If it weren't for my husband, I'd probably still be wondering how to go about recording my own book. The moment I clearly said I wanted to do it, he just went to the store and bought a microphone. When he got back, he checked the Voice Memos app on my phone, clipped on the mic, and asked me to read a couple of sentences. I opened the manuscript on screen and read the opening. Then we listened back, he tweaked the settings, and I read it again. We checked it — done.
And that was really all the preparation there was. Then came about a week of sitting in front of the screen, recording. It usually happened in the mornings, before the kids started banging pots in the kitchen or stomping around. I'd shut myself in a room and read the text, with the exact intonations I'd had in mind when I wrote it. It was a fascinating experience — the people who listened said it felt like we were talking to each other. The friend who listened first told me afterward, laughing: 'It's so natural! The whole time I wanted to answer you back!'
The only thing that really got in the way was the neighbors' noise. Motorbikes rumbling past, a baby crying, roosters expressing themselves — and there are a lot of roosters in every yard on Bali. Those roosters would always start crowing at the most crucial moment. I'd clap to mark the glitch — that makes the spike easier to spot during editing — and stop the recording, because there was no telling when the creature would finish sounding off. Oh well, it was even funny, in its way. By the time I recorded my second audiobook, we'd already moved to a different villa, and the only background noise left was birds chirping. You can probably even hear them on the recording.
Once I'd finished recording, my husband took over. He spent an entire week cleaning out my claps, splicing together the interrupted takes. When he finished, he just let out this huge breath — that's how painstaking the work turned out to be. To give the recording a bit of artistic touch, he even composed a little melodic riff to play between chapters. He's a creative perfectionist that way.
The first audiobook came out to over eight hours. And my husband made me listen to the whole thing. We were going to a gym near our house at the time — I'd get on the treadmill and walk for an hour and a half, listening to my own voice. I really loved the book! Tears welled up again in all the same places, and I laughed exactly where I meant for the reader to laugh.
The second book came out a bit shorter — around seven and a half hours — and this time it was our middle son who did the editing. Children grow up so fast! I didn't have the heart to tell my husband that our son finished faster — in two days — and, to my mind, even did a better job. But that's not really something to be upset about, is it? Children are supposed to surpass us.
And the first person to listen to the second audiobook was, once again, the same friend who'd inspired me to record them in the first place. She found a few mistakes. And demanded I start writing the third book immediately! :) So I am.
No advice this time. Just go for it, and don't be shy. If a professional recording or a studio isn't an option, you can always try it yourself. Who's going to read your own book better than you, anyway? Especially if it's autofiction.