Audio Book Narrator: Breaking In

I have a few friends who have good track-records in voicing audio-books and they are all professional actors of many years' standing. From what I know about the business, which isn't much, it's not something you can get involved with without a lot of acting experience, good connections, and a lot of luck.

ETA: you know, this isn't really appropriate for Ask The Agent so I'm going to move it to Networking.

Ooh, this is a good place to post, if you're looking to break into book narration. I'm sure I'm not the only writer who's considering self-publishing my novels in audio format on podiobooks.com. I would prefer a male narrator who can read professionally. My own voice = not so good.

I agree with you about Roy Dotrice, but he's light years better than that other guy they got to read Book 4 in the series. There are some truly wonderful, and truly terrible, audio-book narrators out there. Scott Brick is one of the better ones. When I make my novels into audio-books, I want high quality.

I guess you could research audio-book sound production companies, and apply. You might also consider a community service program for the blind; I believe they need readers, and that might look good on a resume.

So ... uh ... what sort of voices do you feel comfortable doing? My main characters are male, but one is an 11-year-old. And I also have a few female characters, including an elderly foreign lady. I'm going to need someone who can handle a wide variety of voices without coming off cheesy, a la Scott Sigler attempting to do female voices.

I'm not quite ready to self-publish, but please keep me in mind! Here's my website.

Though I myself am not in need of a narrator, I can second the opinion that writer's communities are a good place to start. Being a "freelance narrator" might pay less, but it's a way to get experience about the craft & get a foot in the door (or so I would think). Once you have some good audio books to prove your skills, it should be easier to get jobs with bigger publishers.

Lost World said:

Sorry, wasn't sure where to put it. Your observation is appreciated. Most audio narrators are great at it, but a few of them are terrible. I could never hope to match Scott Brick at reading thrillers, but I beat the hell out of Roy Dotrice any day reading A Dance With Dragons. That was one of the most annoying audio productions I've ever listened to, had to keep going back over passages because I couldn't understand him. So I read some passages myself and taped them on the pocket recorder I use for my writing thoughts. At least I thought I was an improvement...

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Heehee...so funny how opinions vary. I LOOOOVE Dotrice in all the ASOIAF books, and I think Scott Brick, while he speaks clearly all the time, often sounds smarmy or condescending, even when the text doesn't call for it. (He's still pretty good in my book, though.)

As for your question, I do have a bit of an answer for you, since I looked into this myself once. I was told I should develop a good "reel" of reading books. Get at least one good nonfiction piece in there, and a few fiction pieces from various genres. Try to adapt your presentation to the genre/book, and select material that shows a range of what you're capable of. Keep each segment of your reel to 2 - 3 minutes.

You'll also want to develop a resume that shows your talents as a performer. If you have acting experience, that is extremely useful. Radio presentation? Run a popular podcast? Member of Toastmasters? Anything that shows you have experience in making entertaining presentations will help. Looking for opportunities to work as a voice actor will help you get into audiobook narration.

Then, when you have a good resume and a good reel, approach the various audiobook companies and ask if you can submit your reel for them to keep on file. Don't expect them to have actual openings -- it's rare for them to have an immediate need for narrators. But they'll have you on file, and if they like your reel they'll eventually start assigning you to books. Once you get one job, the rest usually follow quickly if you've done a good job.

Of course, as always, if you know somebody in the company your chances of getting work increase dramatically!

Good luck...it's still something I'm considering. I might release my own self-published book as a podiobook and see whether it's popular at all, and if it is, I may try to leverage that into a way into the professional narration world.

Audible.com (which holds a virtual monopoly on online audiobook sales) has a small section about applying to be a narrator on their contact page. I think they pretty much only work with established professionals, but since they are producing more of their own audiobooks, they might hire someone whose voice talent really impresses them.

I listen to a lot of audiobooks. It takes more than just good enunciation and diction to be a good audiobook reader.