R U VO Enuff?…

…to handle an audiobook?

For a couple of years, now, various coaches, industry-watchers, and publishers have been flying the green flag for the “gold rush”  of jobs narrating audio-books.

It’s true…there are many opportunities for voice actors in this field.  That’s why Amazon’s—>Audible’s—>ACX service (AudioBook Creation Exchange) was launched in the first place.  Management at Audible claimed they were having trouble keeping enough fresh titles on the shelf for voracious listeners.  They needed more published audiobooks, and that meant they needed more narrators.

Voice Actors who hadn’t previously considered tackling the “long-format” rigors of audiobooks were willing to give it a try.

It’s not for everybody.

I’ve seen seasoned and successful commercial voice actors, promo and imaging VO’s, and Radio/TV guys throw up their hands in frustration after the first chapter of an audiobook.

Aside from the maarathon-like endurance you must develop, there are the quirks of the audiobook publishing industry to deal with.  These are people who don’t necessarilly look favorably upon people who are known to be “voice-overs”.  In their minds, a VO means an ex-DJ, or at best a :30 commercial “announcer”.  AudioBook Publishers are looking for classicly trained ACTORS, and thespians…serious DRAMA types.

Taking the quandary even further is the maze of creative arrangements that pass for compensation in this field.  More and more “revenue share” deals are taking hold.  In a revenue share proposal, you narrate the whole transcript, send it to the publisher, they promote and distribute the product, and when it sells, you get a certain percentage of that sale (usually a high percentage)…but until then…you get nothing for your hours of work.  There are all sorts of creatively-designed percentage packages being worked out with revenue share.  Some publishers might offer some hard cash as incentive on top of revenue share.  (ACX has done this with some success).

Further, it’s notoriously difficult to place yourself on the radar screen of an AudioBook Publisher (at least the good ones).  I suppose like anything else, it requires some chutzpah, persistence, talent, and marketing skills…but those skills are a different tool set than what you need to land commercial or e-learning production jobs.  Breaking into Audiobooks means going back to low-budget jobs, just to earn your stripes.

Typically, pay comes in the form of a certain dollar amount per-fiinished-hour.  $50-$100 for starters…and on up the scale to $500+ per-finished-hour for the Scott Bricks and George Guidalls of the world.  Be ready to edit your own stuff for that price too…at least on the beginner-range of jobs.

All this is pretty well summed-up in a great article from yesterday on BACKSTAGE, written by Andrew Salomon. Growing Audio Book Industry Offers Rewards and Challenges for Actors.

Here’s the best quote from Sean Pratt, in the article: “…Go home, go to your bookcase, shut your eyes, reach out, and grab a book. You don’t get to choose. Take that book and sit somewhere quiet and small, like a closet, and read out loud for three hours a day. If you have any stumbles, back up and start the sentence again. If you hit a word you don’t know how to pronounce, go look it up. Do that for three hours a day, for two weeks, and then, if you’re still interested, give me a call…”

There are plenty of satisfying advanatages to being an audiobook narrator: you are at the mic every day, which at least creates the illusion that you’re “always working”.  If you fancy yourself a story-teller more than a product/service spokesman/woman, then this is DEFINITELY for you.  Any sort of theatre background helps… and the character development needed to complete a book with dialogue and male/female conversations stretches your skills in ways you never imagined.  Growth comes with each book.

If you want to know more, please visit the Scoop.it site I curate daily with articles from the web on this very topic.  EVERYTHING AUDIOBOOKS.

My thanks to Sean Allen Pratt for posting the link to the BackStage article on the “AudioBook Crowd” FaceBook Group that I belong to.

CourVO