20K a Day: How to Launch More Books and Make More Money

by Jonathan Green

Make sure the computer can hear you. If the gain is too low, the computer won’t be able to hear you. If the gain is set to one or two out of ten, your voice will be so low that the computer will start to lose accuracy. If you’re too loud, then the problem is distortion. In either case, five minutes of setup today can save you from hours of heartache down the line.

  Speak to your computer in a normal voice. Instead of imagining that you’re talking to a computer, imagine that you’re speaking to a small group of people who are very interested in your topic or just one person.

  I imagine that four or five people are sitting on the rocks in front of me right now. This allows me to speak in a way that's human as opposed to sounding like I’m talking to a computer.

  When I dictate directly to my computer that tendency to use a robot voice comes back. We like to imagine that we are making it easier for the computer to understand, but we are making it harder; over time you will get used to talking to your computer and slip into your natural voice. You will have to retrain the system when this happens if you don’t start out with your normal voice now.

  I record training videos nearly every day. When recording a video using my computer, I have no problem using my natural voice. I am speaking to people, and the computer is just the recorder. When I start dictating to the computer, however, my voice starts to get a little robotic. I have to fight against this urge to maintain the quality of my work.

  When dictating directly to the computer, get comfortable with the voice commands. Certain phrases cause the computer to do something other than writing them on the page. Other than these, you can create a custom dictionary for special words that you use a lot or specific commands that you use daily. The more time you invest in the software, the better it will perform.

  You can insert dictation into any part of your workflow, and that decision will affect how you work with your software. It boils down to creating a different profile for each different microphone, taking the time to train the software, and using your natural speaking voice.

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  Action Steps

  Learn to use your dictation software. Start with a list of the main “command” words.

  Start with just an hour a day.

  Train with your computer to improve the performance of your software.

  Focus on speaking without using your robot voice.

  Create a user profile for each microphone, person, and recording location.

  Check your hardware before you blame your software. Sometimes a slow computer or bad microphone is the culprit. (Make sure the right microphone is activated.)

  Be very conscious of your body and stop if your throat gets sore or dry.

  Part XXVI

  Go Mobile

  A smartphone is a mobile computer in your pocket.

  - Nick Woodman

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  Smartphone Dictation

  Let's talk about untethering. In this section, we are going to dig into recording your audio away from a computer. I am recording 20K out here on a dock. There is not a computer in sight. When on the road, you can record using loads of different apps. All you need is a smartphone and the world is your office.

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  Sound Good - Posture

  There are a few ways to ensure that your mobile recordings go as smoothly as possible.

  Start with the way you sound. When I was younger and learning about talking on the phone, I was always nervous every time I would call a girl. I grew up in a time where if you liked a girl, you had to call the telephone of her family, and you would end up speaking to her father or her brother. I learned that we speak very differently based on our body position. If you’re lying down, you speak very slowly and calmly. As you move your body upright, you become more active and energetic.

  Try different body positions to see what works best for you. Many authors find that standing while recording gives them more energy; you walk around, and you feel the excitement, especially if you're writing action scenes and you want to write movement.

  If your dialogue or stories are becoming too much thought, not enough action or if you are suffering from too much “Tell me” and not enough “Show me,” standing up will change the way you talk. You can walk around your house, the mall, or even the park. You can go mobile and use action to your advantage.

  Once you find the position that works right for you, you want to test for consistency. For ninety percent of this book, I'm sitting in the same position right here on my dock. I had to move a few times when the tide came roaring in, but otherwise, I've been right here.

  The water is coming in right now, but hopefully it won't start bashing my feet, and I can finish out this recording session. Your body position affects the tone of your voice. I want this book to have a very specific tone, and lying down would not work. I would sound different. This is a book about writing fast; a sleepy tone would be very weird.

  I don't like standing up while dictating. I like sitting and relaxing, staring at the sea. My next experiment after this book will be with a standing desk, and if that turns out to be a massive success, I will be sure to update this section.

  Standing, sitting, lying down or walking around, choose the body position that's right for you. You don't need to find a dock just because that's how I dictate. Some authors find that lying down works. If you write relaxing stories, bedtime stories, maybe that's perfect. Test different body positions. Test sitting down versus walking around, driving versus sitting in a chair.

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  Indoors

  I was just sitting in my chair at my desk for a few hours working on another project. Sitting in my bedroom, working on my website and updating the 20K page. I typed every single word on that page. I was just updating the mini-blog with my dictation experience so far.

  Now I'm back out here on the dock, and it feels so different. I don't feel like the same person when I'm out there. I feel completely different. Just moving fifty yards from my house changes my entire perspective.

  The more you try different processes, the faster you'll find the one that's perfect for you. If you want to have the freedom of moving around but you still want to record into your computer, you can get a very long cable for your microphone.

  I was a child before the cordless telephone. I remember when we got the first long phone cable. You could take the phone anywhere in the house and talk to your friends where your parents couldn't hear anything. Grab a long cord for your microphone and record in the closet if you want to.

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  Move Your Body

  These days, I prefer to record with my phone and lapel microphone if I'm going to be moving around. I have so many cables and wires that I don't need any more for my kids to grab on to.

  Recording into my phone allows me to handle loads of little tasks without returning to home base. I don't have to walk back to the computer just to start and stop each session. I can name files in a few seconds from my phone. I upload each file to the cloud as soon as I finish recording. I never have to worry about backup files or losing all my work to an unexpected lightning strike.

  Some people are big fans of treadmill desks or standing desks. I don't use one, but I have a lot of friends who swear by them. They might be the wave of your future. Mix and match the ideas from the 20K System to build your ideal workspace.

  Perhaps you record best when you can see the computer screen, but maybe you also need to stand. These specialty desks combine your two needs. There are even some desks that rise and lower; you can sit to type and stand to dictate.

  I haven't experimented with either of these options just yet, but they will be part of my next batch of tests this year.

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  Perfect Location

  I tried taking my dog for a walk while recording a podcast, but it ended in disaster. He just didn't understand my need to walk slowly and avoid loud noises. Dogs just don't understand podcasts yet. He thought I was talking to him, so he kept replying.

  When recording audio tha
t people will hear, the setup is critical. The slightest background noise can ruin a good video or podcast episode. I walk around my balcony when I record episodes right now, but I'm not sure I can do anything more complicated than walking in circles.

  I may experiment with walking on the beach and dictating in the future, but based on my past, I don't think it will work for me. I find it hard to think about what I want to say next, check my outline, record intelligent sentences and avoid the dangerous rocks on the beach all at the same time.

  Right now, sitting on my dock to record seems to be the perfect intersection of paradise and efficiency. I get to enjoy paradise, and I'm far enough away from other people that I don't have to deal with many distractions.

  After a few sessions, people are used to me sitting on the dock and know not to shout to me. They realize that I don't say hello because I'm recording, not because I'm a jerk. Without distractions, I can focus on cranking out these amazing chapters for you. It's the perfect location with the heat of the tropics to brown my shoulders and that cool ocean breeze to keep me from sweating to death...or shorting out the microphone.

  This morning, there was no breeze from my sunrise session, and it was very sweaty. I uploaded a video on the 20K page, so you can feel like you’re right here sweating with me. Now it's a few hours to sunset. The sun is behind the trees, and it's the perfect time to record.

  You can find your slice of paradise with a little experimentation.

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  System Crash

  I've experienced so many technical disasters that I live in a constant state of paranoia. I've lost recordings and files too many times to let it happen to you. There's nothing worse than recording the perfect ending to your book and then watching your computer crash before it saves your file.

  I've lost recordings of a ninety-minute webinar in the past, and it's devastating. Now I record each live session with three or four backup methods. I've had two different backups fail on the same night. It doesn't feel like rainbows and sunshine when that happens.

  I once had to redo an entire hour and a half presentation and pretend the audience was still here. One minute after I finished, the recording crashed. This is why I don't like to record directly into the computer. I have never recorded a podcast episode into the computer. I always use a dedicated device.

  When I'm recording into my phone, I don't have any other apps open. No games. No texting.

  When you introduce external elements into a program, the odds of chaos go up. My recording program works flawlessly, but I don't want to discover that a glitch in one of my games can cost me an entire recording. I don't want to be the one looking for bugs in the programming. Every single app on my phone pushes an update at least once a month. If those apps were perfect, they wouldn't be forcing me to update all the time. No way am I going to risk my hard work just because I get a little bored.

  In my experience, dictation software autosaves every few minutes. You always have rolling backups, and even a system crash will only lose you a few minutes of work. With audio recording programs, however, there is no backup. Most recorders don't save until you hit stop at the end of a session. If something goes wrong in the middle of your epic recording session, there is no backup.

  You can take action now to protect yourself from disaster. No matter how you record your audio, stick to small sessions. Even if you are recording for three hours straight, break that recording up into loads of little files. Even if a single file gets corrupted, the rest of your work will be protected.

  My podcasts are usually twenty-four minutes long, but I would never record two episodes in a single file. Every time I finish an episode, I click stop and then start a new file.

  Each section in 20K a Day is a different audio file. Every time you see some bold words centered on the page, that is the start of a new audio file. That's how frequently I hit that button. If disaster strikes, I never risk more than five minutes of work.

  An app that automatically starts a new file every five minutes would be the perfect solution, but I haven't found one yet.

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  Technical Trauma

  Always check your setup before you start recording. I used this microphone a few years ago that's now been discontinued. This travel microphone was supposedly fantastic. I recorded over fifty hours of training videos using it; I didn't test anything, and it turned out that every single file was absolute garbage. I spent three weeks recording those videos, and the microphone was so bad that every single video I recorded was completely and totally unusable.

  It was devastating, and it was horrible. I want you to learn from my mistake. Every time you record, check your settings. Every time I record into the computer, I double-check all the audio settings. At least once a week Audacity defaults to the wrong microphone. It stops recording the audio from my Rode Podcaster and starts recording from the microphone inside my closed laptop.

  This has even happened when I was recording an important interview. As much as I tell you not to make this mistake, I have to be honest: it's happened to me quite a few times. In addition to my screen recording software, I use Audacity when I'm recording training videos, and I can't tell you how horrible it is to record an hour-long video only to discover that the audio is ruined, or you used the wrong microphone. It's a real kick in the teeth.

  Before you get into the content, record yourself for fifteen seconds and play it back to make sure everything sounds great. Check your settings at the start of each recording session. Don't assume that just because they were right yesterday, they've stayed the same. Just unplugging your microphone is enough to reset your settings. I can't stress this enough: double-check everything.

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  Backups

  Back up your outlines, your recordings, and your equipment. If you only have one microphone and something goes wrong, you can't work for the day. If your microphone uses batteries, always have backups with you. Backing up equipment is critical here as ordering a replacement can take two weeks. That's a long time to be out of business.

  I have an external battery pack, just in case my phone or iPad mini run low on power. You can never be too prepared or have too many backups.

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  Microphones

  There are plenty of microphones that cost thousands of dollars, but you don't need those. I use a few other microphones, and I have pictures on my 20K page, but this sixty-dollar lapel micrphone is more than enough to record a book with my phone. I also use it to record all my podcast episodes.

  Some lapel microphones use a tiny little circular battery. My other microphone uses a watch battery, model CR-22. I've had to buy enough replacements that I memorized the code. If you don't have a backup battery, you're toast. When you go to the watch store and buy replacement batteries, they'll charge you twenty dollars for a battery. However, if you buy the same battery in a ten-pack off Amazon, you can get ten for about a dollar or two dollars. They are unbelievably cheap until you go to the only places that carry them. You can't find these tiny batteries anywhere else.

  It's the same thing for the little battery that goes in my bathroom scale. It's very similar but just a little bit larger. Circular batteries are always overpriced. When you buy them online, they cost about two percent of what you would pay in the store. I don't want you to get kicked in the teeth because you didn't have a backup battery.

  If you can afford it, it's worth having extra microphone cables, extra batteries, a backup microphone, and different setups. I want to be able to record if the Internet crashes, my laptop dies, or the power goes out. I try to think ahead so that I don't lose loads of time when disaster strikes.

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  Smartphones

  Over the years, I've upgraded different parts of my home studio. Some things stay the same, and some things change. I've been using the same microphone and video camera setup for seven years for my outdoor videos.

  Recently I have started dabbling with recording videos using my iPhone. The quality is
way better than I expected, and you can see some on the 20K page. I recorded the video of me sweating this morning using my phone. You can see the sweat on my face in HD.

  Other than this experiment I have been using the same video camera since I started in this business back in 2010. I'm still waiting for a better camera to enter the market.

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  Video Cameras

  There's nothing comparable to this camera, and everything that's come out since is either way more expensive or way more complicated. Most newer models don't have an input for an external microphone, and that's unacceptable to me. When I knew that the video camera was going to be discontinued, I bought three of them. I already have two lavalier microphones that connect to that model and sound fantastic.

  Even if something goes wrong with one of my microphones I have a backup. I like to back up microphones and power supplies as much as possible.

  Unfortunately, I lost the windscreens for both microphones recently. A windscreen is a little piece of foam that goes on top of a clip-on microphone. That piece of foam seems so innocuous and looks so useless, but when it's gone, every little gust of wind or every time you breathe will sound like Darth Vader. The wind will ruin every recording. Even though this small part seems like “nothing,” it's absolutely critical if you want to record outside.