Publishing with LibriVox, by Kathleen Gekiere, Book Coordinator

General platform requirements

When it comes to sharing your audiobook with others, the key is to understand the requirements and process of the organization you are sharing it through. If using LibriVox, there are many wonderful volunteers and volunteer-created resources that can help you through the process of creating an audiobook. Before you start recording your audiobook, it is important to think about the expectations and requirement of your distribution platform (in this case LibriVox). LibriVox releases all its audiobooks under public domain and requires a scripted statement at the beginning and end of each recording. They also require the witness text (or a version of the text you are reading from) to be accessible online without paywalls. Keeping these factors in mind may change your process for developing your audiobook. I suggest using the expected final form of your audiobook as a guideline for your process.

Uploading your audiobook

In order to upload an audiobook to LibriVox, you will need to create an account on the LibriVox forum website and create a post in the New Project Launch Pad section, using the New Project Template Creator. From here, you can connect with experienced LibriVox audiobook volunteers, such as a Meta Coordinator (who finalizes the technical aspects of uploading) and LibriVox Proof-listeners (who make sure the recording meets all the LibriVox requirements). When it comes to the more technical aspects of creating and uploading your project within the LibriVox system, LibriVox has many helpful and detailed guides that can walk you through the process step by step.

Proof-listening

When proof-listening to your audiobook, you should listen for unwanted sounds and interference that may have been missed in the editing stage. You should also check the audiobook reading against the text to catch errors, like skipped sentences. A typical audiobook recording doesn’t need to be word perfect, but any errors that change the meaning of the text should be corrected. Then double checked the LV introduction and ending statements, as well as the required amounts of silence at the beginning and end of each recording. 

Technical Requirements

Finally, you need to make sure the file meets LibriVox’s technical requirements. The file must have only 0.5-1 second of silence at the beginning before the introduction. At the end of the file there must be 5 seconds of silence after the closing statement. The decibals on the file must be better 86-92, with a target of 89. Checker, a program created for LibriVox, is a quick and easy way to check the decibels and make sure it is within bounds. If the decibels are too low or too high, you can fix them using the Amplify effect in Audacity: just use a positive number to make the decibels higher and a negative number to make them lower. To create the correct file type for LibriVox uploads, you need to export it from Audacity as an mp3 with the following settings: Export as MP3, bit rate mode: constant, quality: 128 kbps, and force export to mono. The file name should be generated when you create your initial post and follows this pattern: title_sectionnumber_authorlastname_128kb.mp3.

Publishing your audiobook

Once you have your file, you are ready to upload it to LibriVox! An experienced LibriVox volunteer will also proof-listen to your recordings to catch anything you might miss. If there are any issues to correct, you can download the file, make the necessary changes, and reupload for a second review. When all sections of the audiobook are uploaded and approved by experienced LibriVox volunteers, your audiobook will be made publicly available through LibriVox systems.

Kathleen Gekiere, Book Coordinator