How to Become an Audiobook Narrator

Audiobooks are a growing industry within the publishing world. With on-the-go lifestyles,

reading a book is not always possible but on-the-go listening is. While audiobooks have been around for a long time mostly for educational uses, they are more popular now than ever. Writers and publishers want to get their books out especially on Amazon and iTunes and Audible which is another revenue area for voice over talent or narrators… also know as readers.

Audiobooks are an Added Avenue for Voice Over Work

For voice over actors doing an audiobook is often easy. Actors are trained to do characters, narration, understand tones and subtle voice changes. They understand how to make a book interesting to listen to and draw the audience in.

Finding Your Niche

As with any actor, you have a niche of work; the same applies to audiobooks. Fiction books are character-based so you have to be able to switch between characters. Non-Fiction might be more your speed, fewer characters, and the storytelling is more about vocal inflection. While doing both is a possibility, it depends on your skill set and range.

Where to Start

For a voice over actor audiobooks give another line of potential jobs. There are several places to get your foot in the door. Many voice over actors find that audiobook training with a coach is helpful.

Listen to audiobooks to learn what to do and what not to do. This is also a way of seeing what potential authors will like and not like. When narrating a book, you are painting a picture for the listener. A picture that is as close to what the author intends to be seen. Which is why narrating fiction can be harder for a non-actor. Non-Fiction content

can tend to be dry so making it enjoyable to listen to and interesting is essential.

Production of the Audiobook

Audiobooks do require editing. Depending on how you are hired they may expect you to do the editing, which can take additional time. There are freelance editors for hire that will edit as per your instructions fr very reasonable fees. This also gives you as narrator/reader the chance to “get out from under” your POV and get another’s.

If you are not experienced in editing, then start with smaller projects and work your way up to larger more extensive editing projects.

There are several freelance broker options for finding audiobooks, some are sites that have many job types listed and others like Audiobook Creative Exchange (ACX) that is solely for audiobook work.

Fees

There are two main ways that a voice narrator gets paid for audiobook work. The two payment options are a flat rate per hour or royalties. Royalties are more commonly offered, as it reduces the authors’ upfront costs. Per hour, you will get paid after the completion of the book. Remember that a per hour rate is a more stable way of getting paid. Royalties do involve risk.

Royalties are paid out monthly on sales for the previous month. If you choose royalties, then research the author before reaching an agreement. Check for the author’s platform and decide if you want more projects with that author. If you are looking for a long-term relationship, then a royalty deal may mean more audiobook deals.

Places to Find Audiobook work

Connecting through a client or a broker in your network is one way to get an audiobook job.This will also allow you to set your rate and make the most money on a job.

Upwork, Freelancer, and Audiobook Creative Exchange (ACX) are sites that have jobs and are based on bidding, so you will find that you are getting paid less per job. These sites have pros and cons. If you are newer to the industry or not working on a job, they give you a huge range of jobs and you can build your portfolio. However, the rates are not as favorable for you. And remember that you each time you accept a fee or terms you are also representing the industry as a talent. So, do be aware of accepting or requiring reasonable rates that uphold industry standards as a professional talent.

With the popularity and rise of audiobooks there is a clear area for jobs that a voice narrator is a perfect fit for. With some knowledge of editing and communication with the author about what they are looking for, and an interesting “easy to listen to” narration style, Audio Book narration can be work that you may have not have previously considered and can benefit from moving forward.

Are Your Demos Over Produced?

Before I explain the title of this article I should mention a few things first. Like many beginning voice talent back in in the early 1990s I did not have a lot of actual recorded work to create a good demo from. So I had to fake it a bit by recording sound clips from scripts I found or wrote myself. Back then, I was recorded on 2” analog tape. Which was then transferred to DAT tape from which I made my cassette tape copies. Whoopie! Pretty high tech stuff, huh? 

The recording quality, however, was excellent since I was being recorded by a good engineer in a famous Nashville studio known for it’s music production. But still, every cut on the demo sounded the same… too similar. So, it was really obvious that my demo did not consist of actual work but was all “fake” work, recorded at the same in the same place. Music and SFX were created by the engineer. I can spot this type of demo easily when I listen to some demos from newer talent. 

When faced with this dilemma I suggest you at least record your “clips” at different studios or with different mics to vary the sound a bit. Not that you are trying to fool anyone but that it shows that you are at least getting around doing voiceovers. This will also add interest and diversity to your demos. 

Just make sure that your demos are not overly “produced”.

Back when I made my first few demos, all the production work was BIG. But I believe that today a HUGE, over produced demo from a voice actor/voiceover talent is overkill. Most clients… film & commercial producers, TV/radio producers, video production companies, etc.

are more interested in hearing your VOICE and a good strong, authentic performance. Rather than an overblown demo, all recorded at the same time, same place. But you still must maintain a broadcast quality sound throughout your demo. 

Now, having said that… here’s the thing! When you have enough great material to put together a strong, interesting demo that is a good repeatable representation of your voice and what you can do with it, then by all means make your demo by combining those clips. Now, what’s pretty slick is… those clips you have from actual work have already been fully produced. So, you simply have to put the clips together in an interesting, clever, professional way to create an effective demo. Since your voice is often EQed/processed and/or mixed differently by different producers, you will have a diverse sounding demo that showcases you as an obviously working talent. 

These days I produce my own demos. Many of which are geared toward the various industries that I tend to work in. Such as with my Agriculture Demo, Health Care Demo, Financial Demo, etc. Maybe the word “produce” is a bit of a stretch since I’m using clips from the work I’ve done (already fully produced), tweaking the levels or EQ a bit maybe and overlapping/quick-fading each clip to create a 1:00-1:30 demo. 

Now, I don’t always recommend that talent create their own demos. Especially if they are a newbie and are still learning their editing equipment. And some talent just don’t have the “ear” for that. 

When I create my own demos, I have to “sit” on them for a while. Getting opinions and simply coming back on different days with fresh ears to review what I’ve done to make sure I’ve put together a dynamic, effective demo. This can be a tedious process but is well worth the result. I’ve found that my self-made demos work quite well helping to secure new work.

There is much more to consider on this topic… much more to talk about regarding the creation of VO talent demos. I’ll have to cover that in future articles. 

So.. go out there and make some great demos!

*If you'd like, check out some of my DYI demos at www.ricklancesudio.com