Has anyone made an audiobook for their book? Was it formal or just for fun? Has anyone attempted a full-cast audiobook? Did you use sound effects? Music? Did you pay your narrator, or did you narrate it yourself? How did you distribute the finished audiobook? If you sold it, how much did you sell it for?

Currently, Grace (Aniese of Learsi) is recording an audiobook version of my first novel, Red Rain. Grace is a lovely narrator, and because we're good friends and she's a devoted fan of Red Rain , she's doing this audiobook for free. Currently I'm releasing a new chapter 2-3 times a week on my blog for free, as a promotion for my book. I'll leave the free version up for awhile, then take it down, work with Grace to polish it up, and then hopefully sell the album via an mp3 download site. We are unsure of what to charge for the final album, though - any thoughts? The book is 17 chapters, 35k words, with the ebook priced at $2.99 and the paperback at $6.99.

I have another filmmaking friend that wants to narrate for me, also on a free, for-credits basis. However, in the future I'd like to look into the possibility of a full-cast audiobook, so I was wondering if anyone had any experience with those.

Share your thoughts!

I like the idea of a full cast audio book.

Apparently the Redwall audiobooks are a good example of full cast productions. Jacques himself narrated them, I hear, and there was music for the songs and the like. I haven't listened to them, but my brother has.

I might have to try one of those, then, to see what it sounds like...

I like audiobooks. (They make traveling time so much shorter) However, I don't think I've heard a full cast one, besides the audioBible we have. Some of the audiobooks I've listened to have had very talented readers who can make a unique voice for each character. Most notable is the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz, whose reader, Oliver Chris, actually gave each character the correct accent. (Which was admirable, considering that he was English, and he made American, South African, and Russian accents.)

*should try the Redwall audiobooks*

The Chronicals of Narnia have a beautiful full cast audio drama. I love them.

I would be interested in this info, since this was my original goal for my audio books, but it seemed so impossible to do...

I've listened to a lot of audio books. Both full cast and just one narrator.
With full cast it can get very convoluted and weird sounding if you do the book word for word. I don't think I have ever heard a full cast audio book that was word for word.
I actually like a narrator just as well. As long as the narrator is good.

(It's funny that this subject came up. I was just talking with a friend the other day who want me to be in a dramatization of the count of Monte Cristo.)

That's a good thought, about word-for-word vs. dramatizations. I can't say whether or not the Redwall ones are word-for-word. Are the Narnia ones word-for-word, Airianna?

Now rewriting your book to be an audio drama... that's another idea.

When it's word-for-word one voice is the "narrator" providing the 3rd-person POV, and the rest of the cast only says dialogue or thoughts.

The Audio Drama is word for word, with the exception of dropping the he said she saids. There is a narrator, a very good one, and when it is time for a character to speak, the distinct voices of those characters speak. There is lots of background noise, music, and there is additional grunting and groaning from the actors when needed. Very well done. Very book accurate.

I think I shall have to listen to one of these for inspiration.

You should. They were what inspired me to do an audio drama for my book.

I was inspired by listening to an audiobook Grace made of a rough draft of Firmament. *sighs at the memory*

*must look at the library for these dramas...*

What Joe said. I heard an audio book made for fun once that was word for word, and it was weird. Because the character would stop talking mid sentence so the narrator could say "He said" and you don't need dialogue tags when you have a cast. It needs to be scriptified to an extent.

I never listen to audio books, but I can imagine they'd be an awful lot of fun to make.