What I Learned in Recording my First Audio Book!

When my publisher, Wisdom Editions, asked me to consider recording the audiobook for my recently published book, FIZZ! How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant, I thought, sure! How hard could it be?  I know how to read! 

As it turns out, it was much harder than I thought -- and I learned a lot along the way.  Here are my big "take-aways:"

• Diction is key! I learned how sloppily I pronounced words and how often I slurred endings.   (Examples: “…in” instead of “…ing” and “ta” instead of “to.”) When talking face to face it is not as big a deal because we anticipate and read between the lines when conversing. However, in an audio book, proper pronunciation is important to get the message out correctly.
• Slow down! Again, this is different than talking to each other face to face, in which we have an advantage in interpreting meaning.  Listening to a recording in which the speaker is talking too fast is like getting a fire-hose of information that is hard to digest quickly.
• Don’t breathe during recording. Okay, this one was hard to figure out, because I do need to breathe to talk!  However, it turns out that listening to someone’s breathing on an audio book is distracting. (Again, in real life we tune this out.) So, I had to learn how to breathe deeply before recording a section, and then pause recording to catch my breath again. Otherwise the producer needs to edit out the breathing and might inadvertently edit out other things as well.
• The microphone is very sensitive! At one point in my recording process, I was visualizing talking to another person and forgot that I also talk with my hands. Suffice to say the mic picked up the noise of little movements I was making with my hands as I went.  Boo! 
• It takes longer than you think. For me to record just one chapter of 5-7 pages would take me at least 1-2 hours. And with 36 chapters in five sections, it was a lot of recording time, not including the chapters that I needed to re-record!   In addition, I could not sit and vocalize for 8 hours a day and still keep my voice. So, this needed to be spread out over time. I had planned three weeks in July, and really did not finish until Labor Day.

I am happy to report that FIZZ! How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant, is now available on Amazon at smartURL.it/FIZZag  and I am pleased with the result. You can get a free sample of the book and it also comes with a PDF of illustrations for visual reference. 

This was such a great learning experience that I am planning to record my first book, Confucius in My Cubicle: Practical Wisdom for the Leader in All of Us sometime next year.  Stay tuned!

Cathy Perme

The Consultant's Coach, and Managing Partner of Perme & Peterson Associates, LLC