Music in audiobooks

Best Practices

Music playing under the opening and closing credits is acceptable as it may help set the mood for the book. In the past, almost every audiobook included music during the credits. These days, the trend is to not include any music in the intro or outro of the audiobook.

A music bed should not be playing under the narration in the chapters or between scenes or chapters in an audiobook. Like sound effects, audiobook listeners can find music to be jarring.

You can use music from any source, but keep these 4 caveats in mind:

Any music used in an audiobook must be licensed to you for this purpose. If the rights holder wants you to use copyrighted music in the audiobook, you should not use it without proof of an accompanying license.
The music must be mixed with the narration to keep the files within specified levels.
All of your book audio files must be either mono or stereo. They can’t include both types.
The normal contracts between a RH and narrator do not include the addition of music. Selecting and mixing music are tasks that should be charged as additional line items.

Case Studies

Credits

I have used Audioblocks.com to find stock clips that I added to audiobook credits, such as in the clips below. The Audioblocks.com license includes this commercial usage.

Opening Credits

Closing Credits

Between Chapters

Read the numerous negative Audible listener comments about the harmonica music between chapters of THE GRAPES OF WRATH audiobook. Click the “Show More” link at the end of the reviews a number of times and then search the page first for mentions of “harmonica” and again for “music” using a CTRL-F (PC) or CMD-F (Mac).

How to play characters of the opposite gender

Performance

The listener knows the gender of the narrator and is not expecting him/her to sound like the other gender. Female narrators shouldn’t necessarily use lower pitch for male characters, nor should male narrators instinctively use a higher pitch to voice female characters.

Each character’s voice will be derived from their personality, which you discover through reading the book and taking notes. You want to be able to visualize a 3-dimensional person and ACT their part according to their scene intentions in the subtext.

Simply distinguishing characters on the basis of generic vocal tricks (changing pitch, gruffness, etc.) does not make the characters sound like real people and isn’t a sustainable approach over the course of a book. Remember, real people have differences in cadence, breathiness, musicality, and articulation. You may find that changing your posture even slightly is a helpful technique for physically embodying a different character.

Regardless of a character’s gender, I think of who I would cast in the role and then channel that person in my performance. The person could be an actor or someone famous, or it could be a family member or friend. This technique enabled me to think of 5 men I could picture as the drag queens who were in several prolonged scenes together in 2 books! If no one comes to mind, I start giving the character a back story that would shape how they would sound.

In books with dozens of characters, you may find that some of your minor characters tend to sound similar. That’s okay. Your main goal is to make sure that the major character voices are distinctive.

How to research publishers

Auditions/Career

Establishing and maintaining a relationship is the key to gaining work with any producer or publisher.

You’ll want to research people and companies before you contact them. It’s important to learn and follow each producer’s preferences for communications.

If you have a 6-month or yearly membership, you’ll find I’ve done much of the research for you! I created company listings loaded with producer names and lots of valuable info like producer interviews in the exclusive Casting Directory.

This article offers some additional tips and links to help you discover publishers and producers so you can make and build connections.

Please know that most producers will want to see a body of work before they are willing to take a chance on you. Refer to this article and learn about how narrators earn or abuse the trust of publishers.

AudioFile Magazine is the premier publication of the audiobook industry and lists publisher info in the Advertiser Directory found at the back of each issue.

You can search by company or service (check Independent Producers) in AudioFile’s Talent & Industry Guide.

Look at a genre you’re interested in on Audible.com and make a list of the publisher names producing work in that genre.

Once you know the company that produces the kind of audiobooks you want to narrate, you can search for producer names in LinkedIn or the APA directory below.

The Google Site: search in this Tuesday Tip shows how to search LinkedIn for a name.
Once you have a name with the company, this Tuesday Tip has 3 tactics for discovering a person’s email address.

If you’re a member of the Audio Publishers Association (APA), you can search the member database for producers’ email addresses. As with the AudioFile guide, most publishers don’t list a particular casting person and may not even designate someone as a producer. That’s another reason why researching LinkedIn can be so helpful.

APA members will find several “Ask a Casting Director” webcasts under Resources, then Webinars after logging in to the APA site. These videos enable you to learn all sorts of good stuff straight from the casting directors, including how and when to contact them. Many casting people give their email address.

You can follow my Twitter list of audiobook publishers. The link and instructions are in this article.

Industry Resources

I subscribe to a number of sites and newsletters to stay current about publishers and the publishing industry. I have found the following 4 resources to be particularly useful:

TheBookseller.com

This British magazine covers British publishing news. They also host conferences and award programs. I don’t subscribe to the magazine, but I do receive their daily newsletter.

Edelweiss.plus

This site contains the catalogs for 100s of publishers. You can see what they are planning to publish in the coming months, as well as their backlist books. I sometimes have written to an audio publisher to ask for consideration on a title I saw in their catalog that didn’t have a narrator’s name attached to it.

In 2015, I created a free account on Edelweiss as an independent/freelancer. Over the years, I have requested — and often received — publisher Digital Review Copies (DRCs).

My profile includes my social media links and states:

Greetings! I’m an audiobook narrator, producer, publisher, blogger, and a leading curator of information about the audiobook industry.
I use Edelweiss to learn about books that may be made into audiobooks. I request DRCs to determine whether to negotiate for the book’s audio rights or aid my auditions for the audiobooks of these titles. As a result, I do not write reviews of the books I receive through the DRC program.

You can see my audiobooks on my site or on Audible at the links below.
https://www.KarenCommins.com/all-titles
https://www.Audible.com/KarenCommins

I receive a number of their newsletters:

Promotions
Reviewer & Media
US Weekly Greeting
Community newsletters in Bio/Memoir and Editors’ Picks. You can select the newsletters you want based on your interests.

PublishersMarketplace.com

At $25/month, this site is invaluable for the information it offers every day about publishing news, deals and dealmakers.

You can sign up here for a free version of the daily Publishers Lunch newsletter. A paid subscription gives you the Deluxe Lunch newsletter and a daily email about deals. You can search their articles and database of deals and deal makers.

Publishers Weekly Magazine

This long-standing magazine covers the international publishing industry. You may be able to read this magazine through your library.

You can sign up for a number of newsletters.

Not only do I benefit from the current news, but I can search PW’s archives, which extend back to 1872. I use the archives when creating the artwork, writing blurbs, and finding critics’ comments for my Public Domain books.

How to say military and gun terms

How to Say It

Military Ranks

When a rank is abbreviated such as SSG or GYSGT, the reader is almost always supposed to pronounce the entire rank instead of reading the individual letters in the abbreviation.

Refer to this page to see charts with the ranks and abbreviations for the US armed forces. This PDF lists the abbreviations with the insignia.

Gun Terms

Thanks to narrator Chris Grall for his permission to republish this information that he originally posted on Facebook.

General Guidelines

Tip for writing pronunciation: full-cap the syllable with primary emphasis, title-cap the syllable with secondary emphasis. Example: ELL uh Vay ter

It is a general rule to ignore dashes and dots.

Letters will follow the phonetic alphabet for the given Country’s service. Leading letters are almost always said like normal people. Example:
M-16 = Em sixteen, AK-47 = Ay Kay Forty Seven

Trailing letters are almost always phonetic:
m-240b – a crew served machine gun – “em two forty bravo”

Military Terms

HAHO -referring to a Hi Altitude High Opening parachute jump. The narrator is pronouncing it Ha Ho, when the correct pronunciation is HAY ho. This is easier to remember alongside its counterpart,

HALO -High Altitude Low Opening, which pronounced just like you think: HAY lo.

SOF -Special Operations Forces. The Narrator is pronouncing S O F. The correct military pronunciation is SOF, like “soft” without the T.

CH -47 Chanook – Twin bladed cargo helicopter – “See Haich Fortyseven Shinook” or “Shuhnook”

HMMWV -High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle – “Hum-vee”

Ammo Terms

When talking about ammunition, depending on context:
5.56 should be pronounced “five five six.” You should drop the “.” Don’t say “point.” Additionally, in dialogue the mm is never said.
9mm is always “nine millimeter.”

Calibers

Caliber is a measure of the diameter of the round (bullet). It is measured in inches. When pronouncing a caliber number, ignore the decimal.

It is correct to say “fifty caliber” or “forty five caliber”. It is NOT correct to say “POINT forty-five caliber”. (Technically, that would be saying 45 one-hundredths of one one-hundredth of an inch–a very tiny bullet diameter!)

When reading, depending on context, you may or may not want to use “caliber.”
Example 1: Narrator
The man was armed with a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver – yes, use caliber. It is fully informative and not subject to slang. Read as:
The man was armed with a 38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver.

Example 2: Dialogue
He was aiming that .38 right at my head! – no, don’t use caliber. This is a time for abbreviated terminology or weapons pronouns. Read as:
“He was aiming that 38 right at my head!”

Example 3: Dialogue
The man was armed with a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver. – judgement call. You’ll have to feel this one out by how the character is talking in context to that section of the passage.

Caliber Pronunciations

.22 is “twenty-two”
.223 is “two two three”
.308 is “three oh eight”
.357 is “three fifty seven”
.380 is “three eighty”
.45 is “forty-five”
.455 is “four fifty-five”
.50 is “fifty”
.500 is “five hundred”
30.06 is “thirty aught six”
7.62mm is “Seven Six Two”
5.56mm is “five five six”
9mm is “nine millimeter”

Types

Various types of ammo have names/types along with caliber. These are significant. .45 Colt is not the same as .45 ACP.

ACP is “Ay See Pee”
Casull is “cuh SOOL”
kurz is “KERTS”
Luger is “LOO ger” NOT “LOO zher” like the Olympic sledder
Magnum is “MAG num”, NOT “MAH nyoom”
Webley is “WEB lee”, NOT “WEE blee” or “WELL bee”

ACX Narrator/Producer’s Commandments

ACX

Thanks to narrator James Anderson Foster for his permission to republish this information that he originally posted on Facebook.

The ACX Narrator/Producer’s Commandments

Thou shalt not put thyself forward as a professional audiobook narrator, without actually being qualified and equipped to perform the job to a professional standard.
Thou shalt not accept a project under 3 hours.
If you ignore #2, thou shalt not pad, read slowly, or digitally alter your audio to artificially hit the 3-hour mark.
Thou shalt not take a PFH rate under at least $200-$250, and should reasonably request and expect more.
Thou shalt not proof thy own work.
Thou shalt not rely upon the RH to proof.
Thou shalt not allow the RH to attempt to “direct” you or your acting choices.
Thou shalt not take a RS project longer than around 9 hours.
Thou shalt not edit or fix massive grammar mistakes for a crappy book.
Thou shalt not fall under the faulty mindset that “the RH knows best.” You are the producer. You are the audiobook professional.

What soundproofing options do you recommend?

Studio Configuration

I haven’t written or posted anything specific about soundproofing here on NarratorsRoadmap.com. It’s too broad a topic, and everybody has different problems to address in their space.

These articles on my blog offer some introductory info:

Soundproofing vs. sound absorption
A Demonstration of My Soundproof Studio I replaced all of the windows in the house and custom-built a room addition with soundproofing materials to greatly diminish exterior sounds.

You might consult with one of the specialists listed in the Studio Treatment & DAW Training section of the NarratorsRoadmap.com Welcome Center page.

Narrators have frequently discussed soundproofing in the Facebook Indie (ACX and Others) Audiobook Narrators and Producers group. You can search the group for “rock wool”, for instance, and see past threads on the topic.

The Facebook group called Soundproofing & Room Acoustics might offer additional useful info.