How To Narrate Your Own Book
- K.L. Miracle
- 15 hours ago
- 10 min read
A guide for authors and new narrators.
As a former teacher of audiobook narration at a voice acting academy, I get asked a lot about the process from all sorts of people, from authors wanting to narrate their own books to new actors wanting to get into the career. I thought it was about time I write a post about it.
I’ve narrated a lot of books for indie authors as well as big publishers (you can see the list of the rosters I’m on here). Helping books find their voice is a passion for me so I’m glad to help those wanting to contribute to help get books to those who may struggle to read them.
Getting Starting: Do You Have the Fortitude?
The very first thing I recommend is trying to narrate for a full hour. Most narrators read for an hour, then take a break (from ten minutes to thirty, depending on the narrator) then get back to narrating. If you can’t read for a full hour, you’ll need to take that into consideration. You’ll need to work on your breathing exercises (try looking up videos on YouTube to help with breath control) and consider taking longer to narrate (maybe thirty minutes a day, etc.)
An audiobook finished hour (meaning read and edited with no mistakes) is about 9,300 words. So based on how many words you can read in an hour will tell you how long it would take you to read, edit, and produce an hour of finished audio. (This is where the Per Finished Hour rates come from).
If you have or can find a copy of The Hobbit, the first chapter is about 8,688 words.
So for me, that would take about two hours to narrate, clean up, edit, and master. When I first started? Probably more like four hours.
If you’ve read the full chapter out loud, and you still want to narrate, continue on. If not, consider hiring a narrator for your book. There’s a reason half my students narrated their first book and decided to go into another genre of voice acting, after all. It’s not for the faint of heart.
The Booth: Soundproof & Sound Treated
Once you’ve decided you have the fortitude, next we need to make sure you have the right space.
My very first booth was a closet filled with clothes. I had a window that I put a foam mattress into to block sound, put a rug on the hardwood floor, and hung a curtain over the door to keep sound from bouncing around in there. This all helps with sound treatment, (that’s the treatment of a room to make sure that sound does not bounce around inside the room). It does not help with soundproofing (which just means keeping noise from outside the booth from getting picked up by the microphone inside the booth).
Unfortunately, without professional sound proofing, you’ll have to make sure you have a very quiet moment to read. Try to record when no one else is home and in a closet far away from outside noises like cars, lawnmowers, etc.
Lawnmowers are the BANE of my existence as a narrator. I narrate at night, because of them.
Eventually, you’ll want to upgrade, either to a portable booth (like this), or to a professional booth like a Whisper Booth.
If you’re handy with tools, you can build your own booth, which is what my father and I did. We tore down the walls to the studs, filled them with sound proofing (rockwall I believe) then added a layer of MLV, then drywall, then sound-proofing green glue, then another layer of drywall. Then to this, we glued soundproof foam (These exactly) to plywood and drilled that into the wall. We added sound proof clouds (these) to the ceiling. For the floor, we built a false floor using 2x4’s, filled the spaces with rockwall then put plywood on top, then spread out more MLV atop that, then put rugs down to block sound bouncing.
It's a lot of work but it sounds wonderful and my noise floor stays below 60dbs (60 is the requirement for most audiobook producers).
The Equipment: Mic, Interface, Speakers, Cables
Please do not start with a USB mic if you can help it. I taught computer in elementary school for a year and had my fifth and sixth graders make sound effects for their games using Audacity and USB mics. Then we switched to XLR mics with interfaces and they all commented on how much better the quality was. If my 5th and 6th graders could tell the difference, your clients who listen to audiobooks certainly can.
My very first setup: $500
(all the below are affiliate links)
Mic: MXL990 Mic (lasted me about two years)
Interface: Scarlet Focusrite solo
Cables: Monoprice XLR cable. Make sure you grab a USB C to whatever your computer uses cable from Monoprice, too!
Headphones: Sennheiser Headphones
You’ll need a computer that can run your DAW of choice (more on that below).
You don’t need speakers yet but eventually you may wish to switch away from listening with headphones to listening with speakers. These are the ones I’ve used for my entire career and if they ever stop working I’ll buy the exact same ones.
My first upgrade:
I still use this setup for my travel gig and I’ve switched between this and my current gig and none of my audiobook narration clients have ever noticed. I only have my current setup because some producers (DUB work, Commercial Work and Video Game/Animation Work) won’t work with someone who doesn’t have ‘professional equipment.’
Mic: MXL CR89
Interface Solid State Logic 2
My current/main setup:
Note: I did not upgrade to this until I had been narrating for two years. It’s expensive so don’t jump immediately to this.
Mic: Neumann TLM 103
Interface: Apollo Twin X
Headphones: Beyerdynamic DT 770
Everything else is the same as my first booth.
Computer
Your computer is going to depend on your software. Check the requirements for what you choose and make sure your computer can run it. If your computer has a loud fan you’ll want it outside your booth (run cables into your booth. I actually cut a hole in the wall of my closet because one of the cables wouldn’t fit beneath the door). If it’s quiet (like a MacBook or an iMac) you can probably keep it in your booth. Just check your noise floor.
Software
Once you’ve got your equipment and your booth, you’ll need a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and editing software.
There are many different options for Daws. The most popular are:
Twisted Wave,
Logic Pro,
Studio One,
Reaper,
and Adobe Audition.
Of these, I prefer Adobe Audition for two reasons. 1) It’s easy to learn. 2) If you have the creative cloud, you already have this.
Most of these are for music, not audiobooks but there are plenty of YouTube videos talking about how to use all of these for audiobooks. They all work very well (except Audacity. Please don’t use Audacity or Garage Band).
When people ask which DAW is better I usually say, “Whichever DAW makes sense to your brain.” I have tried them all and Adobe makes sense to my brain.
For editing software, there’s nothing better than Izotope. But it’s expensive. I currently have RX10 and cannot recommend it enough. Again, there are videos about this if you want to learn, but my best advice is to reach out to someone like George the Tech or Don Baarns and ask them to make you a ‘rack’ that’s individual to your voice, room and DAW of choice. They will create one with or without Izoptope. I have racks from both of them. Also, you should get to know them anyway as they are the best engineers in the business.
Alternative, you could hire an audio engineer who handles this part for you. I do this occasionally but also edit on my own if I’m trying to help my authors save a bit of money. It takes longer, though. I use mouth-declick, voice-denoise, and I think an EQ.
So, just to recap: The Booth
Soundproof and sound treat your booth to keep audio from entering the mic or bouncing around the booth and making odd sounds.
Aim for a noise floor (that’s when you record the silence in your booth and see where it lands on your DAW) at or below 60dbs. (Higher numbers are better here).
Get an XLR mic, put it in a shock mount, attach it to a boom arm, run a cable to your interface, connect your interface to your computer, and plug your headphones into your interface. If you have speakers, plug those into your interface.
Select your DAW of choice and in its settings or preferences tell it to listen to your interface.
Listen to your room for silence. Click record. Step out of your booth. Count to thirty. Step back in and stop the recording, then see where your noise floor is and if there's anything in your booth you need to address like hums, clicking...birds auditioning for Disney outside your window (which was a legit problem in my first booth. Now it's owls).
Preparing Your Script:
There are a few things I always ask my authors (and if you are an author, hurrah you already know the answers!)
I ask for a list of pronunciations for creative names of nouns (I'm looking at you Speculative Fiction authors). This can be a recording they do using their phone and send to me or we can do a zoom call where I'll record so I can watch back later. Zoom calls are my prefernce because I can ask questions and keep a single file.
I also ask if any of the characters will be returning in future books. I try not to give voices that may strain my throat to characters who will make an appearance later.
Pro tip: Save a file called Title of Book: Characters then record yourself saying each character's name and a single line in their voice. Keep it forever. Authors are constantly writing sequels.
Rule number 2: Always mark up your script. I highlight lines of dialogue, using a different color for each speaker and underline words that would influence how the dialogue would be said (like whispered, shouted, etc.)
Now it’s time to record!
Things to Remember When Recording.
Most important: Hydrate. Hydate. Hydrate. You should be drinking water up to two hours before you plan to record and keep water in your booth (not anywhere that could spill and damage equipment and not in anything that reflects sound). .
Pro-tip! Try to find a water bottle that has silicone around it or is made of plastic (I prefer glass with silicone and a lid with a straw). No open containers as sound will bounce around inside and create a fun echo.
Clothes – more important than you think. I always do a ‘swishy’ test before stepping into the booth. If I move my arms around and the clothes make sound, I switch them out for something quieter. Cotton is my go-to. Don’t wear any jangling jewelry or the like. That will get picked up by the mic.
Try to remain as still as possible. I gesture because I’m a character actor but I try to keep my head very still. If it moves away from the mic (either back or side to side or even tilts down or up a bit) it will change the way the sound is recorded. People will notice. (Also, don’t record when you are congested. You can absolutely hear the difference).
Make sure you leave at least 1 second at the beginning of your audio that is silent, and 2-3 seconds at the end.
Take your time. If you mess up, take a breath, and say the line again. You can always edit it out. As you get better, you’ll use ‘punch and roll.’ There are a lot of videos about this. Essentially, you set up your DAW to let you click on a button that goes back and lets you record OVER your mistake so you don’t have to delete it later. Until then, a lot of actors clap or click so they can see a visual line on their DAW that shows them where they need to delete a mistake. (See video for example).
Try different ways of saving files. Some people prefer to record the entire book on one file and then divide it into separate files when they are editing. Others (like me) like to record each chapter into its own file. It’s entirely up to you.
EDITING
Once you’ve got your file recorded, it’s time to edit. You’ll want to familiarize yourself with ACX standards. As a general rule of thumb, if you pass ACX’s you should pass everyone else’s standards as well. Those are here: https://help.acx.com/s/article/what-are-the-acx-audio-submission-requirements
You’ll want to chop off the beginning and end of your audio so that it starts at .5 seconds of silence and ends with 2-3 seconds of silence at the end.
Then it’s time to listen back.
Remove any mistakes you made (not needed if you punch-and roll).
Listen back while reading the script. You’ll need to re-record any time you mis-spoke or missed a word. Or maybe missed the way something was supposed to be read.
Take a break! Walk away. Let your ears relax.
Listen back through again for noises. Things like movement, bumps, thumps, thuds, clicking, clacking, noise outside the booth, etc. You’ll have to get rid of those. Also listen for mouth clicks, plosives and sibilants (see video for examples).
Apply any effects (a rack if you had one made, EQ, voice-denoise, etc.) (This is called Mastering. It's also where you make sure you meet the audio requirements. Use ACX's file check here: https://www.acx.com/audiolab
Do one last listen.
Export as mp3 44100 sample rate 16 bit depth
Upload to wherever you are sending the files.
That’s it!
I know it seems like a lot but you’ll get the hang of it and then fly through. I’ve included a video that shows you a quick read and how quickly this can go with the right rack and setup.
Logi Mouse: https://amzn.to/4rZFbFz
If you have any questions, drop them below. I may do a video course at some point if people are interested but for now, I hope this helps!
Your friendly neighborhood narrator,
Kasey
Audacity is the only software I have access to at the moment. Is the reason not to use it because it's more for recording music or is it just not good software? I'm not planning on narrating a book anytime soon, so this is more of a curiosity question.