What is Long Form Narration?

If you are considering a break into the voiceover industry, then this is very likely a term that you have happened across more than once.  However, being new to the profession, you may not be familiar with its meaning.  Though it does not have great meaning in your life now, it will if you do decide to make a go of voiceover. 

Long narration, as the name implies, is a time-consuming venture.  The most common variety of work (or, rather, that which is most recognizable to people) is the audiobook.  The book industry was always large, but the audiobook market has exploded thanks to the technological age.  Not only do buyers have more immediate access to the audio versions of books and better systems on which to listen to them, more and more authors have discovered that it is easier than ever to make- and sell them.  That means a larger selection of audiobooks, which in turn means that buyers are more eager to consider them. It has, in essence, been the perfect storm, creating a truly massive industry.  That is wonderful news for voice over talents, of course.

However, not every long narration is an audiobook.  In fact, that is only one of a long list forming in this category.  Other examples include medical narrations, documentaries, training films, corporate training and marketing presentations, and even recruitment promotions. Many types of long narrations are also used on the internet now. These areas have expanded by a large margin because of the improved technology as well.  (Of course, the number of people working in the voiceover industry has grown by leaps and bounds as well).

There is no exact definition of how long something must be in order to be considered long narration, but in many cases, anything over a few minutes would be placed in this category, so one can see how these jobs would be highly sought after, the real money makers for voiceover professionals.