What it takes to narrate your own audiobook, from an author who did it
Almost everything written about audiobook narration is written for narrators. The author's side of it is nearly undocumented: what actually happens when the person at the microphone is the same person who wrote the sentences.
Barbara Pereira-Amador narrated The Silver Road: How Spain and Latin America Helped to Win the American Revolutionary War herself, on an indie budget, against a deadline set by the Revolutionary War's 250th anniversary. The book has since earned a Kirkus Star, which goes to fewer than 3% of the indie titles Kirkus reviews.
She agreed to answer some questions about how it went. Her answers are below, in her words.
Why narrate it yourself instead of hiring a narrator?
At the start, I was considering hiring a narrator. After attending several webinars on creating audiobooks for indie authors, I decided that my own narration was feasible as an option. Given the subject of the book, the timeline for self-narrating was also a consideration. The book is about the role of the Spanish in the American Revolutionary War, and I feel that it is imperative to release this audiobook during the discussion on the 250th Celebration. If I'd hired a narrator, I'd have to locate a person who would be able to pronounce words and names in Spanish and French, and my estimate is that this would be a longer lead time.
I have an advantage: my brother is a studio engineer, who has worked as an engineer at Voice of America with musicians at studios in Los Angeles. He is retired and has his own hobby studio.
You said you were flummoxed when you started recording, even after practicing. What happened?
I had practiced an entire read through of the book, and spent extra time repeating the passages that were difficult for me. I thought that I was prepared, but once in the studio with the microphone and the recording running, I had trouble keeping my place in the text and stumbled over words and phrases that I knew very well. I use Atticus, so I had an electronic screen, which I thought would work. I was losing my place too often, and decided that I needed a solution, which led me to PromptVO.
My brother advised me that nervous reactions happen. He's recorded excellent musicians who give outstanding public appearances on stage, but have difficulties in the recording studio.
How did you prepare, and how did you settle the pronunciations?
I prepared by doing a live read of the entire book, plus repeated read-throughs of challenging sections. The book contains names and places in Spanish, French, Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), and Indian (Carnatic region). To prepare, I created a list for myself of the words that I could not readily pronounce, and cross checked the pronunciations on sites such as nameshouts.com, spanishdict.com, and forvo.com, linked to the audio clip of the pronunciations, and also copied the phonetic pronunciations into my worksheet.
Since I was working in Atticus and could easily create a duplicate of the book, I placed the phonetic pronunciations before the names for which I needed reinforcements, that I could then view on the PromptVO screen. Although I have a very good command of Spanish, this preparation was extremely helpful. I'm really glad that I spent the time on this that I did.
What would you do differently?
What I would do differently for the next time is to have made a recording of myself reading on my home laptop, and replayed the chapters to myself. I think that I may have caught a few difficulties that I did not anticipate. Although I wrote the book and edited many revisions, I still did not have the content as well memorized as I thought.
What is different about reading your own words out loud?
This book is a passion project for me, and with current events in politics and culture, my personal enthusiasm was heightened. Despite the difficulties as a first time narrator, I am glad that I had the opportunity to do this myself. While I've heard excellent audiobook narrators, I was able to emphasize and modulate my voice for the content as I had planned when writing the words, enlivening 18th century text as much as possible. This was the best path for me.
How did you think about studio time and cost going in?
I was fortunate to have an in-family resource. Even with this resource, I researched the amount of time for an average narration by words, and added a percentage to account for my lack of experience. We did finish the recording on the timeline that we had estimated. And even my generous brother's time and patience are limited. If I could do it over again, as noted, I would have recorded and timed each chapter as a practice run.
What would you tell an author who is considering it but hasn't committed?
I would tell another author that self-narration is certainly an undertaking, and not to underestimate the amount of practice required. That said, I would go for it. In an increasingly synthetic world, your own voice is a personal way to really connect with listeners. I think that your personal passion and commitment will shine through and heighten the storytelling and the experience for the listener.
Barbara Pereira-Amador's The Silver Road: How Spain and Latin America Helped to Win the American Revolutionary War is available now. Our thanks to her for taking the time.