What is involved in the audiobook narration process?
In a word: Storytelling. Narration is an art form, the narrator or voice actor is a "voice artist". There are special skills required of an audiobook narrator. The skill set for a narrator or voice actor includes the following "performance tools": Script analysis, interpretation and a range of creative delivery styles for character development and portraying characters and, not least of all, stamina and consistency. A lot of time goes into preparation for an audiobook performance. This includes pre-reading the material, (often creating a database of the characters to be voiced) and going through the manuscript to do the "mark up", putting accent/emphasis marks in for a guide.
In voice acting it is important that the "global" or overall performance flows well and is consistent. The rhythm of each line, each paragraph, each piece of dialogue, each chapter as it unfolds must match the flow that the imagery of the scenes demand. The pre-read is essential to the execution of this task. At the same time, a fine balance must be maintained, delivering the necessary emotion, characterization and tone without overshadowing the story. Unless called for in the story, an "over the top" performance can distract the listener and detract from the experience. Therefore the narrator must be able to serve the needs of the role while remaining "transparent". On a detailed or "micro" level, the accomplished narrator makes choices involving the rhythmic and intonational aspect of the language (prosody), essentially the same way scansion is used in analyzing meter in poetry. Scansion is the analysis of a line for rhythm, emphasis and accent; (accent here refers to syllabic stress, not linguistic accent). Emphasis can be applied through inflection (or pitch), tone of voice (emotional coloration) dramatic pause and projection (volume - loudness or softness). In the course of recording a single audiobook the narrator will make literally thousands of choices to find the right voice tone, interpretation and rhythm to convey the imagery called for in the scene. The voice actor must understand the author's intent, understand the story line and have the acting and storytelling skills to effectively deliver the end product. Unlike other forms of acting, this has to be done exclusively with the voice; putting a shrug, a smile, a frown in the mind's eye of the listener. An experienced and talented audiobook narrator performs with this level of skill reflexively. What is involved in the audiobook production process?
Audio production for the spoken word can have a widely varying production ratio, anywhere from 4:1, (i.e. 4 hours of work for every hour of finished product) to as much as 12:1 (i.e. 12 hours of work for every hour of finished product). Considerations of pacing and style for the delivery and attention to detail in recording, proofing, editing, and mastering are the largest contributing factors.
The process involves the work of a narrator (performance), an engineer (recording & editing) and producer/director (coordination & direction). Post production entails editing, mixing and mastering. |
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What does it cost for audiobook narration?
My rate is $275 per finished hour (that's how many hours the audiobook turns out to be). This cost includes all narration, studio time, production/direction, and recording engineering. Or, you could hire me through ACX and we could work out a 50/50 royalty share provided your title sales hit a particular threshold. Because the narrator is assuming risk with a royalty share, it is necessary to be selective about the royalty share projects I take on, because there are hard production costs and of course, I need to be suitably reimbursed for the time I invested up front (it takes about 6 real-time hours to produce one hour of finished audio. For instance, a 10-hour book may require 60 hours to produce. Audible uses 9400 words per hour in its calculation for books posted on ACX ).
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How do I start?
Once you've booked with me and delivered the manuscript (via email or snail mail), we can have a conversation over email or over the telephone to discuss direction and pre-production. After I have completed the recording, editing, and mastering the file, you will receive a finished audio file as an MP3, WAV, AIFF, CD or FTP to your server. The entire process can take anywhere from 10 days to 30, depending on the size of the book.
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