You’ve probably found yourself drawn into a story while listening to an audiobook, but you probably never stopped to think about what all goes into producing an audiobook.
First, a book has to have already been written and published.
Then, the audiobook rights have to be sorted out to prepare to accept, organize, and distribute royalty income from domestic and international sources.
Then after all of the administrative work is done, the pre-production work begins.
Who will be narrating?
The author or a voiceover artist?
The recording studio – where will the audiobook be recorded?
Who will the recording engineer be?
What microphone is the best fit for that particular book?
Who will help produce the narrator?
Who will edit the audio?
Who will help select the best takes?
Will there be sound design (background noises)?
What platforms will the audiobook be made available on?
And on and on and on it goes…
Our favorite microphone to record audiobooks with is a workhorse, the German-made Neumann TLM-103. We like to pair that with the Avalon VT-737 preamp, run it through a Behringer digital mixing console, and land it in ProTools.
Without going down the rabbit hold of acoustics, we record all of our audio projects in rooms treated with Novawall track systems.
We record audiobooks according to audible.com standards – these high standards ensure the quality of each file is well-above the minimum threshold for domestic and international digital distribution platforms.
Metadata and royalties are for a different blog, but you can’t forget those either…
So the next time you find yourself whisked away into a far away, imaginary land, try to remember just what all went into taking you there.