How to Record and Edit Your Own Audiobook

00:00 Intro 00:26 The numbers 01:07 Considerations: External Sounds & Recording location 01:57 Equipment: Microphone 03:43 Setting up microphone and stand 05:39 Microphone settings (gain is a heluva thing) 07:22 Software for audio editing: Audacity plugins and Settings 12:05 Macros 15:43 Practice Makes Perfect 16:25 Narration best practices 19:47 Acting 21:11 Editing: Punch copy and punch paste 24:06 Editing: Truncate Silence 25:19 Editing: Opening and Closing Silence 25:49 Editing: Removing / Repairing Mouth Noises 31:05 My Editing Workflow 32:47 One Final Pass 35:38 Distributing your audiobook: ACX / Audible / Amazon / iTunes 40:19 Distributing your audiobook: Findaway Voices / Spotify 47:29 Lessons Learned It turns out that my notes are much too long for a youtube video description, so you can find even more detailed notes here: A summary of tips and links follows: Start here: Consider buying a microphone isolation shield: Microphone research: Blue Yeti USB on Amazon: How to get the most out of your Blue Yeti: Microphone settings here: Audacity for editing audio files: There’s a support page explicitly for audiobook mastering: Go to that support page, then go down to “Custom Tools“. Get and install Acx-check: This is a plugin that will determine if your audiobook files meet ACX standards. Get a plugin for normalizing your audio. Go to this forum post: You’ve got plugins installed, next let’s set up all the Audacity settings: First select your whole clip. Control-a is the short cut to do so. Then go to “Process“ on this webpage... ...and complete all the steps. ACX technical requirements: A macro for processing your audio file is provided on the Audacity audiobook support page under “Process“: #process Narration / voice acting advice: Downloads for punch copy and punch paste: EDITING WORKFLOW: The presentation of my actual workflow is out of order, so to be clear, my editing workflow went as follows: 1. Save unprocessed draft 2. Apply macro 3. Copy room silence over outtakes and background noise. DO NOT worry about breath noises or anything else on this editing pass, just cut it down to the takes you want to keep. 4. Save a backup of this draft 5. Do another revision pass repairing clicky, poppy, wet, dry mouth noises 6. Save a backup of this draft 7. Truncate silence, then pad the start and end with room silence 8. Save this draft. Congratulations, it’s probably your final draft! You need to create an ACX account. Or just log in with your existing Amazon account username and password. This hooks you up to sell thru Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. Info on opening credits: A retail audio sample between 1 and 5 min must be uploaded as well: ACX distributes to Audible, Amazon, and iTunes and if you’re going Amazon exclusive, that’s all you need, but I wanted to go broad and accessible, so I also had to set up an account with Findaway Voices. How ACX determines audiobook pricing: I hope I have provided valuable information to you. If so, may I recommend purchasing a copy of my novel, Crew of Exiles, whether it be audio, paperback, or e-book. Note that if you’re a new audible member and my audiobook is the first one you purchase using this link: