For the unedited video recording of the audio blog recording, click here: here

For the edited audio version, click here.

People are often surprised when I tell them it takes two, or sometimes three hours to record one finished hour of an audiobook, and that the finished product involves another three or more hours of editing and other post-production. “  And audiobook recording is relatively fast compared to other types of productions.

I remember back in college when I had the opportunity to dance in a scene (in the background) of an indie film. It was very exciting and they paid us in bagels and Odwalla Juice, an expensive indulgence at the time. We were there for half a day, starting and stopping multiple times for who knows what reason, and my partner and I were “dancing” on the stairs, with no music. It was much less glamorous than I had thought it would be, and it was then that I decided film was not for me. 

I eventually did return to the silver screen (again as a background actor), but in the context of needing a job while I studied improv, and getting union pay and full meals, rather than just carbs. I learned that it often took a full ten hour day to shoot one five minute scene. The union overtime rules being generous, I didn’t mind so much, but it also confirmed that filmmaking wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life, especially after trying out my own Youtube channel and learning how much time went into the editing. 

Being a better listener than a watcher, I tend to miss most of what is going on when I watch TV and movies, but I’ve always gravitated towards non-visual entertainment like stand-up and storytelling. I decided to give audiobook narration a go, and was warned that if I was producing the audiobook myself, I should be sure to ask for union rates because it would take up to eight hours to produce one hour of an audiobook. In fact, because I wasn’t a professional editor, and I was working with free audio software, it took me about twelve hours for each finished hour of my first project.  I made a lot of rookie mistakes, and recording took a long time because I lived in Hollywood and recorded from a small closet with an open door, where I had to stop each time a helicopter hovered over my neighborhood, a police car drove by blaring it’s siren, or my roommates got chatty downstairs. Now I live in the quietest neighborhood of Seattle, where I record from a double walled sound booth, and the only noises that I have to stop for are the occasional small aircraft, or oddly, my loud cat. Since I’m now working mainly for publishers, I only have to budget time for the prepping and mark up of my script, and the actual recording. The recording portion is generally that two-to-one or three-to-one ratio, but only if I spend an equal amount of time prepping and marking up the script so that I can be prepared in the booth. Most of the stopping and starting is due to flubbing up words and belly growls, with less stopping coming from noises outside of the booth. 

I got into filming Tiktok videos and Youtube shorts over the last couple of years, and although each one is generally under a minute, I found that it can take an hour to make a well edited comedy short. However, if I have a set theme, like my “Audiobook Tip of the Week” videos, I can knock a few out in about thirty minutes, once I get the lighting right, which generally adds another five to ten.

Normally I record an audio version of this blog, edit it, and post it on Youtube with a still background and a moving waveform. This week I decided to do a bonus feature. Since recording this blog post is a lot like recording an audiobook, I’m going to film myself during the audio recording process, leaving all of my flubs in for the video version. I will also put out the finished audio version for anyone who just wants to hear the finished project, or wants to compare the two. I won’t include the post production part. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to sit through that!

Thanks for reading!

Rebecca H. Lee
 

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