Our world is fast becoming audio-first. With experience in radio, Jules Horne is perfectly positioned to share suggestions for focusing on how your book will sound once it's narrated.

Are you interested in publishing your books in audio form?

With audiobooks now one of the fastest-growing markets, many writers are looking at publishing their books on audio platforms such as Audible.

But some writers are going a step further, and writing with audio performance first in mind. In other words, writing first of all to engage the ear, rather than the eye.

In many ways, this makes perfect sense. Spoken storytelling is far older than the world of reading books. And if you can write a novel that engages readers when read aloud, chances are it’s a great read, too!

So if you want to go this route, what’s different about writing for performance? Do you need to change your writing style at all?

I write fiction, but I also write audio-first, thanks to a background in broadcasting and radio drama. I’ve also written stage plays and performance poetry where spoken word techniques come first – and writers in these other worlds do think a bit differently!

So I’ve compiled some tips from audio-first writing, so you can tweak your script and get the best results for your audiobook.

1. Audio writing needs to be super-clear

Audiobook ‘readers’ are often doing something else at the same time as listening to your book, such as driving, walking, or doing the dishes. They may have a split focus.

And even if listening with full concentration, they usually just get one chance to understand your words as they fly past.

This is very different from reading a book, where people can reread, scan, jump about and even flick to the end. So you really can’t be clear enough!

I’ve seen broadcast studio managers use tiny, cheap speakers to test their recording. If it’s good enough to come through lo-fi speakers with clarity, it’s ready to face the different scenarios it’ll encounter with listeners out in the field.

What to do:
If you’re writing non-fiction, include plenty of signpost words (“connectives”) to highlight change of flow.

Words and phrases such as finally, therefore, and on the other hand help to pull the reader through more easily, by drawing attention to contrast, emphasis, escalation and other changes in the underlying shape.

If you’re writing fiction, informal signal words such as then, while, so, but, and although are all the more important.

Repetition of key orientation words such as the character name are helpful, too.

2. Listeners need attunement time

It takes a few seconds for listeners to tune into new voices and changes of scene or emphasis. This might be because there’s suddenly an unfamiliar voice, or because they’ve drifted and a fresh topic has perked up their attention.

That’s why you hear radio presenters using a lot of phrases like ‘in other news', ‘meanwhile in Scotland', and ‘staying with domestic news…'

Opening phrases and words are important, but those very first words of fresh attack sometimes get lost, because the listener is still getting attuned.

What to do:
Try beginning new sections with the main orientation words a few words in. This is particularly helpful in fiction, where you can’t rely on section headers.

For example, ‘It was a dark and stormy night as Mike arrived at the mansion.' Mike (protagonist) and the mansion (setting) are more important than the weather, in terms of orienting the reader securely with your story. The detail can come later.

Or, for example, if we need to know that Mike has a knife, put it near the top for orientation, but not in the first few seconds, to allow for attunement.

Don’t use this rhythm too often! You need to ring the changes or it’ll sound repetitive. Just be extra careful to plant clear opening signposts in audio.

3. Performing nouns and landing

Audio-first writing has a lot in common with oral storytelling and other spoken forms such as performance poetry. Performance writing has its own structures and tropes, including the use of repetition and rhythm.

All writers use these to a degree, of course – the effects are just far more pronounced with the spoken word. However, not all words are equal.

An experienced stage director I’ve worked with says the secret of performing text for clarity is to “land the nouns”. As long as the nouns are clear, the audience will get the general gist, even if they don’t get the detail.

What do to:
Take a paragraph or two of your writing and highlight the nouns. Now read aloud, speaking the nouns with crisp emphasis.

Does this tell the story clearly? Is anything muddy?

Note that ends of sentences and paragraphs are powerful positions to “land” on. Do your paragraphs have a clear, resonant ending for the narrator to land on, or do they run out of steam?

Sometimes, clipping off a clause at the end to expose a more important word can make all the difference – like pruning a plant! Again, ring the changes so that your rhythms don’t get repetitive.

4. Breathing and ‘which’ clauses

Writing for audio typically has shorter sentences than writing for the eye. That’s not surprising, as it’s led by our limited lung capacities and the natural rhythm of breathing.

If you have an expansive and wordy writing voice, it can come as a surprise when narrators struggle to read your writing.

When I first started writing stage plays, I realised how breathless my writing was when actors with well-trained lungs ran out of steam at the ends of lines. My writing soon sharpened up.

What to do:
Read your writing aloud. I do this at every stage of writing – while drafting and editing, as well as when preparing a script for a narrator.

This soon reveals sentences that are too long and meandering to read aloud well. Look out in particular for “which” clauses that qualify nouns. “Which” clauses can get very unwieldy, and sentences with long qualifiers like this often read better when they’re cut in two.

5. Audiobooks are performance scripts

You may not have conceived your book as a script for performance, but once it’s in the hands of a narrator, that’s what it essentially becomes.

For some writers, this is a mindset shift, but it can be very helpful. It tightens your writing, makes editing decisions easier, and puts audience connection right at the top of your considerations.

What’s more, it gives you license to go to town on character voices, rhythm, pace, dialect, and other sound delights – elements you probably use anyway, but which truly come into their own with the spoken word.

What to do:
Conceive your next audiobook for performance from the start. Read it aloud while writing, to feel the rhythm and pace, and how the sentences rise and fall.

Think about the innate music of the language and whether it’s “actable”, giving good opportunities to the narrator. Check that it has plenty of variety in pace, mood, and voice for fiction.

With non-fiction, focus on great clarity and economy, and check that the viewpoint creates the right kind of audience connection for your genre and topic – authoritative, business-like, friendly? Spoken word makes more use of second person “you”, which may be relevant for your book.

BONUS TIP: What about Whispersync compatibility?

Whispersync is an Audible feature that synchronizes audiobooks with the Kindle ebook version. So when your audience switch platforms, it’s seamless and they don’t lose their place in the book.

For this to work, the audio book and Kindle versions need to be pretty well identical. Not all audiobooks are compatible with Whispersync, but with increasing convergence between book reading and listening, it’s likely publishers heavily into Amazon will want to make their new books Whispersync compatible, to help with cross-promotion.

What to do:
If you want your next book to be Whispersync-compatible, consider writing it with audio-first in mind, and ensure it works well for performance. The print and ebook can more easily be created from the audio script than the other way around.

With fiction, this should be relatively straightforward.

With non-fiction, it’ll depend on your genre and content. Images, graphs and tables are tricky, and lots of sub-headings and layout hierarchies don’t work well in audio format. Audio recordings are more time-consuming and costly to update, too.

If your book is image, table or link-heavy, you may decide not to bother with Whispersync, or you could provide a reader download for visuals, or information with a short shelf-life – a great way to connect to readers, too!

When you're writing, do you consider how your books will sound when narrated? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Jules Horne is an award-winning fiction writer and playwright. She teaches for the Open University and lives in the Borderlands – the part of Britain that inspired Game of Thrones.

For a manual of performance-ready tricks and techniques needed for audio-first writing, see Writing for Audiobook: Audio-first for Flow and Impact by Jules Horne, Book 3 in the Method Writing series.

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Audiobooks are the fastest growing segment in publishing. Most authors license their audio rights and work with professional narrators to produce their books, so why might you consider narrating your own audiobook?

I have now narrated my own non-fiction, Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur, and also fiction, A Thousand Fiendish Angels, three short stories inspired by Dante's Inferno.

Here's why I am doubling down on narration in 2019 and why you might consider narration for your own books.

(1) You love audio

I presume you're reading (or listening to) this because you love listening to audio. Yes, it's a growth segment in terms of income, but if you don't love a medium, you will not master it.

When people ask about writing a book but say they do not read, I tune them out, because they will likely never be successful as an author. Why would they be? They don't spend time devouring books. The same applies to audio. Don't even think about narrating audio unless you love it.

I listen to podcasts and audiobooks every day — when I am walking to spin or yoga or the shops, when I'm cleaning or cooking, or just relaxing and need to close my eyes. When I want to learn something new, or challenge myself, or sink into another world.

Thinking back, I listened to tapes when I was young. I remember Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and The Prisoner of Zenda in particular. I listened to those over and over again and found more at the library in those plastic cases that used to get so grubby (remember those!). Years later, I listened to self-help tapes and later still, downloadable audio MP3s before they become podcasts and digital audiobooks.

Humans have always escaped into stories told around the fire and lives have been changed, for both good and bad, through the power of the spoken word.

Audio is a powerful medium. You have to love it if you want to master it.

(2) The power of voice to build connection in a crowded market

Joanna Penn recording Business for Authors in a professional studio sound booth

There are a lot of books in the world, and more are published every day. With the advent of AI tools that will generate more text or mass translate existing works, there will only be more content for people to consume.

So, how do you stand out and build a sustainable author business for the long-term?

I've been podcasting for 10 years now, and although I've written 28 books, more people tell me that I have helped them through the podcast than through my writing. I listen to lots of podcasts too, and you feel as if you know the speaker. If people have your voice in their head, it's an intimate experience.

There is so much more than words in a voice.

The interesting thing with audiobooks, in particular, is that a ‘reader' must connect with the voice of the author in the story, but also the voice of the narrator who brings the book alive. Finding a voice to speak your words can be a challenge, especially one that fits your budget! But when you narrate your own work, your voice is consistent. It cannot be a bad match because it's the same voice.

An author who also narrates is memorable. 

I became a fan of thriller author, Scott Sigler, over 10 years ago when I listened to him narrate Infected and the subsequent books in his sci-fi/horror series. I've bought a number of his books since and still have his voice in my head on some of the climactic scenes. I'm not a rabid fan of all his work but I have spread the word about his books for 10+ years because he stood out with his audio readings.

[Listen to my podcast episode here with Scott Sigler on moving from self-publishing to traditional deals as well as podcasting and audiobooks.]

Voice builds connection and in an increasingly crowded market, we all need connection with readers to sustain a creative career.

(3) Improve your writing skill and characterization

Reading your work aloud can dramatically improve your writing craft.

With non-fiction, you are forced to read aloud sentences that might be full of jargon, or difficult to read or make sense of. You will end up editing for content, structure and flow.

With fiction, every character needs a ‘voice,' so you have to think hard about who they are, taking them off the written page and into spoken dialogue. I've ended up rewriting dialogue as I read it aloud because the character developed in such a way that I now know they wouldn't speak like that.

[Independent authors have control of later editions, and updating a previously published book is not difficult with print-on-demand and ebooks. More on publishing here.]

You will become a better storyteller because you are performing your story, thinking about your listener far more than you do when you're writing the book.

Regardless of genre, it's another line edit and you often pick up things you missed while ‘reading' in your mind, or even that a proofreader missed.

You will also notice repeated sounds rather than repeated words, which I have also been editing out. For example, consider the words: peak, Monique, speak. They have different meanings and different spellings but the same sounds. If repeated in a sentence or two, they produce the same feeling as a repeated word which is much more common in our writing, but most of us edit out in the drafting process.

(4) Create another intellectual property asset (and another stream of income) that you control

Your book is not one book. Your manuscript is an intellectual property asset that you can turn into multiple products and multiple streams of income.

Independent authors have mastered ebooks and print-on-demand over the last 10 years. We can publish on almost every global platform these days and produce editions as diverse as mass market paperback, hardback, and large print.

As independent authors, we like to control our assets, publishing them to new platforms when they become available, expanding our streams of income into the global market. At least, this is what I love to do!

Authors now have the option to create audiobooks across the global market through ACX, Findaway Voices, and Author's Republic. You can even sell direct from your website or through an app like Authors Direct (from Findaway).

You can choose your price and sell to libraries, and as more opportunities arise, you can jump in and explore them — if you control the rights.

Many authors accept audiobook deals because they don't want to, or can't afford to, produce the books themselves. Of course, there are stories of incredible audiobook opportunities and even six-figure+ deals and that would be something I'd jump on if it came along!

But for many, the deals are not so exciting and some authors sign contracts they regret later. Many also start with royalty split deals which can be a fantastic way to get into audio without outlaying too much cost. I certainly did royalty share deals at the beginning before I had the money to invest to pay upfront and keep all the rights.

But what if you could spend your time rather than your money and narrate your book yourself — and control the timing?

(5) Self-development and increased self-confidence in performing your creative work

At the time of writing this, I have still never read my fiction in public. I've spoken professionally all over the world, but I have never read so much of a line of my novels.

I have been afraid of it for so long because it means so much. My fiction is my heart and by putting it out there, I make myself vulnerable. So I have turned down many opportunities to read or speak as my fiction self, J.F.Penn.

But no more.

The process of learning to narrate my fiction has given me confidence because audiobook narration is essentially a performance.

It's an adaptation of the words on a flat page and my voice brings them alive.

(6) Development of another skill and extending your body of work

Through the process of voice coaching and learning about narration, I am discovering a whole world of sound that I didn't know about before. I'm learning more about my body and my voice as an instrument, about how to care for something I have always taken for granted.

As a learning junkie, this is so much fun!

I also appreciate extending my body of work into the audio sphere. I don't like relying on one way of making money, because change happens fast and if you rely on one company, or one product, or one form on income, you may find yourself running out of money someday.

I intend to be writing and creating for at least the next 50 years, and developing audio as part of my body of work is an exciting possibility.

You can buy audiobooks direct from authors with the Authors Direct app

I once visited the attic storeroom of a well-known voice talent who has narrated books for 40+ years. The shelves were full of tapes and CDs representing a huge body of work that was far more significant than the films and TV shows she is more well-known for. I'm just starting out but what will my attic shelves look like when I am in my later years?

(7) Marketing within a genre

I have only narrated my own books right now, but I can see a point where I would narrate other books that related to my brand. Audio listeners become a fan of the narrator, not just the author, and will follow them from book to book.

If I narrated other books in the same genre, then that may lead more readers to my work. It's certainly a way off yet, as it takes a lot of time and energy to narrate and edit, as well as a budget for mastering. But it's on my longer-term plan.

Audio is also a significant chunk of my non-fiction book sales these days, so why not fiction?

Part of the reason is marketing. Even though I have far more fiction audiobooks than I have non-fiction, I have a non-fiction form of audio marketing through The Creative Penn Podcast.

I'm currently working on a new site and new podcast that will relate to my fiction, so I am developing a marketing platform for that other side of my creative self.

In conclusion, I am thrilled to have my stories in the world in another format and I'll be doing more audio from now on. I'll still work with other narrators for some books, but I'll also be recording my own.

What do you think about authors narrating their own audiobooks? Please do leave any thoughts, questions, or your experience in the comments. 

Ready for the next step?

I'll be doing another article about my tips on how to narrate and tech tips in the future, but here are some resources that will help right now if you want to get going:

• What I learned from narrating 25 of my own (fiction) audiobooks by M.L.Buchman on Findaway Voices blog
• Storyteller: How to be an Audiobook Narrator (audiobook only) – Lorelei King and Ali Muirden
• Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasts, and Dictation for Fun and Profit – Bradley Charbonneau
• Narrated by the Author: How to Produce an Audiobook on a Budget – Renee Conoulty

Want to try some books read by the author? Check these out:

• A Thousand Fiendish Angels – J.F.Penn
• Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur – Joanna Penn
• Infected – Scott Sigler
• The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman
• Wildfire at Dawn – M.L.Buchman
• Shades of Milk and Honey – Mary Robinette Kowal
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft – Stephen King