Writing for the Ear

The talk starts by separating what counts as in scope: talking books built for navigation and access, audiobooks that offer a spoken text alongside or instead of print, and recitals, dramatizations and podcasts at the edges. The speaker, who produces talking books for a national library service, then advises on choosing material, steering away from religious texts, children's books, fan fiction and fast-changing technical books.

The middle covers gear, software and people. The speaker discourages all-in-one field recorders, Bluetooth headsets and open or in-ear monitoring, favoring a proper microphone with an XLR interface, closed headphones and a treated room, with Audacity as the main free editor. Production uses a narrator, an engineer who handles levels and storage, and a director who tracks performance and continuity. Quality control should come from a separate listener who flags errors quickly. Post-production advice covers lossless FLAC archives instead of MP3, bundling full project folders, and budgeting several hours of staff time per finished hour.

Narration tips include reading the book beforehand, leaving pauses between sentences, avoiding compression and text-to-speech, and recording room tone at the start. The speaker notes that home-recorded projects often need heavier repair later. The Q&A covered author-read versus cold readings, and the talk closes with a call for more human narrators.