The Art & Science of Creating Serialized Audiobooks

Back in 2005, a handful of authors had – isolated from one another – the same basic idea. They would harness the power of new media via podcasting to get their book in front of a wider audience. And, to our delight, the idea took root and grew.

It has been many years since those first pioneering audio files were released. The audience for serialized audio books has grown significantly. That handful of authors has grown to hundreds, producing close to a thousand serialized audio books. An uncountable number of listeners have enjoyed books delivered in this fashion. Expectations, as you’ll note, have been established.

And now here you are, ready to create a serialized audio book of your very own, and have us help distribute it to the world via Podiobooks.com. Outstanding! There’s plenty of room.

Your first question is probably “how do I do it?” To which I have a simple answer: Learn from those that have come before. That, and take sage advice found in this less-than comprehensive guide.

Are You Reading The Right Book?

This guide is not a comprehensive how-to manual with step-by-step instructions for creating audiobooks from scratch. Creating the definitive work on the discipline of audiobook narration and production is an endeavor that would lead to a 300+ page tome. This is not that 300+ page tome.

No, this guide assumes you’re going to do the bulk of the learning on your own. There are plenty of great books on the subject of home recording, podcasting, writing, editing, and performing that would serve you well to read. There are also plenty of experienced people offering advice. If you aren’t at all comfortable with the thought of recording, editing, and producing an audiobook of your own, using your voice and equipment… then you probaby shouldn’t start this way. Don’t worry. Podiobooks.com has options for you!

This guide is specifically designed for the author or producer ready to create files for Podiobooks.com. It answers some very specific questions on file preparation that are unique to the Podiobooks.com environment. If you’ve produced audio files before, you should have no trouble meeting the requirements set forth in this guide. However, please understand that these guidelines are different than what you’ve done before, quite exacting in nature, and 100% non-negotiable. Again, you should not have any trouble meeting them. But I can almost guarantee you that the files you’ve created before are not exactly as we need them. The differences are subtle. But real. And to stretch the point, we won’t budge from our position. Sorry!

A quick note on our “acceptance” policy: Podiobooks.com is not a publisher, at least not in the traditional sense. We are a distributor of serialized audio books. As such, we do not judge the quality of what you have written, recorded, or produced. Our measuring stick for inclusion starts and ends with technical specifications. Meet those and your book will be listed on Podiobooks.com.

But we like books that sound as great as they have solid tech chops. So if you’ll indulge me…