Top 5 Lessons from Recording My First Audiobook

After ten exciting months on Amazon in print and e-book, Surfing in Heaven is now available on Audible! And yes — I recorded it myself… in my closet. I learned a LOT in that process. Here are my top 5 takeaways:

1. Hindenburg Narrator is great — seriously.
   But… for a layman like me, it provided daily obstacles that their training resources did not cover (see #2). Technical support was spotty at best.

2. ChatGPT saved me. Daily.
   The best $20/month I ever spent. But … it is [in my estimation] flat out WRONG ~15% of the time. 👀

3. Thomas is right — it’s best to launch the audiobook with the paperback
   for maximum marketing impact. I couldn’t do that, and it ended up taking ten months after my book launch to publish the Audible version. I had estimated three.

4. Reading my book twice (once for practice) uncovered at least a dozen errors in my manuscript. I had two editors and a proofreader (paid). That alone may have been worth the effort for me.

5. Reading my own book satisfied my soul in ways I could not have foreseen. It just plain felt GOOD to act out the story I had poured my heart into.

Hope that can help any of you just starting off on your audiobook adventure!

Mike Mulkey (surfingforbalance.com)