Audio Books - A Guide

What do Audiobooks offer?

Audiobooks offer the ability to listen to a book being read out aloud most often by professional narrators together with engaging music and sound effects brings the story to life, greatly enhancing the original story and by making it an almost theatrical experience.

Audiobooks are particularly useful in situations where a traditional paper books are impractical to read, some popular examples are while commuting (listening while travelling in a car is very popular), walking or jogging, gardening, cooking, etc.

Learning a new language
Studying a new foreign language is another very popular example of how audiobooks can be utilized, particularly when used in tandem with written text. The ability of hearing the word pronounced makes learning a new language much easier.

Making use of your portable media player and learn new language whilst on the go, for example while walking or driving etc. Most of the world's popular
languages including Spanish audio books are available as Audiobooks tutorials. In fact it has proven to be one of the most popular categories for Audiobooks.

Advantages for children
Audiobooks are a great tool for encouraging children to read; professionally narrated audiobooks allow children to hear how words are used in context and with the correct pronunciation.

Children's audio books have proven to be very beneficial in helping children improve their reading skills and increase comprehension.

The use of audio books in the classroom is increasing as educators realise the benefits for their students. A very popular tool in the classroom is a talking book on CD which is used to enhance children's vocabulary by using the principles of hear, see and read. Audiobooks allow listeners to visualize the story in their minds stimulating children to use their imagination.

For entertainment, there is a myriad of Children's titles to choose from, but all children love the Harry Potter audio books series which are superbly narrated by Mr "Golden Voice" Jim Dale

Portable media players
It is portable media players that allow audio books to be used to their full advantage by allowing the user to listen to audio books anywhere and anytime. With the introduction of the compact disc, the popularity of audiobook increased dramatically. Vast improvements in technology have made portable media players such as the apple iPods an ideal device for not only music, but for Audiobooks also.

Modern media players are capable of holding huge amounts of data, allowing the use of music and Audiobooks in tandem on the one device. Another advantage is that audiobooks are available in all popular digital formats allowing the use with almost any type of play back device.

Are audio books are available in all genres?
All popular genres and categories are available in the audio book format, fiction and non-fiction, mysteries, science fiction, reference material, children's titles, textbooks, biographies, poetry, self-help, bestsellers, Christian books, motivational books, foreign languages and comedy just to name a few.

An ever growing and extensive range of audiobooks are now available from public libraries to cater for the increasing demand from their patrons. Many public libraries are now making audio books are available for download which has proven to be very popular because of its convenience for library members. Titles vary in quality depending on the talents of the narrator amongst other factors; audiobook reviews are available just as they are for traditional books.

Audiobook disadvantages
Not all books lend well to the audio book format, e.g coffee table books, picture books or any book that makes use of a lot of photographs or illustrations. That being said, many audio books are accompanied by supplementary photos or illustrations in the packaging.

Audiobooks are no longer solely for the blind or visually impaired, it is now a mainstream product as more people discover the benefits of listening to a book rather then reading it themselves. It is very unlikely that Audiobooks will replace traditional paper books and should not be thought of as a replacement but more as an extension of their paper book library.

Audiobooks should be part of everyone's sight and sound library!

Portable Media Players

Audio Books & Portable Media Player's-Like Strawberry's and Cream!

One of the very great virtues for Audiobooks is that you are able to listen to them On-The-Go! Fortunately there are a great number of playback devices on the market today to choose from.

The new market buzzword is "Portable Media Players" (PMP's) they are not only are ideal for Audiobooks but will play most "sight and sound" formats.

Audiobooks
Podcasts
Music
TV shows
Photos
Video

The apple iPod is a very popular device for both listening to music and Audiobooks. The iPod classic is available with 160 GB of storage capacity, more than enough for most people. One very big advantage of the apple iPod is its very comprehensive range of iPod Accessories. Everything from headphones to external speakers, car adapter kits and the list goes on.

Audio Book Production

What Makes a Good Audiobook?

Audiobooks are often described as talking books or books that are read out aloud, but what does it take to make a good audiobook? People that record Audiobooks are known as narrators or more commonly as readers. A very clear and definitive talent is required to make the grade as a professional audiobook narrator. A successful reader must possess the required talent which is something that needs to be already present; it is not something that can be taught.

Many authors prefer to narrate their own audiobook, but not all are capable. Often professional well known actors are engaged as audiobook readers and do an excellent job, that being said not all professional actors have the ability to do it really well! In fact many professional actors find it a very frustrating task.

Attributes for Professional Narrators
Actors that have had a good stage training has proven to be a good grounding for the required discipline and techniques that are important components of being a good reader, such is the stress of reading that a majority of readers will record no more than 3 hours per day!

It may seem obvious but many of the important attributes concern the voice, the reader must be capable of manipulating speech whilst remaining easily understood and maintaining clarity during the normal flow of speech. The voice must maintain stamina for the complete duration of the recording, there must be a natural sensitivity for words and phrases as well as the ability to apply the necessary nuances and shadings from the text.

The narrator must have good vision and hearing, have the ability to work well with others, and be willing to accept direction from the studio director, they must be well-versed in the use of dictionaries other reference sources, impeccable pronunciation yet have the ability to apply common language usage where applicable. The narration must remain consistent throughout the recording and convey the mood and tempo of the texts consistent with the intent of the author.

British actor Jim Dale, famous for his narration of the Harry Potter series of audio books where he created 134
different voices for the complete set of books.

Jim is a recipient of numerous awards including the 2007 Audie for Best Male Narrator!

The Audiobook Recording Studio
Audio book production staffs typically consist of a reviewer, a narrator and a monitor. One hour of finished recording generally requires 5.5 hours of total time by the production staff.

The director is responsible for ensuring that the theme of the text, its architecture and tone are adhered to, it is the director who will ultimately take responsibility for the final outcome of the recording.

The 2007 Audies® Annual Awards

Recognizing Distinction for Audiobooks and Spoken Word Entertainment

The Audies are the Academy Awards of Audiobook Spoken Word Entertainment and honours all the best titles for the year across all genres.

The winners of the 2007 Audie awards were announced on June 1st 2007 at the Rainbow Room in NYC. The awards were announced by the Audio Publishers Association (APA) at the Annual Audio Publishing Industry Awards Ceremony.

The voice of Harry Potter, actor and narrator Jim Dale announced the winners for 32 categories which included a special judge's award for the politics category.

The Awards

The full list of winners is available in PDF format on the APA website.

The Audies.com

Audiobook of the Year?
Inspired by...The Bible Experience: New Testament
Publisher: Zondervan Publishing
Editors: Inspired by Media Group/Zondervan Today's New International Version Bible
Translation
Narrator: Full Cast, including Angela Bassett, Cuba Gooding Jr., Samuel L. Jackson,
Blair Underwood and Denzel Washington

Achievement in Production
The Goose Girl
Publisher: Full Cast Audio
Author: Shannon Hale
Narrators: Cynthia Bishop and a full cast
Executive Producer/Director: Bruce Coville
Producer: Daniel Bostick
Production Assistant: Victoria King

AudioFile Magazine's "Golden Voices" of Audio Books

The editors of AudioFile magazine celebrate the "Golden Voices" of audio books by showcasing the very best audiobook narrators into the Hall of Fame.

The audiobook narrator is the person that breathes the very life into an audiobook. An audiobook experience should be much more than just words being read, it is the narrator's voice that turns the words from text into an image in our imaginations.

To do this successfully a narrator must have the ability to interpret the meaning of the text and express it into context emotionally. The voice is used with varying degrees of tone and tension, creating a tapestry of varying emotional weight, pace and rhythm. The very best narrators have a natural ability to bring the characters from text on a page to life by giving them an identity and personality.

More Golden Voices can be found on the AudioFile Magazine's Site.

AudioFile Magazine

Alyssa Bresnahan
A young actress who always makes time for audiobooks in her acting life, Alyssa Bresnahan is a new addition to AudioFile's Golden Voices. Whether the work is contemporary fiction or young adult literature, Alyssa Bresnahan's performances sing with a vibrancy reflecting her keen understanding of the text.

In preparing to record a book, Alyssa tries to understand the rhythm of each author. Using an analogy that reflects her dancer's training, she says, "I want to figure out the choreography of each author's sound." Recorded Books producer Claudia Howard remarks on Alyssa's success with young adult titles. "She has a great comedic sense and an ability to convey a wide-eyed discovery of the world that just connects with that audience.

Audiography

THE ART OF DETECTION
Read by Alyssa Bresnahan, Robert Ian Mackenzie, Unabridged

DARKNESS PEERING
Read by Alyssa Bresnahan,
Unabridged

THE LOVELY BONES
Read by Alyssa Bresnahan,
Unabridged

THE STONE DIARIES
Read by Alyssa Bresnahan, Unabridged

THE WIDOW AND THE KING
Read by Alyssa Bresnahan, Unabridged

Simon Jones
Simon Jones was doing character voices and reading before a microphone long before he started doing audiobooks. His best-known association has been with his close friend at Cambridge, Douglas Adams, the creator of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," the now-classic adventure tale, more madcap than sci-fi. In two series of BBC radio dramas first broadcast in the late '70s and early '80s, Simon played the hero, Arthur Dent, a young man fleeing earthly Armageddon and travelling with his friend Ford Prefect to the ends of the universe.

"The sure sign of a bad performance," he notes, "is a telltale monotone that creeps in. You have to keep a tight leash on that. Every now and again, I like to say a word quite sharply to wake up the director, the engineer, and anyone else who's listening

Audiography

THE GALAXY
Read by Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, and a Full Cast,
Unabridged

IMPERIUM
Read by Simon Jones, Unabridged

LIONBOY
Read by Simon Jones, Unabridged

A SLIGHT TRICK OF THE MIND
Read by Simon Jones, Unabridged

THE THIEF LORD
Read by Simon Jones, Unabridged

Audio Book File Formats

Audio Book Files

With so many different types of digital audio formats to choose from, it can be very confusing for people who are not technically minded. For the purpose of choosing an appropriate format suitable for the use of audio books we will endeavour to simplify the options as much as possible.

Firstly we need to understand the differences between some of these format types.

1. Audio format: lossless..
A lossless Audio Format is one where there is no loss of quality and will be indistinguishable from the original source.

2. Audio Format: Lossy
A lossy Audio Format is one where some audio information is omitted during the encoding process. This is done to reduce the file size; nevertheless there is usually no Distinguishable Loss of Quality when compared to the original source.

The lower the bit rate used, the lower the audio quality will be, but the smaller the file size. Likewise, the higher the bit rate used, the higher quality, and therefore, larger the file size the resulting MP3 will be.

Some common audio formats:

MP3 is one of the most common audio formats available, it doesn't excellent job of reducing file sizes with no distinguishable loss of quality.

AAC is an abbreviation for "Advanced Audio Coding" popularised by Apple for its iTunes software it is compatible with both the iPod and Microsoft's Zune portable audio players.

WMA is a format from Microsoft and is commonly used in windows.

Audible .aa audio format is touted to be more compact than MP3's and has some very desirable advantages for Audiobooks. The audible .aa file format offers the ability to both bookmark and save the position of your audiobook when switching off the device! It is also exclusively and directly compatible with the iPod.

Podcasts

Simply put, podcasts are audio and video files (vidcast or vodcast) delivered by RSS
and are available in many different languages.

Video Podcasts can be movies which include sound and are available in various formats, MPEG-4 being the most common. The term podcasting initially referred to the process of downloading and syncing audio files to iPods. Podcasts are delivered by RSS and the content can be played on most computers or any news aggregator which supports podcasting.

Once subscribed to a Podcast your news or feed reader software will automatically receive updates when they are available. Each published feed provides data which includes the descriptive information about the feed.

Podcasts content is very diverse ranging from:

Talk shows
Comedy
Debates
Language tutorials
Educational training
Commentaries
Walking guides
Class Lectures
Interviews
Promotional music demos
Stories

The advantages of podcasting are that you are able to choose which content you would like to subscribe to, and then listen to it when you choose. Just as it is with audiobooks, you are able to listen to your Podcast on the go using your iPod or other portable media player.

The educational benefits of Podcasting are very substantial. Some educators are now using the technology for the purpose of recording lectures or daily assignments for their students. There is a vast array of educational material now being made available and delivered by podcasting.

Podcasts Are usually MP3 files and sometimes have chapter markers to make finding various parts of the episode easy to find.

The medium is still relatively new but as the technology evolves more creative types of audio are sure to appear. Podcasting and audiobooks are valuable tools which provide both educational information and entertainment for people on the go

Frequently asked Questions - Audiobooks

What are Audiobooks?
Audiobooks are a digital audio version of the original paper book being read out aloud. Very often recorded by a professional narrator or actor, and occasionally the original author of the original book

Are audiobooks are available in all digital formats?
Audiobooks are available for most digital playback devices; these include MP3, CDs, cassette tapes and the iPod digital file format.

What are MP3 audiobooks?
MP3 is a digital file format which employs a compression technique to greatly reduce the size of the file. This allows much more data to be stored on a hard disk and make for faster downloading due to its smaller file size.

What is the average audio book size?What is the difference between an abridged and unabridged audio book?
An unabridged audio book is one that is narrated word for word as per original text. and an abridged audio book is a shortened or modified version of the original book.

How does one listen to audio books?
Audiobooks can be played on all popular playback units, including most modern portable media devices. Most popular file formats are supported and conversion software can be used to convert audiobook files to support almost any play back device. If unsure about whether or not your play back device will support audiobooks, consult the manufacturer.

What is Podcasting?
Podcasting is an audio program which can be subscribed to. By using what is called a podcatcher you will have the ability to listen to the podcasts on your computer or portable listening device.

How do I listen to an audiobook on my computer?
There are many third party software programs that will allow you to listen to audio books on your computer, e.g. windows media player.

What are dramatized audio books?
Dramatized audio books are as the name implies an audiobook using a full cast of readers and usually uses sound effects and music which makes for a "theatrical like experience"