First Audiobook is Out!—Waldmeer

Happy Day

It was a happy day to get this email recently, Hi Donna, Oh happy day! Waldmeer passed Quality Control and was approved for distribution.

Waldmeer (Book 1 of Waldmeer) is now available as an audiobook. Three months ago, I told you that I had started recording. The process has been a huge learning curve at many different levels.

Recording

The first thing was to set up a home studio with soundproofing, a microphone, and a laptop. It didn’t need to be perfect, but it did need to be adequate. All the advice about audiobook quality came back to having good, clean audio to edit and master. After experimentation, the wardrobe was the winner, with me sitting cross-legged and straight-backed (yoga experience helped with this) on the floor. Most of the book’s first half had to be re-recorded (sometimes several times).

Editing

There were numerous technical elements to get to grips with, including the system on the laptop to edit the audio files (GarageBand—free on Mac) and how to deal with the many issues which affect recording quality (such as background noise). Editing takes longer than recording. It was the most time-consuming part.

Mastering

Once recorded and edited, the audio files were mastered. I used an automated online version of mastering (LANDR). Then, the mastered files needed to be edited.

Distributing

Lastly, I set about understanding how to get all the files and relevant information onto the audiobook distributor’s site (Findaway Voices).

Narrating

The other aspects of recording, such as voice and expression, came more naturally due to years of recording for YouTube. All of that was recorded on low-level technology (my iPhone) but the principles of narrating remain the same.

Also, a long time ago at school, I had quite a successful career as a debating and oratory student. I won many prizes. It was somewhat surprising as I was rather shy but, in retrospect, the voice that these days finds an outlet in writing must have been trying to speak all those years ago. 

Waldmeer is now available on all the listening apps.

1. Audible on Amazon is coming soon. If you already have the kindle version of Waldmeer (or if you buy it), you can get the audiobook cheaper with Whispersync on Amazon.
2. NOOK Audiobooks
3. Chirp
4. Kobo, Walmart
5. Scribd
6. Google Play
7. BingeBooks
8. Audiobooks.com
9. Storytel

Thanks for following along. I appreciate it!