 Hey guys, it's Amy. Welcome to my couch because I did not feel like putting up my big lights today So we're doing something a little bit more informal right now I tweeted earlier this week and put up on Instagram pictures letting you guys know that I am Recording my own audiobook And a lot of people had questions about what it was like So I thought I would just kind of give you a little behind the scenes Look at what it's like to actually record your own audiobook Okay, I've talked about it before and I will talk about it again my brand-new book fighting for space comes out on February 18th 2020 it is the true story of two female pilots Trying to be the first woman in space in the 1960 it was so much fun to write and a lot of people were asking Whether I would have an audiobook a and whether I would be narrating the audiobook the answer to both questions is yes So first time around with breaking the chains of gravity I did not narrate the audiobook and I got a lot of negative feedback from that I actually haven't heard it because I can't do audiobooks. I'm way too visual But I had a lot of people tell me that it seemed weird to have my book not in my voice I mean I kind of get it like at the YouTube channel. I've done podcasts. My voice is known So I never really thought about how weird it would be to have the audiobook not coming from my own voice So yeah when I actually sold fighting for space one of the stipulations with my agent That I put it like like right off the bat was if there is an audiobook. I want to narrate it So fast forward to last week We had the conversation of okay You can now like you can narrate it or you can back out and we'll get a professional narrator to do it I was like nope. We're doing it. It's gonna be in my voice This book is really fun to write it felt more personal than my first book It's this history does not involve me at all obviously I am neither a pilot nor was I around in the 60s But as a woman as a professional woman writing about professional women I did feel a much closer connection to this book and I really did want it to be in my voice for you guys So I spent the last five days doing this I'm not gonna play the sound because I want to keep all of the actual text of the book a Surprise for you guys So yeah, so here's what narrating an audiobook means Basically you go to recording studio and you sit down in this little ASO booth So it's probably I would say it's about the size of like like a shower tub So, you know the space of a bathtub, but you know enclosed obviously and it's got that like soundproofing Insulation foam stuff all over the walls. So there's no sound you're behind two doors double pane glass the windows You can see the engineer, but you're just like in this little thing and it's tiny and in front of you on a music stand Is your panty script? Yes. I I can't read long things off of screens without my eyes Just like not I just don't like it. So I printed it out, which which was fun So this is what I had in front of me. It's a very long book guys. It's like 11 hours So yeah, you just sit and you just read and you've got headphones on and you can hear yourself reading back And every time you mess something up you say the wrong word or you fumble or it sounds a little bit slurry You just start again at the top of the sentence So every time I did it I just say well because I'm Canadian I'd say sorry and then pick up and then we go back to the beginning of the sentence So what you end up with is basically like an 11 and a half 12 hour long Single cut of my book. So that's what they're gonna do. They're gonna edit it and then next week I'm gonna go in for any pickups. So any final lines that came out slurry or I mispronounce something or You know, I you know, you know when you read something and then you just like say something totally different any one of those So basically it's quality control and then from there it will be edited and put together and available on February 18th with the hardcover and also e-book editions The other thing you'll notice in this video You can see the like the constant sips of water The other thing that was like weirdly hard for me is you know that feeling when like your mouth gets tacky from talking So long like if you've ever given a talk or if you're a teacher and you've sort of been in front of a class for an hour and a half And haven't had a drink of water that made me slurry and like I could hear it in my voice And there's certain words like everyone has the words they trip over Unfortunately for me, it's the word exploration Because space exploration is not a phrase I have to say all the time So yeah I had to keep taking like tiny sips of water to like keep my mouth from like sounding tacky Because you could hear it so clearly on my headphones that it was just like I do things again It says like that's that sounded weird my cadence is off my mouth sounded weird. It was really weird So you guys ask some questions. Am I narrating the entire audiobook? Yes I am from the preface through to the author's note at the end Which I will say in this case. It was tough call But go all the way to the author's note in this book. It is actually very important All the way to the like the the this has been a production of like ad read thing So yeah, I did the entire thing Do you find that you'd like to rephrase parts once you read them out loud? Oh My god. Yes, the number of times the number of times I was reading a sentence and just like well, that's clunky Like couldn't get it out. It's like why can't I say this? It's not that hard And it's like I wish I could reword this but alas I can only make vital changes So conveniently the time frame of the audiobook recording Coincides with my last chance to check page proofs for any repeated words any typos anything like that So I did I did have a pen in my hand the entire time and I marked things that were wrong You know the ins that should be an of whatever like they're all really minor things But I did highlight a couple sentences. I'm just like, oh my god. I hate the way this sounds But it's not vital so I don't think we can change it But yeah, there's definitely things where I'm like, oh, this just feels redundant and I'm not happy with this Right now, but you can't change it. So it's there. Yay Is this part of the process tedious or boring for you? It wasn't it wasn't boring at all It was it was good It was I liked feeling like it was me doing the audiobook like I liked It was it was an important part and I liked that so it wasn't I didn't really find it boring It was more like stressful having to listen to my own voice in my ears for five days Does it feel strange reading your book or does it feel like a longer version of your video? Definitely different than a video. So I don't have scripts for my videos I have notes usually I have the blog post done beforehand So I have notes that I can look at but I try not to actually script my videos so my videos are a little bit more relaxed and feel a little bit more natural whereas the book is obviously like You have to pause a certain length that sentences and you have to really watch cadence I know I speak fast guys, and I was very careful that this on the audiobook. Um, so it was very different. It was a very different experience and Happiest that I don't have to edit it because like editing my videos is tough. I can't imagine having to do the whole audiobook Thanks editors How is your voice doing after all that reading? We finished a couple days ago So my voice is fine now, but I definitely felt the strain. I actually studied voice Years and years ago like pre-university And I had that same feeling of like the vocal cord muscles being sore after the end of a long day Because we went from about 10 a.m. To 2 or 3 p.m. On average with a break for lunch But that's a lot of talking and a lot of like like Concentrated talking. So yeah, it did it did get like I was aware of the strain in my voice But I didn't lose it or anything. So that was good. Will Pete provide the prologue Sadly, no, I could not bring him to the studio with me Any chance it'll be out on audible Related who is the audiobook publisher for Australia? So I know where to look for it and by extension other regions aside from North America. I don't know I don't know. I'm I'm pretty sure it's audible. I'm not sure I don't do ebooks So I can't tell you where it's gonna be and we have not discussed foreign rights yet So I'm not sure as soon as I have any information. I will definitely share it with you guys I've got links in the description of where you can go to pre-order the book And that should also have the information about the audiobook Amazon will likely have information about the audiobook as well Because audible is part of Amazon. I believe and if you do want the physical discs I think it's being done that way as well, which is also something that you can pre-order through your retailer of choice Where do we get a signed copy of your book? We're working on a way to design copies. I don't have any of that information for you guys yet But as soon as I do I'll be sharing it. Don't worry We will have availability in the next in the next few weeks and all leading up to release in February So definitely stay tuned Be sure to check Twitter because I'll definitely be tweeting all of that stuff as well. All right, that's it I just wanted to give you guys that little Behind the scenes look at what it's like to record an audiobook and also just make sure you guys know that I did record my entire audiobook All like hundred and ten thousand or so words. It's a really long book It's gonna be like eleven eleven or twelve hours. They're estimating it so But I hope you guys enjoy it with all my my voice cracks and Canadian accent One thing that was really funny that I should share with you guys We had to you know, you come to word that you need to make sure you pronounce it, right? So I learned about this website called you glitch that pronounces words But then I also had to be like, okay we're just gonna make a note that I have the the Canadians Ness and some of the words are gonna come out accented and you guys have given me a lot of a hard time for this Missile, which I do not know where that one came from for me because that's very British and it's not Canadian But there are certain words that I'm like I can't say it as with an American pronunciation consistently So it's very consistently like my mishmash of Like Canadian and British pronunciations and certain words, so it'll be fun All right guys I hope this was an interesting little like behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to narrate an audiobook again All of your links for pre-orders are in the description below and be sure to follow me on Twitter Because I will definitely be tweeting all of my stuff as we get closer to publication in terms of like Availability for audiobooks for ebooks for sign books and just regular book books and all events coming up and stuff too So that's about it for me for now. Bye guys