Susan Friedmann [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas and tips from the masters. Every week I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books. Today my special guest is Todd Efflen, also known as Narrator Todd. Todd is an audiobook narrator, a voice actor and and a coach to authors who want to self narrate their own writing. He has a long multi station career in radio broadcasting before getting training in audiobook production because as he said, I didn't know beans about long form recording at home. Currently living near Sioux Falls, South Dakota where he loves to hike home, roast coffee beans and and be an alpine skiing instructor when there's snow. Todd, it's an absolute pleasure to welcome you to the show and thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.
Todd Eflin [00:01:05]:
Hello, Susan. Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Susan Friedmann [00:01:08]:
Well, you've got the greatest voice for narrating books or narrating anything, but you've had a long time in radio and broadcasting. You, you've got the voice for it.
Todd Eflin [00:01:20]:
Thank you very much. I appreciate that. It does help, but I want to encourage you that you should narrate a book also because I just love the way that you sound.
Susan Friedmann [00:01:29]:
Oh, well, thank you. I appreciate that too. So now we've got this mutual admiration society going. Let's talk about why an author should first of all consider having an audiobook as part of not only the print version, the ebook version. What about the audiobook?
Todd Eflin [00:01:55]:
Yeah. Storytelling goes back to the early beginnings, before there was ever writing. It was until the Gutenberg press that people could actually access printed material. So stories were told verbally, one person to another, out loud, one on one, or in small groups. And we don't want to get away from that. It's actually coming back around again with audiobooks. In fact, I'm old enough to remember books on tape and books on cd. But audio storytelling has always been with us and we shouldn't forget that.
Todd Eflin [00:02:27]:
We should take advantage of that for a couple of reasons. One is that you're the person to tell your own story, perhaps. And two, it's also an additional marketing tool. But I think going back to the first thing you're used to, talking to people, family, friends, neighbors. You tell stories all the time, one on one or one to a family. And an audiobook is very similar to that. You're telling a story, perhaps to just one person listening to you in their earbuds or in their car while they're driving or while they're taking a walk or even just sitting in their lazy chair listening to you just as if you were sitting there beside them enjoying a cup of coffee or tea and enjoying a casual conversation. It goes back to that same storytelling from ancient days.
Todd Eflin [00:03:17]:
And it makes it very personal that way. It makes it more intimate that way. And I think when someone can hear your voice, they hear your heart, they hear your passion, they hear the real you. Sometimes that can make a more personal connection with someone accessing your work, which is really a great reason to have an audiobook. Audio is another way to share your work with the world, with people who might not otherwise get to access your work. People who have learning challenges or reading challenges, or just busy professionals or moms very often prefer listening to reading or listening along with reading. I'm going through a book right now where I'm reading part of it and I'm hearing part of it because I enjoy both.
Susan Friedmann [00:04:04]:
People do enjoy both. You're absolutely right. Because often I listen to a book and then I need to see it as well. You know, we're visual people as well as auditory. Sometimes that combination for me personally, I find is much stronger. Let's talk about authors narrating their own book, because I know that that's something that you spend a lot of time with authors helping them to narrate their own book, because that's not an easy task and it can feel quite formidable to an author if they want to do it. But yet the thought of doing it. Talk to us more about that.
Todd Eflin [00:04:48]:
Yeah, it can be intimidating trying something new. Talking about being a ski instructor. I teach a lot of first time skiers. This is their first time on skis, on the snow. And it is intimidating when you see what other people on the hill. Hill are doing. And it can be a little scary because there's a lot of things going on. You don't know the first thing about it.
Todd Eflin [00:05:07]:
What I try and do as a coach is to take away the scary parts and start with simple things. And we go one step at a time at the pace that the student needs. And I like to coach authors the same way about audiobooks, is to break it down from the scary stuff into the simple stuff and go one step at a time at a pace that works for you so that you can conquer the difficult parts more easily. World of Audio has its own unique terminology, like any other industry does. You don't need to know them all, you only need to know certain ones. We need to talk about microphones we need to talk about the audio recording equipment and do so in a way that isn't overwhelming and confusing. We break it down that way in training and coaching, just like we do with ski students. So that you can confidently ski down the slopes by the end of the day all by yourself and say, hey, I could go do this by myself.
Todd Eflin [00:06:02]:
It's fantastic.
Susan Friedmann [00:06:04]:
You can narrate your own book.
Todd Eflin [00:06:05]:
You can narrate your own book. I think not everybody should narrate their own book, but that's a very subjective reason why you would or you would not. If having an audiobook, which is more expected these days for almost everything that comes out, to have that additional way to share your work with the world and market to a whole new group of people and pick up more sales of your material, that's kind of an objective decision. Pros and cons to that. Yes, I should probably have an audiobook. Narrating it yourself may be more of a subjective decision to make. Should I be the narrator of my book? Should I hire someone who is a professional at that and turn it all over to them? And it's the same kind of question that you might examine with hiring an editor, a proofreader, hiring a book coach, a publicist, or a marketer. Some of that you can tackle yourself.
Todd Eflin [00:07:03]:
Some of it you decide. That's not for me. I don't want to jump into that world as well. And so I think for authors, you have to explore, should I? And reasons why you should or maybe should not, and test that a little bit even.
Susan Friedmann [00:07:16]:
There are authors, though, who feel very emotional. I mean, this is their story, this is their work, and they feel they are the only person who can do this. In fact, I had an author who did narrate his own book because he was adamant that he had to be the narrator of the book. However, he said second time around he would not do it because it just took too much time and energy and it was hard work.
Todd Eflin [00:07:48]:
Yeah, it certainly can be work. It's not just something you can sit down, flip on the microphone and read out loud and make work. Unfortunately, there's too many audiobooks that get produced that way. They don't sell probably very, very well. But books that are done well do take time, and taking on that task yourself is going to take the time if you put the work and effort into it. What I try to coach is eliminating the hard stuff and take some shortcuts. I learned some things the hard way, and I try and help people get over the hard stuff so that it becomes a little bit easier.
Susan Friedmann [00:08:25]:
Talk to us about some of what is the hard stuff and how could we make it easier.
Todd Eflin [00:08:31]:
Yeah, some of the hardest things in narrating is realizing how much time it does take, figuring out first how long your audiobook will be. The simple math is how many words are in your manuscript. And then figure. The average number of words in a finished hour of an AudioBook is about 9,300 words. It varies, but that's the simple math. A five hour book might have so many words in it. And realize that it's not going to take a narrator five hours to read a five hour book. Probably double that, maybe triple that in what's called in your studio time.
Todd Eflin [00:09:08]:
Depends on how well you read without having to start that sentence or repronounce that word again and again. The more you do, the easier it gets. So if you're already used to speaking, say a public speaker or a podcaster, or you are a teacher, used to being in front of a group of people and communicating verbally to them, like you, Susan, you may find audiobook reading a little bit easier than someone who's never done anything like that at all. That'll be perhaps a little more challenging. But professionals who are experts in what they do, maybe they act as a business consultant, they're sales managers, they're directors. They might find this just a little bit easier. But some of the hard things I think are being clear with your enunciation, pronunciation, your reading pace. Most audiobooks are read more slowly than our natural speaking voice so that people can hear.
Todd Eflin [00:10:03]:
Some people speed up the audio to hear it back, and that's fine. But we don't want to race through our reading material and feel like we're racing using inflections. Getting the right emphasis on the right words in the right place so that the right meaning is carried across to the listener can be a little challenging as well. And then there's the an editing process we're familiar with editing our books or having somebody else edit our books. Our editing here is to edit. When we make mistakes, they need to go back and be corrected so that the audio words match the manuscript words. And learning the techniques of editing an audio software, as you probably know a little bit with your podcasting for new editors can be a little challenging. I've got a little technique I like to use that I think simplifies it.
Todd Eflin [00:10:53]:
I call it the stair step method. Most people, when they're recording long form podcasts or long form audiobooks, use what's called punch and roll and It's a way to pick back up where you made a mistake. Stair step does something similar, but I think for me it's actually faster. And you start a new file on your audio editor. It's almost like starting a new paragraph. And then you splice them back together in a stair step method. And I use keyboard shortcuts to do that with my left hand so that I can take a 15 minute chapter and have eight, 10 different places where I need to make corrections. And I can splice all that back together in about a minute.
Todd Eflin [00:11:38]:
And so I like using that method. And that's one thing I like to teach people. But I have to kind of walk you through it and show that to you, how it works, what settings you need on your digital audio workstation or your audio recording software that you have on your computer. The one I use is free and it has a particular feature on there that once you set that setting and then know the techniques I use, it goes pretty lickety split. But those things can be overcome. And then proof listening, just like proofreading your book, you're going to have either do it yourself, but we advise having somebody else proof listen to your audio. That can be time consuming as well. Because you have an hour's worth of audio, you need to have someone listen to the hour and note any corrections that need to be made.
Todd Eflin [00:12:24]:
And then you as the narrator go back and do pickups where you correct those mistakes. Similar to having your writing proofread. You would proof listen and all that takes time in the studio to then go back and make those corrections. And then processing your file as well, some post production processing to make it sound within the parameters of the audiobook. Retailers like Audible, they have certain requirements. They need for their audio files to be for noise, floor and loudness. And you have to be within those parameters. And if you're not, that's where new folks get into some difficulty getting the sound quality just right.
Todd Eflin [00:13:06]:
And so that's kind of where we start with new students is working on a place where you're going to record and getting your setup locked in place so that all of your chapters sound the same and pass through the quality assurance after it's recorded to get to retail. So we walk through what I call the essentials of recording good audio and get the setup where you're going to record, the equipment you're going to record with, meaning your microphone and then the software settings and then get the sound quality to where it needs to be.
Susan Friedmann [00:13:39]:
You can do this in your own home. You don't necessarily have to go into a studio. Is that what you're able to share with authors?
Todd Eflin [00:13:48]:
That can be one way to do that. And find a place in your home or your office to set up where you can record. You can find a studio that is already set up with soundproof booths and high quality microphones and an engineer who does the recording, handles the equipment and the software and editing for you. And you rent the studio time. And so you might go into the studio, say several hours over three or four days and record all the audio and be done or mostly done until you have to come back to do any pickups I mentioned, and you hire somebody to do that for you. If you have a series of books you'd like to work on, then one of the things you can explore and it's easy to do is to set up a place in your house or your office, corner of a room, perhaps, or even your walk in closet. Walk in closets are a wonderful place to start recording because we have to deal with sound acoustics. That's the difference between walking in, say, your bathroom, where there's nothing but hard surfaces.
Todd Eflin [00:14:55]:
Everywhere you speak in there, you hear a variety of tinny sounds. It's echoey. It sounds harsh. We don't want our audiobooks to be recorded like that. Leave your bathroom and walk into, say, your walk in closet and speak out loud in your walk in closet and notice the difference you hear in your ear. It's softer. You've gotten rid of the echo and the harsh tinny sound that comes across. That's the kind of environment we want to create in your home, with soft surfaces rather than hard surfaces.
Todd Eflin [00:15:26]:
A place where you can shut out the outside world just for a little while while you're recording.
Susan Friedmann [00:15:31]:
I know lots of people who've done it in their closets.
Todd Eflin [00:15:34]:
Yes, yes.
Susan Friedmann [00:15:35]:
Yep.
Todd Eflin [00:15:35]:
Perfect place for it.
Susan Friedmann [00:15:36]:
What about people who don't like the sound of their own voice? Are there some quick fixes or exercises that can really help build that confidence?
Todd Eflin [00:15:47]:
When you first heard your voice, Susan, on recording, did it sound like you were expecting, or was it maybe different.
Susan Friedmann [00:15:54]:
Than what you said?
Todd Eflin [00:15:55]:
I didn't like it.
Susan Friedmann [00:15:55]:
I had a hard time listening to myself for the longest time, and then I sort of got over it after doing it. Since I now do this, these podcasts, and I've been doing them for nine years, so I've gotten used to my voice. But I remember in the beginning I would not want to listen to my own voice.
Todd Eflin [00:16:15]:
Well, that's not uncommon. That we hear the sound of our voice in a recorded set for some reason, voicemail or something. And we go, do I sound like that? That's not really me, is it? Ooh, I don't like that. That's because when we speak to ourselves, we are hearing our voice partly through the skeletal structure of our head, and our eardrums are hearing from inside our head and the bone structure that we have, as well as hearing from the outside like we would hear somebody else speak. When we hear ourselves without the skeletal structure, it's on a recording and it only comes in from the outside. We sound different to ourselves. And most people don't like the sound of their own voice. Oh, I don't sound like that, do I really? And it can be uncomfortable.
Todd Eflin [00:17:09]:
And it does take a little bit of realizing that and then overcoming that for new narrators or new audio people. But here's the thing. Everybody that you know that you talk to listens to your voice, and they don't shrink up their face and go, ooh, I don't like your voice. I just don't talk to me. They're already used to hearing you. If other people enjoy hearing you in person or over the telephone, then chances are they're going to hear your recording and just hear the real you. The real you, the way you sound to other people rather than yourself. So that is a little bit to overcome.
Todd Eflin [00:17:51]:
What I suggest trying it out is to actually. Most of our phones anymore have a voice memo recording app already on there. And one of the things you might try and do is to go into your walk in closet and record, say, a minute or two of something that you've written and then listen back to it on the speaker on your phone, maybe if you want to Bluetooth it to your car or to your sound bar system at home on your TV or. Or in a different set of earbuds or headphones and just start to get used to how you sound and how it feels reading what you've written. And then if you'd like an additional challenge, play that for somebody else that you know and see their reaction, watch their face, get some feedback from them, and tell them, I'm thinking about recording my own work. This might be a little bit of what it sounds like. What do you think? And see what they say and sort of test the waters and get used to the idea at the same time and become familiar with the sound of your own voice also and explore it from that standpoint. Start easy and just record on your phone just for a little bit.
Susan Friedmann [00:19:04]:
I love that idea. I know that obviously narrating your own book can take long time, obviously depending on the length of the book. But is there an optimum amount of time that you should even consider recording at any one sitting? I mean, you're not gonna sit down and read the whole book. Is it a chapter, is it a certain number of words, is it time? When is it that you're like there's going to be a drop off point where your voice sort of starts to drag a little bit?
Todd Eflin [00:19:41]:
Yeah, you need to keep your energy level up. Reading long chunks at any one time will tire you out. It will tire you physically whether you're standing or sitting, because it takes work, even writing takes work. And you can fatigue your eyes and your body and your brain in writing for a long time. So you have to take breaks, take a walk, do something else, put the laundry in the dryer, take the dog out, enjoy something else for a little while and then come back with a renewed sense of energy. Having a snack. I certainly recommend having something to sip on while you're in the studio. So in between chapters or in between mistakes, you take a sip of probably water.
Todd Eflin [00:20:24]:
I put a little lemon juice in mine. It helps to kind of keep the saliva in your mouth down so that your lips and tongue don't smack nearly as much. We all do that. But for some reason when you are using a nice microphone and you're talking directly into somebody's earbuds, you can hear those even more easily. And so to minimize those, you keep a little lemon juice or people like apples or apple juice as well for the same thing before you narrate. That's just a little rabbit trail of narrating tip. But I try and go a chapter and then take a little break. And I can tell after an hour, and it depends on the day and what I'm reading.
Todd Eflin [00:21:06]:
But after an hour I can feel my actual throat, my voice start to get a little fatigued as well. And I need to take a break. I might have a deadline and I'm trying to push through. I need to get this chapter done by four today so I can blah, blah, blah. And at 3:45 I don't feel like I'm sounding like I need to, I need to stop. Because even if I Finish this by 4, I'm probably going to wind up re recording it, which will take even more time. So you have to learn the limitations of your voice and your own body about the fatigue and the energy and manage that. And I think some ways to do that are to take Breaks every once in a while and take a deep breath and go do something else and then come back.
Susan Friedmann [00:21:46]:
Yes, as a speaker too, we're told dairy produce, stay away from that prior to speaking. And then ice, avoid it completely because that sort of puts a lot of strain on the vocal cords.
Todd Eflin [00:22:03]:
Singers warm up stage actors, they warm up their voice before they go out there. And then when you drink ice water or milk, which develops a mucus and ice water makes your vocal cords cold instead of warm and it tightens everything up. And what I have found is I narrate so much more easily. The words flow so much better. Pace works more easily. When I'm relaxed, my heart isn't racing. I can't just walk the dog and then come into the studio and hit record. I need my heart to settle down a little bit to its resting rate.
Todd Eflin [00:22:41]:
I need to have a little relaxation in my whole body. And when I relax that way my voice is warm. I can narrate more paragraphs and more pages without having to make a mistake and start over again. And when I'm in a hurry, when I'm trying to meet a deadline or I just got back in the studio from taking the dog out, that first five minutes of recording is awful because I make too many mistakes and I have to start over.
Susan Friedmann [00:23:09]:
Yeah, I've been there. I did some voiceover work many, many years ago and there were just times that we did so many retakes because I wasn't in the right frame of mind. I was frightened of making the mistake. And of course then I did make the mistake.
Todd Eflin [00:23:29]:
Yeah, I've been there.
Susan Friedmann [00:23:30]:
Embarrassing, right?
Todd Eflin [00:23:32]:
That's why I like to record by myself. I make all the mistakes I want to and nobody but me knows, so it's okay. But yes, I understand being in that environment when I have recorded in front of other people, that self conscious thing settles in and it's hard to fight off.
Susan Friedmann [00:23:47]:
Todd, this is an excellent time to segue into you telling our listeners more about how they can find out about you and the services that you offer.
Todd Eflin [00:23:59]:
Sure. One of the things I do is narrate for other authors that don't want to do it themselves or never even thought about doing it themselves. So I could perhaps narrate the book for you or help you find a narrator. Because I not write for every book for sure. I don't win every audition I try for. Oh, I'd love to record that book, but there's a hundred other people that also audition for that book. So I don't win them all because I'm not right for them all, but for the ones I am. I'm working on my sixth book for a particular writer right now.
Todd Eflin [00:24:31]:
We're finishing it up this week and it should be out later this month. That's exciting to do, is to be able to partner with somebody and help you tell your story to the world through audio. If you would like some more information about narrating yourself, whether it's in a studio or in your own home studio setup, I'm available for some consultations. I have put together a free three step guide that helps someone who's exploring this get started with probably the three big things that stop people from getting started. And that's your recording space, your recording microphone, because there's a thousand of them to choose from, then the recording software and my three step guide walks you through a few of those so that you could get all this stuff yourself and set it all up and actually begin doing some recordings, some test recording, podcasting or narrating newsletter articles if you want to try to add that to your repertoire of activity as well. And I have a three step guide that's available. I think you'll put a link to that in the show notes.
Susan Friedmann [00:25:40]:
I certainly will.
Todd Eflin [00:25:41]:
And links to the newsletter that I have. DIY audiobooks. It's do it yourself audiobooks, though. You can do it yourself, you don't have to learn how to do it yourself. That's where I can come alongside with a little bit of training, a little bit of coaching and make sure that you get set up correctly, set up well, and get your audiobook done and to retail and out to the world so you can go from manuscript to microphone as seamlessly and painlessly as possible.
Susan Friedmann [00:26:08]:
I love that. That sounds so delicious. And Todd, as you know, always ask our guests to leave our listeners with a golden nugget. What's yours?
Todd Eflin [00:26:20]:
Some of the most iconic things that you remember, say, I choose to go to the moon, or no, I am your father, or the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. And you can imagine other celebrities or your parents, perhaps a brother or sister, who have said something to you or you've heard that sticks in your memory for your entire life. And when you think about that, what do you hear? You hear the person's voice who spoke that. We remember jfk, we remember fdr, we remember Darth Vader. I remember certain things that my dad would say, and when I remember things that he would say, I don't hear it in my voice, I hear it in his voice. And your voice voicing your words can be just as iconic and memorable to someone who is listening to you in their earbuds or in their car. And the sound of your voice will stay with them for their entire life. Every time they think about what they heard you say, the sound of that will stay with them.
Todd Eflin [00:27:38]:
There's a meme, perhaps that you've seen that's gone around, and it's a Picture of Marty McFly and Doc from Back to the Future. You remember what Doc sounded like in the movie, and it says there's an 87% chance that those of you reading this right now are hearing this in my voice. And he's exactly right. We all read that meme and see it and hear Doc's voice in our head because of the way he sounded when he said it. We don't hear my voice. So if you voice your own book or your own podcast, something that you say that somebody hears will be just as memorable to them as Doc.
Susan Friedmann [00:28:21]:
I love that. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yes. I hadn't thought about that, but as you were saying it, I was like, yeah, of course. And then I suddenly thought about some of the things that my dad said. I was like, yes, I'm hearing it in his voice. But it's so true.
Susan Friedmann [00:28:36]:
Todd, you've been amazing. Really appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our listeners.Â
And listeners, there was a wealth of information here that I know you're going to want to re listen and just take in all of Todd's wisdom. By the way, if your book isn't selling the way you want it or expect it to, let's jump on a quick call together to brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales. Because you've invested a whole lot of time, money, and energy, and it's time you got the return you were hoping for. So go to bookmarketingbrainstorm.com to schedule your free call.Â
And in the meantime, I hope this powerful interview sparks some ideas you can use to sell more books. Until next week, here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.
Here's how to connect with Todd:
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