One of the complex reasons I’ve recorded that first ‘audioblog’ is that I am lazy. I didn’t feel like typing out a post. Well, obviously, that didn’t work out. I’m already working on typing out my second post!
Another was that I have been thinking more and more about the recording of the audio version of Lost and Not Found. I found myself recently listening to the audio recording I did of myself reading The Princess Bride (Available only as a gift, not for sale. Ask me about what size donations you can make to Modern Evil to receive this FREE GIFT!), noticing the little things about it I don’t like, that I don’t want to be features of the audio recording of Lost and Not Found. And the opposites. I spent more time happy with my recording than unhappy.
But I feel like I need to practice recording. Practice reading, even. Would you like to hear some samples from my novel? Well, as soon as more people have read it, I’ll ask them what parts they think will make good ‘excerpts’ to share with people who have never read it. Angela, go ahead and tell me now. Play with file sizes and formats and audio levels and environmental sounds … figure out what is going to work best for the ‘product’.
Now, with The Princess Bride… I was intentionally reading it a little fast… At this point I don’t remember what my intention was, but I remember doing so. And that book is about as long as mine. I just looked at the page count, and considering possible differences in fonts and page size, it appears to be within just a couple of percent of the length of my novel. The full audio recording of me reading The Princess Bride is about 7.7 hours. If I read my slightly longer novel 15%-25% slower (for clarity), it will likely be about 9 or 10 hours long, finished.
For the quality of the recording I used for The Princess Bride, it took me on average not less than four times longer to record any segment of the book than the final recorded audio. I do not expect to be surprised if that number is doubled for Lost and Not Found. Then cutting it into ‘tracks’ and spacing it across CDs (for a potential CD release) and adjusting file sizes and formats (for the definite MP3 release and other potential distribution methods) and getting the web space set up for it and it all uploaded…. I know how long it’s going to take me (in raw man-hours, though not actual days/weeks) to get this thing together and I’m certainly going to charge you an appropriate price (secretly based on the actual costs of audio books in stores and for download online… not on personal greed, mind you)… and I let that price determine the quality level I’m going to try to hold myself to. Does that all make sense?
Anyway, yeah. I’ve been thinking about that. And about doing audioblog entries. And actually, I’ve been thinking about Speech-To-Text software, too. I keep wanting to get some, and see if my thoughts are anywhere near coherent enought that I could possibly speak something worth reading. I know my hands are well-trained at converting my thoughts into coherent words on a screen or a page, but my voice has never really been used to convert my thoughts into words on a page or a screen, but in someone’s ears. Will it translate?
And if I speak, does anyone listen?
