Find Your Missing Audience with David Samuel

Are you ready to unlock the untapped potential of audiobooks? In a riveting conversation with David Samuel, an audiobook producer and coach, we demystify the art of audiobook creation. David shares his passion and expertise, guiding you on how to transform your written words into engaging audio content without stretching your budget. As we dive into the heart of the matter, David unveils the variety of options for recording an audiobook, from do-it-yourself methods to full-service production. He emphasizes the importance of pre-recording reviews, the flexibility of switching between options, and the cost-saving potential of group audiobook production.

Digging deeper into the world of audiobooks, we explore the benefits of diversification in product formats with renowned expert, David H. Lawrence XVII. From discussing the range of options available for authors to the fantastic program from Audible - ACX, we cover it all. With David's invaluable tips on finding the right narrator and creating a conducive recording space, you're bound to feel more comfortable navigating the audiobook production process. Furthermore, we reveal how involving students in audiobook production can be a win-win situation, imparting practical experience to students while aiding authors in their journey.

Finally, we focus on David Samuel's opportunity for authors seeking professional guidance in audiobook production. As demand for his services grows, his availability may dwindle, making this the perfect time to collaborate. Weave your author's voice into an audiobook, reach a wider audience, and experience increased sales. Don't miss this golden opportunity to work with a highly recommended professional in the industry. Tune in, and let us guide you on your audiobook journey.

Find his Do it Yourself Program here:  https://recordyouraudiobook.com/diy

Recommendation video:  https://youtu.be/gT2B_iFSi0A?si=HkIa5PD4n-xD_UR9

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➡️ Website:  https://recordyouraudiobook.com

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➡️ Instagram:  https://instagram.com/recordyouraudiobook/

➡️ LinkedIn:  https://linkedin.com/company/84895310/

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome back everyone to the Writers Parachute. We're guiding author and writer dreams to a perfect landing. Today, we have with us a very special guest. We have with us David Samuel. He's going to be talking about audiobooks. He has a program called Five Ridiculously Simple Steps to Record your Audiobook at Home, and we'll be talking to him in just a few minutes.

Speaker 1: 0:23

But, of course, we have to get the housekeeping out of the way. We would love for you to go ahead and smash that like button, Go ahead and hit share and don't forget to ring the bell so that you get the notifications every time we have a new episode. We have new ones every Tuesday for you. Also, we would love for you to go follow us on social media. We are on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and threads. So we are at Writers Parachute. That's Writers Parachute without an S. So if you would also like to get notifications in your inbox every week of new episodes, you can go to sendfoxcom, slash the Writers Parachute and get our newsletter every week with updates for you.

Speaker 1: 1:08

So let's get on with it. We always start out with our topic of the week this week, so we're cruising through the last episodes of season two and we're getting ready to start season three, so we're going to switch gears. We've been talking about reviews, and I think we've covered that pretty well, so we're going to preview a little bit of what we're going to be talking about in season three, and that is storytelling. So this week we're going to talk about what makes a story great. Well, a story in itself is great because you're telling it to a new audience. Most of the time, the audience has never heard the story before.

Speaker 1: 1:47

But there are some practical things about storytelling that are really important. Number one you have to know what it is you want your audience to get from the story. There is always some kind of conclusion, motto, moral idea. Even in nonfiction stories. There is something that you're supposed to learn or walk away from. So you need to figure that out First. Second of all, you need to tell the story in a way that keeps the reader occupied and engaged. You can't just sit there and give them a wall of facts and expect them to correlate that to what you want them to get in the end. You need to present the story in a manner that they will understand. So, and then, least of all or I don't know, most of all it means to engage the reader with imagination, which means that you need to engage all of their senses. You need to engage their sense of sight, sound, smell, taste, feelings. You need to bring those things across and they're very easily brought across in the emotions and the descriptions that you give throughout your book. So this is just a quick little take on those important factors of storytelling. So, of course, we can always go much deeper and dive further into this information. If you would like more information, please reach out to us at info at thewritersperissuecom, and we'd be happy to reach out to you and talk to you about this more in depth. But we have a limited amount of time, so let's get back to our guest.

Speaker 1: 3:30

Our guest today is David Samuel. He's an audio book producer, recording engineer, teacher and coach. He's an auto production coach, trainer and speaker who, with over 40 years experience in audio engineering, helps entrepreneurs and organizations untangle the technological nods of events, podcast audio recording, audio book recording and installing or upgrading existing AVL systems so that they can deliver clear messages professionally and with confidence. Wow, I could use that. David has earned a bachelor's of arts degree in communication and master of arts and leadership, as well as advanced training and recording sciences and system maintenance. He believes it is possible to untangle the nod of media presentation and his passion is to take those involved in media weather professional volunteers and help them continue their journey towards excellence. Welcome to the Writers. Parachute. David, how are you today?

Speaker 2: 4:32

Oh, Don, I'm doing well. It's great to be here and communicating this passion of mine that has come about.

Speaker 1: 4:40

Well, I am so excited to have you here today because oftentimes I bring on authors and we talk about all the pitfalls and the problems and the ways that we try to figure out and do things, and very often I don't get to bring in an actual specialist that tells us that helps us, and this is one of those things that is really outside my wheelhouse.

Speaker 1: 5:04

So you're going to be doing a lot of talking today and it's audiobooks. Audio books have become extraordinarily important in the marketplace as we have less and less time busier, busier world. It's like it's so much easier to just plug in those headphones and listen to an audiobook while you're doing laundry, while you're cooking dinner, while you're in the car, on the bus, on the train. It's like sometimes I listen to them when I'm soaking in the tub at night because I'm a captive audience, which is kind of hard to do. So it's really an important marketplace that I think is being ignored because people don't understand how to make it work and to get it to work in their budget, which is where you come in.

Speaker 1: 5:52

So you offer an inspiring platform for anyone wanting to create an audiobook and I want to know what inspired you to kind of create that for authors.

Speaker 2: 6:03

Well, teaching has always been a big part of my life and whether it's training volunteers or it's working with students. It's just been amazing. And so, taking my professional background in recording and live audio production, how can I teach these authors that I'd come in contact with Because my wife is an author and we've had some good interaction with these authors that are writing on a shoestring budget? I mean, they've got a story to tell and they want to get it out, and so how can I then take my background and teach them how to do a quality recording on a shoestring budget? And it is very doable. You can make it happen and have it sound. To have it sound like the listener once expects an audiobook to sound, and it's a very different expectation for that. But that was the whole premise. It's just how can I teach them how to do it? And then it's grown from there.

Speaker 1: 7:11

Right. Well, and I've listened to some of the audiobooks that you've been involved with and they sound very professional. I'm not sure that you could tell the difference between what you offer, and I'm not to say that you're any less than than what you would think of some of these big production companies that typically just do audiobooks. So you know you're right, it is doable. Now, in your record, your audiobook program, you challenge authors to trust their voice, to step out of their comfort zone and to spend their readers, their influence and their revenue with audiobooks. So I wanna know why audiobooks are so important and how are they different from, let's say, print or e-books?

Speaker 2: 7:57

Okay, yeah, well, the audiobook audience has grown exponentially over the last few years. I think I've heard statistics as much as 50% of the audience is audiobooks. When my wife was writing her book, you know we had people that said, well, is it an audio yet? And of course I hadn't done that yet. And they say, well, I'm not gonna read it because I don't read. You know, I listened to them in the car and today it's such an on demand media.

Speaker 2: 8:29

On demand is huge in society. You want the stuff when you want it and what you want when you want it. And so that's whether, like you said, driving in the car, you know, mowing the yard, soaking in the tub, as you said, we want that stuff. And my wife and I listen to audiobooks as we drive cross country, visiting family and stuff, and so it's a huge audience that the print doesn't reach to. And so, basically, if you can create an audiobook from your print or your ebook version, you have the potential of reaching an entirely different audience that wouldn't pick up your book otherwise. And so you know that's the whole reason of trying to get that message out to a different set of people that you could affect in a way that's positive with your message.

Speaker 1: 9:20

Right, and you know I agree with that because you know I myself I listen to a lot of books. I mean, I probably go through 70 or 80 books a month. About half of those are audiobooks. And the reason for me is because I'm really super busy. So when I'm cooking, that's just kind of something I do by rote, it's like I don't need my full attention to it, so I can devote the rest of my brain to listening to this audiobook and I learn so much that way. Same thing when I'm folding, you know, laundry. It's my Monday job I think I have is folding laundry and it's like I can listen to an audiobook and actually be entertained. Or, as you said, taking a walk, driving in the car. You know, like I said, I do it a lot of time when I'm soaking in the tub and it's much easier for me because I really don't have that extra time to sit there and devote to reading a book. And we're gonna talk about this in a minute.

Speaker 1: 10:18

But you can actually adjust the speed of the reader with an audiobook, which you can't really adjust your ability to read faster. Now I read pretty fast, but I've been doing it for a very, very long time where I, you know, I just absorb a lot of material quickly. But you know, for most readers we don't have fast readers, we don't teach that as in depth as it used to be. So a lot of readers struggle and you know, being an editor and working on the other side of it is like sometimes I have to talk to my authors about. You know, read your own book out loud. Which audiobook is a good way to do that? But read your own book out loud because you don't realize the tongue twisters that you just inserted in your book. I mean, it sounds great on paper, but when you try to read that out loud, or if you're not a proficient reader and you're trying to read that, you're like, wait what?

Speaker 2: 11:15

The other thing that I've noticed with working and coaching with authors reading their books is that there's a lot of time there's a visual aspect to the print that we put in, you know, ellipses, parenthetical clauses, things like that visual cues that the listener doesn't get, and so sometimes you have to kind of dance around that to explain what you're meaning, and so those can be some very you know homonyms or very difficult to try to explain in an audiobook because there's not that visual aspect. So that's one thing that I try to coach authors through of okay, let's say that a different way. Yes, it's not what you intended in the book, but it'll help the listener track with you.

Speaker 1: 11:55

So Right, yeah, and I do like that because also, what I hear a lot of times when authors are reading their books out loud is they won't realize that they didn't quite clarify the sentence, as you're saying but, when they read it, they just like insert extra words. Yeah which is fine, which is fine for an audiobook book, but it is a little odd. When you hear it and you're reading with them, you're like wait, that word's not there.

Speaker 2: 12:23

That's right.

Speaker 1: 12:25

So you know, sometimes it makes the book better. So you know, sometimes the version that you get on the audiobook is better and again, because of that, you don't have all of the visual cues, so you don't have to worry about the explanation or understanding it.

Speaker 2: 12:39

So I do like that.

Speaker 1: 12:41

So we're gonna talk a little bit about your program. It's five ridiculously simple steps to record your audiobook at home. Wow, take a breath, yeah, okay, and you're offering three levels of help for authors. You have a do-it-yourself, a hybrid and a full service. So I'm gonna put you on the spot here, and let you tell us a little bit about what those different levels include. Sure, how are they different? And, finally, how do we choose which one works best for us?

Speaker 2: 13:10

Yeah, totally great questions. It all started out. The whole thing started out with the do-it-yourself okay, which is basically you watch the videos. I think the videos take about they're like five or six modules, take about an hour. But it goes through how to set up your studio, how to select a microphone, how to place the microphone correctly, how to record your levels, what format, a lot of the technical stuff that you get into with that, and we get into some basic editing and things like that to help clean up the mistakes which you're gonna do because we're imperfect. So it started out with the whole do-it-yourself and that basically is the cost of the program, and then I go through what equipment you're gonna need to make it happen, okay.

Speaker 2: 13:55

The next step was I had a lot of authors saying, yeah, okay, that's great, but I don't wanna do all the editing. That's just not me. I'd rather read the book and the editing, the mastering, getting all the files prepped for upload. That's not me. So I say, okay, well, you record it, send it to me and I'll do the editing, the mastering and the uploading for you, so that you don't have to do that. You can record it and then be done.

Speaker 2: 14:20

So that's where the hybrid issue came in, the hybrid model, and again that starts with the whole video course. So you know how to record and then the files are sent to me. I edit, I master and I upload those, taking that technical aspect away from the authors so that they can focus on what they do the best and not spend countless of hours. I mean, I've been editing for 40 years, so it comes fairly quickly and I know what I'm listening for and to learn a program and it just takes some time. So those are the things that the differences between the do-it-yourself and the hybrid Now along with those.

Speaker 1: 15:01

I'm going to stop you there because there was one thing that was added to the hybrid that I was kind of like going I was thinking about the do-it-yourself, but I was sort of leading the hybrid and it was a review option that you have a hybrid program.

Speaker 2: 15:15

And I was just gonna say that, don, both those programs the do-it-yourself and the hybrid have a review which basically is get your studio set up, review the videos, get your studio set up and then record a short and I mean short, like 30 seconds to a minute max send it to me, I'll take a listen to it and review it. I mean, I've, like I said, been doing it for 40 years. I know what I'm listening for. We want an acoustically dead environment. We want to make sure the levels are right. We don't want a lot of P-Pops, you know with the, which happens when the microphone is right in front of your face and the air from plosive consonants goes in the microphone and distorts. We don't want that. So I'll listen to it. I write up a review saying, yeah, levels look good. Or you know you're standing a little stilted in this, maybe you know, relax a little bit, Don't breathe quite so much. Don't breathe every third word, so it makes the listener sound like boy, this person's agitated. So both those options get a review process, which authors find very helpful, so they're not recording the whole thing and then going, oh, this isn't going to work and have to go back and redo it. We don't want that. We don't want the wasted time. And then the last one is the full service, which says what it is is basically they hire me to either fly out to their location or they come to my studio and we spend two or three days, depending upon the length of the manuscript. We record everything and then they go home or I go back and then I edit, master and upload. So basically they're committing two to three days of intense work of getting it done, and then they're done. They just can say, okay, send me the files when you're ready and then we'll do that. I also kind of talk through how to set up their accounts so they're not trying to fudge around and get lost in all the terminology of, you know, exclusive versus non-exclusive and all that stuff. I'll help them. You know 30 minutes, we'll walk through it together and then we'll upload and be ready to go. So those are the different options.

Speaker 2: 17:21

Now how to choose that I guess it depends on how much you're willing to effort you want to put into it. You know my wife and I built a house years ago where we had a contractor that was allowing us to do a lot of the work ourselves because you know we were on a shoestring as well. So we did all the finished electrical, finished plumbing, tiling, painting, all that stuff and in the process saved about $60,000 of labor. That was equity sweat equity we call it, and it's the same thing here is that if you're willing to learn it and do it and I've had some people that have been and I want to learn this, and they've done it and it's been great and others that just say I just don't have the time, I'm better spending the time doing what I do best, and it's that who, not how kind of mentality, so just depends.

Speaker 2: 18:10

But you know, once you select a program, you're not locked in. We can negotiate, okay, how do we want to do this, and move pretty seamlessly between the programs. There was a few things that may not translate well, but yeah, it's whatever I can do to help you get that project done. That's the main thing get it done and get it out there so that the world can hear what you have to say.

Speaker 1: 18:37

Right and I do love that option that you do lock into it and say it's like, hey, if you decide, you know I can only do the DIY and then you get into it and you're like wait, this is too much, I can't. I'm floundering here and you call David and go hey, I really could need your help. So can we upgrade? And you're like, yeah, we can do that. Or you're just like, whoa, this is not me. Can I just come meet you somewhere and we'll report this book.

Speaker 1: 19:05

You're all about that, which I love, because what I find is authors and writers want options.

Speaker 2: 19:14

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 19:15

And a lot of times we don't know the option we really want until we start getting into the weeds of it and go, okay, yeah, no, I can't.

Speaker 2: 19:23

I can't. I've had authors go you know what?

Speaker 1: 19:25

I'm just gonna design my own book cover and I'm like okay, and then they come back and they're like so you remember that person you were gonna refer me to, can I get there? No more. It's like, this is harder than I thought it was.

Speaker 2: 19:39

Yeah, I get it.

Speaker 1: 19:40

Yeah, and I appreciate that, so I'm gonna put you on the spot again. So I wanna know what tools are absolutely a must to record an audio book and I wanna know how they're different from, let's say, me recording a podcast.

Speaker 2: 19:58

Sure, as far as the equipment goes, you know, I mean basically everything's built around recording on the computer. So if you have a computer, you are half the way there. You do have to have a good quality microphone and you know, and unfortunately you do get what you pay for in microphones. $29.95 may be great for the budget but it may not work the best for your audio book, and you know, I'm just throwing that out there. But I would, I'd expect to pay $100 for a decent microphone. That you know. After you're done you could resell it, you know, maybe not get the full hundred bucks back, but at least do that, or you save it and use it for your podcast. As far as the equipment, there's very little difference in except in the equipment needed for a podcast versus an audio book. The big difference is in how you mic it and the studio surrounding that you know. So, yeah, so that's really it. So you've got your microphone, you've got your simple studio setup which you can create from materials you have in your house already, and I've had people.

Speaker 1: 21:24

Yes, yes, I love that.

Speaker 2: 21:25

I've had people set it up and it's like man, this is ugly. It says, well, who cares? Nobody's seen it, it's, they're hearing it and as long as it's. I mean, you have people record in their walk-in closet with all their clothing hanging, which is great because it breaks up the reflections. You know you don't want a stark IELD bathroom as one of the examples I use in the video of moving from a bedroom into a tiled bathroom, into a closet and hearing the acoustical difference of how the sound all of a sudden becomes very tight, and that's what you want.

Speaker 2: 21:57

The expectation of a person listening to an audio book is one of a radio broadcast, whereas and whereas a podcast it's a different because it's like a newspaper. It's transient, it's gonna change, it's quick moving. It's not. There's not an emphasis as much placed upon the sound quality versus an audio book. So it's kind of the difference between a print book and a newspaper. You know it's kind of that expectation. So there are things that you need to do but definitely can be done, and I show you how to do that in the course.

Speaker 1: 22:34

All right, awesome. So, and I imagine you know there are certain programs that I have to use as a podcast or I imagine there's probably certain programs that you would need or apps that you would need to adjust the sound quality and stuff. I don't worry about it too much. I feel like it's a little. You know, podcasts are a little more personal, where audio books are impersonal, but that's okay because they're going out to a broad audience.

Speaker 2: 23:02

So you know, it can be impersonal, but it still needs to be conversational. Well, sure, yeah, but it is tailored to the listener, right?

Speaker 1: 23:10

Yeah, it doesn't have me waving my hands around or, you know, laughing and crying and interrupting and doing crazy things. So, yeah, it's. Yeah, my personality doesn't come across quite as much that way.

Speaker 2: 23:23

I had one author I was working with a couple of weeks ago who said man, I'm glad you can't see me here because I have an isolation booth that they were recording in. And he said I'm here, I'm using my hands and it's like. That's fine. Whatever you need to do to make it conversational, that's what you need to do.

Speaker 1: 23:39

So Well, yeah, yeah. If people could see the rest of the things that are going on behind me and everything, they're like, wow, but they don't have to, so I'm all right.

Speaker 2: 23:52

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 23:53

So and I think that's kind of where you were talking about it's like you know, you don't need to sweat the small stuff. Just worry about the important things and then everything else it'll just work itself out.

Speaker 2: 24:03

And that's right, Donna Yep.

Speaker 1: 24:06

I love that. So now a little birdie told me that you might be planning a visit to the UK sometime in 2025. What can you tell us about that?

Speaker 2: 24:18

Well, I've heard a lot from several authors over there. You know where can I go for a studio and it's like I don't live in the UK so I have no idea. I can do a quick Google search and give some ideas of things around them. But basically it's you know where can I go to record my audiobook, and whether they be in the London area or elsewhere, you know, in Scotland.

Speaker 2: 24:43

I've worked with a couple of authors up in Scotland and it was like, oh well, it was just the idea of, hey, why not just maybe plan a trip over there, get five or six authors at one, do their audiobook, rent an Airbnb that they can travel there, stay there, we provide the food, we provide the recording, and then they're done. They go home and then I edit and master and do those to try to facilitate getting those things out more quickly than you know them trying to slave away and work out a little by little by little and not get it done. Let's, you know, let's commit some time and get it done. So that was the, that's the thought. We're still kind of mulling around that idea.

Speaker 2: 25:29

You know, the idea would be just to kind of go out in the summer, do that and then then get, have them all edited by the end of the summer and out. But we'll have to see about that. But it's it's. It's a commitment. You know it's not a, it's not a cheap proposition. But you know, if we can get four or five or six authors that want to do that and spread the travel costs over, it's very worth it to do that.

Speaker 1: 25:53

So right, well, that's the.

Speaker 2: 25:55

That's the goal.

Speaker 1: 25:56

Well, which brings me to this question that I really never even thought about. It's like have you ever considered letting groups of authors in a, let's say, in my area here in California? It's like if I could get five or six authors together and we all sign up for your you know your full service, would you come out and stay for a week and take care of everybody?

Speaker 2: 26:21

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean it's. It's one of those things where, a matter of fact, I'm I'm working with an author right now who is trying to do the hybrid model and it's it's been going on for about a little over a year now and he's still trying to get it done. It's like, okay, let's just get it done. I mean, because your message is you've got to get your message out, so let's do it. But that would be a great option of three or four. You know, definitely here in the States it's a little easier for travel. But yeah, we can schedule that and do that. It would be. It would be a lot of. It'd be a hoot, it'd be a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 26:57

That that would be fun, and so I guess my question is would that kind of reduce the, the individual cost for all the authors if they group together, or would that just pricing still say the same, or your yeah right.

Speaker 2: 27:11

Yeah, no, I get that. The, the, the cost for the production of the audio book would be about the same. Okay, and basically, just, you know it's it's based on word count. Two and a half words a second is the standard reading rate. So if you take your manuscript word count, which, which word will give you a little word count at the bottom, and of course you're not going to read everything, you're not going to read the copyright page, you're not going to read the table of contents, you're not going to read or acknowledge. You will read, but endorsements, things like that, you wouldn't.

Speaker 2: 27:43

It wouldn't be very interesting reading and sometimes the author doesn't even want to read the about the author because it's kind of weird reading about themselves in the third person. But anyway, calculating the word word count, dividing that by two and a half words a second, you divide that by 60 and then that by 60. That'll give you the finished length. Okay, so the finished length is what's everything, whatever everything is based upon, and it takes about 6.2 hours of production per finished hour of an audio book. So that time involvement would stay the same. The travel costs and the costs for food and the costs for the place to record and things like that would be divided up between everybody, so it would it would be reduced for other than me just going out to for one individual and recording. But yeah, it'd be great to have that opportunity to to work with a bunch of people and do that.

Speaker 1: 28:41

Well, I honestly think you need to add a package deal there, because you know we authors we kind of group together in little clusters and you know it's like I can't tell you the number of authors that I know in my area that would, you know, travel maybe 30 minutes to an hour to be included in that and that would be an amazing thing, not only because you know we all get to hang out and talk about things that we, like you know, and you know we get to get something done. That really is very important right now in the market.

Speaker 2: 29:14

Absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:15

So I'm going to go on to the next question and I want to know what advice would you offer to my audience, or to anyone, about why they want to record an audiobook.

Speaker 2: 29:31

Well, I think the big thing is just the additional audience that you're exposing your message to. It's, you know, I mean, the reason you wrote the book in the first place, or a writing book in the first place, is because you have a story to tell. You have something that you want the reader to come away with, just like what you were talking about at the top of your podcast of you know. What do you want them to take away from this message and from what you've said? And it's the same thing with the audiobook is because it's a different audience. They deserve that right too. They deserve they want to hear your message as well. Which brings me to the second point is a lot of authors don't want to read it themselves, and I understand that it's difficult. It's a lot of work. I know when I'm working with authors because I'm concentrating on coaching them and they're concentrating on reading, we're both exhausted at the end of the day of just like man, this is a lot of work. It's like, yeah, it is, but the listener is worth it, and so to get that message out in a way that's, that's winsome, that's connecting with the senses, like you said, of being conversational, being very at ease and what you're talking about. It draws them in.

Speaker 2: 30:51

Listeners in a to an audio book will dismiss slight imperfections if they connect with your heart, and that's the thing that I think a lot. You know they it's got to be perfect. It's like no, it's not going to be perfect, but we can if you can connect with them. And who better to have the passion for the material than the author? I mean, you can get a narrator to do it, but I had one.

Speaker 2: 31:15

I was working with one guy who decided he was going to go the AI route, which is maybe something we should talk about too, and he got it back. He wanted the AI to kind of clone his voice and and he got it back. He said I just didn't like it and it's like, well, I probably could have told you that because they're not going to put AI, is not going to put the passion into the material, and you know that's the whole. That's where the author brings themselves to it, and people will connect with the listener in this case the author and then want to follow you on other things because they've built this relationship with you by hearing your voice for so long. So it's kind of a. It's kind of an interesting connection point to your audience that you may not get in the print book itself.

Speaker 2: 32:04

And one other thing, don, I'm sorry. I know my wife and I have listened to audio books where it's been so good it's like man, that's great information. I'm going to have to go buy the print book so I've got it as a reference source and so a lot of ways you can you might be able to get you know both the sale of the audio book and the print book from the same person, because it was they connected with the message and wanted to have that as a reference that they could give to others or they could consult with later. So those are three reasons why I think that they should, then author should do that.

Speaker 1: 32:42

Well, yeah, and I mean that I do that already where I will buy print books because, again, to loan out and to be able to reference. But I'm a purist so I don't like marking my books, so I always get an ebook because I can go mark that up as much as I want and still have it.

Speaker 1: 33:01

Be fine, so yeah, but you're right, I have gone and bought books that I've listened to on audio books because, again, the information in there, I'm like, oh, I need that for reference, I need to be able to look that up again. And it's like you're not going to speed through, you know, six hours of the audio recording to hear it again. You're just that's not going to happen.

Speaker 2: 33:24

It's hard to find specific instances. You know within a book where, or an audio book where you could for a book.

Speaker 1: 33:30

So yeah, and so, and, and you know, you know I love this thing that you're talking about, about the AI, and it's like I tell my authors I'm like, if you want to know how AI is going to sound reading your book, Word now has and most word processing program has it where it will read your copy back to you and that's exactly how an AI is going to sound. There's very little inflection, is not going to stress the words that you want to stress.

Speaker 1: 33:59

It's not going to add the emotion and the cadence that you have and is what you were talking about is. Is that connection to the author? It's like you know, people don't always get the point of view from an author I have an author that has a very southern accent, and when she reads her book with her accent it makes so much more sense than if you just read it by yourself.

Speaker 2: 34:25

And you're just like.

Speaker 1: 34:26

Oh no, I get it Now I get it. And it's like you wouldn't pick that up if you had, you know, a trained voice over person. Do that. You know, and I've had some of my favorite authors that have hired professionals to read their book and I just didn't like it because they just the voices didn't match the author that I know and love. And you know, when hearing her speak and now hearing this other person speak, you're just like wait, no, that can't be. It's like did I get the right book?

Speaker 2: 34:58

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: 35:00

So yeah, so there's. There's a lot to be said about that, and it goes back to what you're saying about you have to trust your voice. And again, it is your words and your passion. It's like you have to be just as passionate about that audience as you are with every other audience. I mean you were. You spent months and years picking those individual words, right? To get your own process, Like why would you not do that for this audience as well?

Speaker 2: 35:28

Now, with that said, there are some times where you do need to hire a narrator, and I worked with one gentleman who was from. He was from the Middle East and just really had a very thick accent and because it was being distributed to a US English market you know, it was my judgment I thought, you know, it's going to be too much work for the listener to try to work through that, and so we hired a narrator for it and the narrator did a great job and I have a list of vetted narrators that I've worked with for years that can do almost any voice, so male, female, young, old. I've got a whole list that I can refer out. But it came out great. But because of that, it was a different thing.

Speaker 2: 36:20

There's another gentleman I'm working with who stutters and it's not terrible. It's not really, but you know a lot of things. We can get around with editing on that. But his thought was should I get a narrator? I was like, well, that's you, that's your heart. If we can make it smoother through editing, let's do that so that people understand that, hey, this is me, I'm trying to do this, and so, yeah, there are different reasons why and they're great, but yeah, it's good to have the other do it themselves.

Speaker 1: 36:54

I've also had male authors that have a female lead, or a female that has a male lead, and they want that alternate voice. So I mean again, there's just as many reasons for hiring somebody as there are not. But you know.

Speaker 2: 37:11

I guess the thing would be don't write yourself off.

Speaker 1: 37:13

Yes, If I say I can't do this.

Speaker 2: 37:15

Well, yeah, I think you can and there may be some reasons why you can't, but let's talk about it, let's discuss the options.

Speaker 1: 37:22

Right, yes, yeah. Now it's like if I had to read something very technical, my Southern accent would come out a little bit too strong and I'm not quite sure that people wouldn't just be laughing the whole way through. But you know, reading my own books, you know, because they are more my personality is like, yeah, I don't know, that would be a hard thing. So we're going to talk just a little bit here about your program and it is called five ridiculously simple steps to record your audio book at home. So where can our listeners find that program and or training?

Speaker 2: 37:57

Yeah, the program is on our website at recordyouraudiobookcom, and if you go to that, you'd basically click on the DIY option in the drop down menu and that'll take you to show you where the course is. It's also on the hybrid course because both of those options are based around that course, but that is the best place to find that. And, yeah, get full access for life on that, and so you can go back and review it and go from there. So, yeah, recordyouraudiobookcom, okay.

Speaker 1: 38:34

And just to remind our listeners, we will have all the links in the show notes for you, so don't run off to grab pen and paper. We will have those for you to link you to all of David's information. You also have a Facebook group for those signed up for the program. That's a private Facebook group for them so that if they really go off the cliff, you can pull them back.

Speaker 2: 38:58

Yeah, and that's the thing is it's not just a purchase and be done. I mean, I'm available for questions, I'm available for help. Even the opening and closing scripts, I can tell you, okay, this is what's necessary to read and if it's not read this way, you're going to be rejected. Basically, I mean they're going to kick it back and say, okay, it doesn't meet the requirements. So even getting scripts and stuff to the authors that they can read, so it's not. So it's going to go through the first time that stuff that I'm very available to help with. There's an extensive FAQ section on the website that goes through a lot of different things to do. I see you're familiar with it and we're adding to that all the time of questions that come up from people how do I do this and that?

Speaker 1: 39:53

So I think there's 33 on the FAQ page and I was just like, wow, I got an education just reading that.

Speaker 2: 40:03

And there's blogs. There's blogs on the website regarding the audiobook and stuff. So just want to be a help and just want to help the authors get their message out and this is the easiest way I know to be able to do that. So it's there for them.

Speaker 1: 40:22

You're doing an amazing job and I was very impressed. So we know that every author kind of encounters some kind of challenges in getting their books out. So I want to know what the biggest obstacle that you see is for most authors getting a quality audiobook out to market.

Speaker 2: 40:44

Probably the biggest one, I would think, is getting their studio set up correctly and with. I mean, in the videos I actually show you how to do that, but you know there's a cost to that and some authors don't want to. You know they all figure it out on my own and while they can, it's just it's a lot of time and to get a acoustically dead sounding studio quality recording can be difficult and that's you know where I'm taking 40 years of experience and condensing and the microphone, the environment that you're in, are very important. So that's probably the biggest. The second, and close to that, would be the other technical stuff that needs to happen the editing, the mastering, the uploading. That can be intimidating and I understand that. So that's kind of why I have some instruction on that in the course itself.

Speaker 2: 41:51

As far as the editing and I have yet to put out some mastering stuff but that's very specific to the recording itself. So it's not something that we can say this is what you do and one, two, three and it always works. It's very specific to the sound of the recording. So you've heard probably a lot of people say, hey, we're going to fix it in the mix. My thought is do it right the first time, when you won't have to fix it in the mix and rely on technology to make it work. Do it right the first time. So that's what we really strive to do.

Speaker 1: 42:23

Well, yeah, I mean that's here. It's like as a podcast we always have to think about editing and recording and it's like I always love it when I can do a whole podcast with no mistakes, no ads, I don't have to worry about any of the editing process. So it's kind of the same thing Absolutely. But I love that you say nobody's going to be perfect, because I am so on that train, because I always tell people I always leave mistakes in my books, because I don't want to have to live up to that perfection with my next series of books, and I use them as Easter eggs. It's like if you can find five mistakes in my book, you get a free t-shirt or free coffee. There you go. That way it kind of works for everybody. And then they expect the mistakes.

Speaker 1: 43:14

So that's the kind of way I look at it. So where can listeners connect with you? I know that you're available on social media, but you also have the website and I didn't know if you had a specific email that you wanted to offer to the audience in case they had more specific questions for you.

Speaker 2: 43:34

Yeah, they can always reach out to me at info at recordyouraudiobookcom. That's the best way to get directly in touch with me. There are forms that you can fill out on the website, but info at recordyouraudiobookcom is really the best way to do that. Of course, there's Facebook, there's LinkedIn and there's others, but those are the best ways to be you know to. If you have a question, reach out. I'd love to help.

Speaker 1: 44:04

All right, well, like I said, we'll go ahead and include that in the show notes. I do know that you're on social media. I believe I have you listed here. Let me find my notes. We have you listed on Facebook, instagram and LinkedIn and we will have those direct links for everybody in the show notes.

Speaker 2: 44:22

Cool.

Speaker 1: 44:23

So if you're interested in reaching out to David or falling and seeing what he's doing especially you guys over there in the UK if you want to catch up, yeah, when he's going to be there, you might want to follow him. So I have one more very personal question.

Speaker 1: 44:40

And I just read this on your social media, as you recently announced that you're moving from your current location in Colorado to Chicago to become an associate professor of audio production. I'm very excited for you, so I want to know how this is going to change your hands-on approach and what else you can share with us about this new, exciting development.

Speaker 2: 45:02

Well, it is an exciting development and we're very excited about the opportunities that this is going to have to really train the next generation in audio production and whether they're going into media full time or they're going to be volunteering at some organization that they are going to be in the future. It's an opportunity to really train them the right way and do that, and it's a culmination of just my desire to be to instruct and to teach and to come alongside how this is going to influence and affect the hands-on approach. It will have an effect, but most of what we're doing is with the hybrid and with the do-it-yourself, so that's not going to be affected that much. I'm always I'll be available via email. Where it might be a little different is the full service going out. We'll have to schedule a little bit more with that, but Chicago is pretty central so people can always come there and record in my studio there. But no, it's a great opportunity. It's basically taking this whole course to the next level.

Speaker 2: 46:20

I can't promise anything but, just like you, go to a barber school sometimes and get a cheap get a haircut that's inexpensive. There may be options for students to be involved with this. That would reduce the author's cost for that. So that's yet to be seen. I can't promise anything on that, but I know the resources will be there. I know there are students that would love to do voice work and maybe that's an option down the road that we can develop to do that, to get these students some real hands-on experience as well as having it a win-win for the author and for everybody involved. So we'll see what happens with that.

Speaker 1: 47:02

Well, I am super excited, I'm so very proud of you. Congratulations. And I was going to ask you are you going to be training the next day, david, so we can clone you a couple of times so that you can be in multiple places at once? Because that is kind of an issue, and now that you're doing this new, exciting, new job, our options are kind of tightening down. So, yeah, are you going to be training? The next day, David, cloning yourself. What are we going to be doing here?

Speaker 2: 47:30

Yeah, well, I have some people I've been working with over the years that are willing and are helping me out right now that they haven't done any on location recording and coaching, but I've been working with them. This is how it's done, and I wouldn't let them do it unless I really trusted them. So that's something that we need to do, but it's a slow process. You've got to have the right heart for it, and sometimes engineers don't necessarily have those people skills to be able to connect with people in a way that's comfortable for people.

Speaker 1: 48:11

Well, no, and I understand that. It's like, as I'm getting older and older, it's like I realize I'm going to have to train somebody to take over all my editing work and my coaching work and my podcast, and it's really, you're right, it's very hard to find the exactly right person. I think it would be faster if I could clone myself, but that's not going to happen, so it's like. So the search is on.

Speaker 2: 48:36

Yeah, no, I get that.

Speaker 1: 48:39

All right. Well, I just want to know if you have anything else that you'd like to include or share with our audience before we go to our tip of the week.

Speaker 2: 48:46

I just I guess the thing is is don't be afraid of the technology. There are so many resources out there to help make it easier. And yes, it's, there's a learning curve on it, but you can do it. I mean, you wrote a book Holy smokes. I've never done that, but I mean that's a lot of work in and of itself, but it's just you know, who do I, who do you know that can help you with this? You know whether it's you know somebody in your area that can help you set that up or anyway, however it is, there are people out there that can help you. So don't be afraid of that. Step out, ask for help and just see where it goes from there.

Speaker 2: 49:25

So, that would be my, my big push for them to do that.

Speaker 1: 49:29

Well, you know, and for myself, I would just reach out to any of the local authors that I know and say you know, did you do an audio book? What was your experience? What worked for you, what didn't work for you, how did how, did you go about this? You know, you know, give me some cost range. Those are the kind of questions you can ask and I love that you brought out the. The learning curve here is like we often forget, especially writing our first book.

Speaker 1: 49:55

We go through this huge learning curve, which is why, it takes somebody the longest to write their first book, because not only are they writing a book, they're learning how to write, they're learning how to edit, they're learning how to to produce a book fully and have it published in the marketing and all of those things. So it's kind of the same thing, A lot In a shorter curve, absolutely. But you know, so you know, give yourself grace. Anytime you're doing anything new, it's, it's, it is something new that you're not only doing but you're learning at the same time. There is no value you can place on that education. Whether you succeed or whether you fail, at least you learn something.

Speaker 2: 50:39

Yeah. So let me just add one other thing, donna, is that I worked with a, an author who struggles with chronic pain, and when we were talking, you know, she said I just, you know, I have this limitation, can I do it? And it's like, yeah, I mean, and she took multiple days of maybe a half hour a day recording and but she got it done. And so I mean she could have looked at her chronic pain and said, okay, I can't do this, I can't sit long enough. I mean, she ended up doing it in her house so that she would be able to do it, and she was able to. When she was feeling good, she could record instead of going to a studio where she'd have to book it in advance. But it worked out great for her. She got it done and it's been very successful. So you can do it. Just don't look at the limitations, think, how can I push through this and get it done?

Speaker 1: 51:38

Absolutely, and you know, we admire everybody that, you know, that overcomes obstacles. Everybody has obstacles, whether it's time, whether it's family, whether it's location, whether it's cost, there's always some obstacle and you know I don't worry about the wall because there's always a way around it.

Speaker 2: 51:54

Right, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 51:58

All right. So we're going to go ahead and go to our tip of the week and I probably will be pulling David in for this tip of the week because we're going to talk about the importance of diversity of products in marketing to your readers. We talked a little bit about this at the top of the show, about why audio books are important is because they're reaching readers that you wouldn't normally otherwise reach. The same can be said for the difference between these two kinds of print books, which are the soft cover and the hard cover. Some people prefer the hard covers. They last longer, they're sturdier, they like to go back to them often, but they are more expensive. You're going to have a smaller market margin for those people, but those people otherwise wouldn't purchase your book if they didn't have that hard cover version. Likewise for paperback or soft cover versions, people like those because they're cheaper. You know they don't last as long, but they're easier to pass around and you don't feel like you've made this huge investment in a book. And if you're not a purist like me, you can mark them up and annotate them and do all kinds of crazy things with them. You know you can make arts and crafts out of them. So there's that. But then we have ebook readers.

Speaker 1: 53:13

Now I'm on the fence. I like print books. I like ebooks. I also like audio books. I like ebook. Readers are often dedicated and I agree with them to this extent. I can carry 5000 books around in my ebook reader and it doesn't weigh an ounce more, as if I only had two in there, so I can carry as many books as I want to with me and have them on demand. As we said, people want things on demand.

Speaker 1: 53:43

So what I wanted to say, before I'm going to bring David in to talk about this a little bit, is that you know, think of your readers as what it is that they want. It isn't what you want, it's what they want. You have to study your audience, you have to figure out what you want, and I'll give you my example of this, and this is not 100%, but it is.

Speaker 1: 54:11

My experience is that most children's authors Don't get a lot of sales with ebooks. They don't get a lot of sales with audio books, and that simply because most parents want their children's off devices. Now, some of them will go ahead and migrate over to that because they are cheaper options, but that is not the norm, that's the exception. So I don't delve into that audience as much as I do my print books. But that doesn't mean that I ignore that audience, because even though they may be a small audience, like with your hard covers, they're not going to be able to do that. They're generally dedicated audience and fans. So don't forget to be diverse with your products. So, david, I'm sure you have so much to add to that.

Speaker 2: 55:05

Yeah, diversity is, I mean, in your options is very good. You have to cater to the audience and that's why, at least in your audio book, I tell authors to don't say as you read this book, because they're not reading the book as you listen to this audio book, or, as I've talked about before, instead as you read before. So there are things that you cater to the audience to make them feel special and that's how it makes it memorable. So, yeah, you've got to cater to the audience that you're trying to connect with.

Speaker 1: 55:40

Well, and I just also had a random thought, and you're going to either tell me I'm completely wrong or off the mark, but here's a thought If you record your audio book and you have those files, couldn't you clip those out to use them as teasers?

Speaker 2: 55:59

You can. Yes, absolutely. It depends on how you set up your, your distribution with the platform that you're using. You can give them away as freebies on you know, lead magnets on your website, things like that. If you've given the platform that's hosting your audio book exclusive rights to do that, then you can't. But you can do non-exclusive and use it however you want. So, yes, you do have that option.

Speaker 1: 56:29

So what I meant was like taking just like maybe a 60 to 90 second clip out of you reading it and using it in some kind of a marketing format.

Speaker 2: 56:40

I'm sure you could. Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 56:43

Yeah, not its entirety, just a clip out, right? Yeah, well, see, there's more and more options. We just created a whole new marketing place to do this. So you know, you know more and more options. We just have to think outside the box. So I'm so thankful for David for being here today. Thank you so much. This information is invaluable. If you aren't listening, if you've thought about an audio book and you aren't connecting with David, then you guys are missing an opportunity that may not ever come again. He's going to get busier and busier. So before the first of the year, guys, if you're wanting to do an audio book, I'd go sign up with David. Anyway, I want to thank David for being here and, as always, I'm so grateful to be the host here on the writer's parachute, where we are guiding authors to a perfect landing and writing and publishing, then marketing their books, and we hope that you find this a safe creative space for you and your work and until next time, thanks again, bye.