:
The author pays for the agreed-upon audiobook production costs and owns all rights to the audiobook revenue. Neither I nor Speak Up Talk Radio holds any ownership or rights after producing the audiobook.
I work exclusively on a pay-per-performance basis. Due to the time required to produce a high-quality audiobook, I need a down payment of half of the total payment upfront and the remainder at or around the halfway mark – before upload.
How can I calculate how long my audiobook might be?
The total word count of your manuscript determines the length of an audiobook. A standard read rate for audiobooks is 9,300 words per hour. Therefore, you can determine the estimated number of finished audio hours by dividing the total word count by 9,300.
Example – A book is 80,000 words – read rate is 9,300 words per hour – 80,000 divided by 9,300 = 8.6 hours of finished audiobook. Your audiobook will be approximately 8.6 hours.
Note: The number of words you can read in 1 hour differs from how many you can narrate and record. When reading to yourself, intonation does not matter, but when reading to record a book, intonation and timing issues greatly and, therefore, will take longer.
How much time does it take to narrate and produce an audiobook?
According to ACX as well as my own experience, it generally takes a total of 6.2 hours to complete one hour of an audiobook.
Here’s how you get there:
- It takes about two hours to narrate what will become one finished hour.
- After the narration is recorded, it takes an editor (who might be the same person as the narrator) about three hours to edit each finished hour of recording.
- At this point, running a quality control (QC) pass over the finished project is strongly recommended. This means re-listening and suggesting words, sentences, or sections to re-record. And that takes about 1.2 hours for every finished hour.
Using the example above – an 80,000-word book will run about 8.6 hours of finished audio. 8.6 finished hours x 6.2 hours per finished hour = 53 1/2 hours of work. (That is a lot of intense work, expertise, experience, and quality I bring to you and your audiobook.)
Wow – lots of time involved. Who knew? So, how do you charge?
As an author, I understand word count, so I use that. My rate is usually a reasonable $33 per 1000 words. The final quote could be less and depends upon the quality of your raw audio (if someone other than I narrates), the type of book, and several other factors we will discuss during your free consultation. You will know the final quote right up front. There will be no surprises.
*** Children’s books are priced per job. Please inquire.
I’d like to hear a sample of your work.
Click the audiobook covers at the top of the page to listen to samples.
What is your turnaround time?
Fast! I’m a bottom-line person who values promptness. So you will know the timeline when we begin. I always deliver on time or earlier.
What’s next?
I know there is more to discuss, so feel free to contact me for a free consultation. I will happily send you a finished 10-minute audio segment of your book – narrated, edited, and upload ready so you can hear what your book will feel and sound like when you work with me. Or, if you have some recorded audio and want me to listen to it, I’m happy to do that for you.
