Creating the audiobook – and a free download
If you are a landlord or a letting agent, or maybe a housing advisor, it is important to know your subject inside out. But reading books and attending courses takes time – time that busy people like you don’t have.
With an audiobook you can make use those ‘dead’ periods of time
- In your car, driving between properties
- decorating or cleaning a property between lets, or
- while walking the dog or
- working out at the gym (if you ever get time for this!)
So when Gill and I were wondering what product to do next for our e-commerce site Your Law Store, an audiobook seemed ideal.
We chose the topic ‘tenancy agreements’ as they are so crucial to renting property. Every tenancy needs to have one, but there is a lot of misunderstanding about how they work and the law relating to them.
So in about late May I started work. It took a lot longer than I thought.
Creating the audiobook
First there were the scripts to prepare. Then I had to record it. Both took much longer than I expected.
Needless to say, ‘Murphy’s law’ struck, as the local authority choose the day I started recording section 2 to start re-surfacing the road outside my window!
Editing the audiobook
After the recording comes the editing. You don’t realise until you listen carefully, how many splutters, hisses, indrawn breaths and clicking noises there are when you read something out loud. All of these have to be removed (or silenced), which takes some time with an audio of 2 ½ hours! Just listening through it takes about half a day.
The fun bit was putting the music clips in. The purpose of the music is to break it all up. Listening to someone reading out loud can get a bit dreary after an hour or so. Having short music ‘transitions’ between the parts gives you a bit of a mental break, and makes the whole thing more pleasant to listen to. Thats why they have musical breaks in chat shows.
The audio scripts
We then decided it would be nice, as well as giving you the audio book, to let you have the scripts as well. These are all in one pdf which you will get when you buy the audiobook.
This will be useful to help you find a particular point, as the scripts also give the times on the audio when the different parts start. So if you want to listen to the section on guarantees (for example), you’ll know where to find it.
How it comes
The audiobook itself will be in two formats.
One will be a straight mp3 file (or rather three) which you can download to your computer or ipod.
However I know that many readers will be more used to using CDs than ‘new fangled’ MP3 files, so we will be providing these as well.
The CD version however will be a bit more expensive as we have to buy the CDs and case, and also pay the cost of posting it out to you.
Don’t miss the launch offers!
We are very excited about the new audio book. I am sure that once you have listened it, you will have a much clearer understanding of how the law works. Insofar as tenancy agreements are concerned anyway – but that is a big topic for landlords.
We will be launching the audiobook very soon now. As usual there will be a special ‘launch period’ offer when you can get special benefits. But the launch period will only last a few days so be sure and not to miss it!
If you haven’t already done so, sign up to our mailing list to be kept informed. You’ll then be able to download Part 5 of the audiobook, which is on different types of tenancy.
Click here to join the special mailing list (you can unsubscribe whenever your like, and we will never give your details to anyone else).
If you are already on the mailing list, a mailing with download details for part 5 will already have been sent to you (so check your spam folder if you have not seen it!).
Watch out for announcements!