Post Production

The most frequent question I see from narrators and rights holders, especially indie authors, is some variation of:

Which audiobook distributor is the best?

The answer is: It depends.

Authors and other rights holders need to research distributor options and make decisions based on their goals. Narrators are included in that group because they want to be knowledgeable to guide authors, as well as publish their own audiobook productions.

Royalty rates are only one consideration. Before distributing an audiobook, you need to factor in many other criteria, such as:

• whether you’ve published or plan to publish an edition on Amazon (Some people avoid Amazon at all costs! Those who fall in that category can’t use ACX at all or Findaway to publish to Audible/Amazon since it goes through ACX.)
• payment frequency (monthly or quarterly)
• payment thresholds
• reporting capability and frequency
• promotional support (download codes, etc.)
• ease of use in starting the project and uploading files
• whether they want to be listed as the publisher, and if yes, whether they need to purchase an ISBN

In the linked page below, I compared 6 of the most popular distributors across 22 individual points to aid in the research and decision process. Of course, I’ve also added other resource links to provide a comprehensive and balanced answer to the question.

Audiobook Distributors Chart (Members Only)

 

Thanks to sound engineer Amanda Rose Smith for her permission to republish this information that she originally posted on Facebook.

1. Don’t give your post person *your* deadline! Give them their own deadline, and pad in time from yours, preferably 48hrs. Things happen. People get sick. Also, there are turn around times. When I get a 7/15 deadline, what that means to me is 11:59 7/15. If YOUR deadline is 7/15, that poses a problem.

2. DON’T ACT OFF MIC! I know there are some coaches telling people to look away from the mic when you yell, or step back. They are WRONG. Both those things pose serious audio problems. You must learn to create a reasonable yelling approximation ON mic. While we’re on the subject, recording off axis in general, for other issues like plosives and sibilance, is ALSO WRONG. Those things are not helped by that and are actually usually exacerbated instead.

3. You should be 10-12 inches from your mic. Pop screen should be a minimum 2 inches away from the mic; you should be 8 inches from that. THIS will help with clicking, plosives, and sibilance — NOT being off mic.

4. It is not an editor’s job to change the character of your read. Most will shorten or lengthen pauses that seem out of character, but if you’re leaving wide gaps all over, those will likely stay in. This is just one reason why punch and roll is so important.

5. If you aren’t listening with headphones (everyone should be, but I know some people don’t), be very sure of your system and mic placement. If your book is full of plosives because your positioning is wrong, no one is going to fix that. An editor’s job is to support the overall performance of the book, NOT TO CHANGE IT.

6. An editor expects to spend a maximum of 3:1 on your punch recorded book. If you have so many issues that more than that is required for a great performance, they’ll start prioritizing, and smaller issues may not get fixed. This is not unreasonable. They need to make a living wage. If you’ve worked with several people and always find things aren’t to your standard, either the audio coming in isn’t high enough quality, or there’s an issue with hiring practices. The 3:1 ratio counts going over the edits you make and the admin involved in noting pickups and such.

7. NEVER think “we’ll fix it in post”. Post is for things you don’t even know need fixing, not things you don’t feel like fixing.

8. If you’re sending in a book to be mastered, SEND RAW. NO PROCESSING UNLESS APPROVED. This includes those of you on Studio One or Reaper especially. ALL channel plug ins on the input must be removed. If your mastering engineer can’t make the book sound better without your template, you shouldn’t be working with them to begin with. Channel strips are for auditions and some publishers ONLY (since some pubs require some slight tweaking before sending).

9. Be clear in communication ALWAYS. If you’re asking for mastering, or editing, or proofing, be completely sure what that includes. If your post person sends a sheet detailing that (I do), READ IT.

10. I can’t think of a #10 but the list bothers my neurotic sensibilities without one so here we are.

 

Other resources on this topic:

• The NPR tutorial Do you have the ears of an audio producer? and the accompanying webinar linked on the page have good examples of problematic clips.
• NPR also created The ear training guide for audio producers.
• Other examples of recording issues are in the ACX Reference Sample Pack.

Breath is life.

New narrators — and particularly new rights holders — who haven’t listened to many (or any) audiobooks often think that breaths should be removed from the recording. Breaths are routinely removed in other voice work such as animation and commercial voiceover. Commercials must run within a pre-set, rigid time of 15, 30, or 60 seconds.

However, we don’t have time constraints in audiobooks. Breaths are the foundation of spoken language and become part of the artistic performance. They affect the musicality and pacing of the story and help convey the emotion and mood of the text.

Hearing an audiobook without breaths feels unnatural and even robotic to the listener. People may feel anxious when they can’t hear the narrator take a breath.

The audiobook industry standard approach is to leave breaths in the audiobook but make adjustments to some breaths in post-production. For instance, loud, gaspy breaths may be minimized or eliminated, especially if they start a paragraph. Breaths should sound natural and subtle throughout the audiobook, with plosives and extraneous mouth noises removed.

While recording, the audiobook narrator must do her part to breathe using good technique. You may need to adjust your microphone position and/or learn to breathe from your diaphragm.

When punching in, you want to ensure you don’t cut the breath as it would stand out to a listener if left in the audio. Your editor would need to cover cut breaths with room tone.

As you prep the book, give thought to places where you want to breathe or slightly pause to enhance the story you are telling.

 

Other resources on this topic:

• Coach and narrator Pat Fraley’s short video An Audiobook Narrator’s Breathing Lesson is a must-watch.
• Also watch narrator Travis Baldree’s video Audiobook Breathing Techniques.
• Audio engineer Don Baarns and voice talent Donny Baarns discuss editing breaths in audiobook recordings and offer some breath improvement exercises in this video.
• Narrator and author C. C. Hogan wrote an expansive article on the topic of audiobook breaths.
• NPR’s excellent article The ear training guide for audio producers contains a section that discusses how to avoid several types of problems with breaths in the recording.