Author Archives: Emily Curran

There’s no roadmap to building your own narration career. Many independent narrators come to narration as a second profession, without a background in voiceover or audio engineering. With so much to learn and master, embarking on a career in audiobooks can be daunting to say the least. So how do you know if that plunge is one you should take? And where the heck do you start anyway? Well, there’s no one right way, but here to tell you how he built a career in audiobook narration from square one to successful Audible Approved Producer of more than 40 audiobooks, is “The Darkly Sophisticated British Storyteller,” Hannibal Hills. You may not follow the exact same path, but you’re sure to find some important road markers for your own journey.

The Inspiration

I was almost forty-six when I first read from a book into a microphone. This isn’t unusual in the world of audiobook narration—many of the voices you hear reading your favorite books came to the job with half a lifetime of experience in very different roles, and so it was with me. Although I trained in theater back in the early 1990s, I left that path. For a time I worked in banking, and for twenty years after that I was a self-employed web designer. I also worked as a wedding minister from my thirties on. Many narrators carry a love of performance from childhood, like a pilot light that waits patiently to be needed. After officiating one summer wedding, a guest made an off-the-cuff remark about wishing I could read them an audiobook. I remember the glimmer of a notion that maybe I would like to try that. Four years later, I finally did.

The First Auditions

In February 2017, on impulse, I decided to buy an hour of time at a small local studio with good, promising reviews—just to read something into a “real microphone” in a “real space.”I came out of that first session longing for something more substantial to read and most importantly, I had finally been behind the microphone, and I liked it. I liked it very much.

I then found ACX via Google, and it was very easy to create a profile. I booked a second hour in the local studio the following week and picked three books to audition for: a comedy, an urban fantasy, and a non-fiction title. I recorded the scripts, paid extra for the studio engineer to tidy up and master the final takes, and uploaded the files with a polite message of greeting to the authors. To my astonishment, forty-eight hours later I had been offered contracts for all three. This was my first major decision point. I knew I enjoyed recording, but also knew I would have to pay for the studio time. For three books, this was a much bigger expense, but I felt it was something I had to do. Recording for two or three hours a week, in a couple of months those books were done. So far, it was still just an expensive hobby. But I loved the process, and by the end of the first book I knew I never wanted to stop.

The Engineering

I made an agreement with my engineer, who would work for a cut of the royalties from the next book. This actually turned out a very good deal for all concerned, and we ultimately did five titles together—one of those books is still my best-selling Royalty Share project—but recording at a local studio had two significant drawbacks: it was cost-prohibitive and studio time was extremely limited.

From the beginning, I had been tracking my audiobook costs and income on a spreadsheet, and projecting probable earnings at various levels of output. I had already figured out this was a long game, and that I would not be making a sustainable full-time income for at least two years, and not unless I could record on my own terms in my own space. Looking back, the first couple of years narrating were primarily about investment: investing in time, in coaching, in a proper recording space and equipment, in learning more and more every day, and sticking with it every day, because momentum is essential.

Choosing and Funding a Home Studio

I live in a noisy location: heavy road and air traffic, many neighbors keen on gardening and DIY projects, and at the time we owned the world’s loudest cat. I realized quickly that blankets would not be enough to dampen the intrusive sounds. Between March and May of 2018, I worked hard at projecting the numbers for costs and income, and started inquiring about loans to cover the cost of a recording booth that would be good enough to beat the local noise pollution. Needing a booth that I could access twenty-four hours a day, in a location already available for free, I decided on our vacant guest bedroom. After gathering quotes for booth construction and some long, frank conversations with my wife, I talked to my bank and they offered me an “equipment” loan, which meant a lower rate than a typical personal loan. With those funds, I purchased my 6’ by 4’ Vocalbooth Platinum. I know that many narrators thrive with a much less expensive space treatment, but in my location I needed more. I have not regretted it a single moment, and in the two years I’ve had it, my beloved booth has given me a consistent,  professional sound quality that has allowed me to audition and perform with confidence, and prevented many noise issues that would have caused extensive and costly edits or re-takes.

Becoming an Editor

Having moved into my home studio, I needed to learn to edit and post-produce my own files—a significant undertaking. I tried months of tinkering, slowly improving, but finally knew I needed a professional to help. The marvelous Tim Tippets helped me create the right effects stack (the order in which one applies effects like EQ and compression to their audio files), and streamline the whole process. Sean Pratt, about whom you’ll learn in the next installment, had already taught me the essential value of “punch and roll,” a recording technique that makes audiobook editing far easier. Knowing that you have your process down means you can concentrate on performance and career-building. For narrators, I now believe the end goal is to outsource editing and post-production, but first we should know how to process our own audio. As with your recording space, the right DAW (your Digital Audio Workstation—the software used to record, edit, and post-produce audio) is different for everyone. I now record in Reaper and edit in Audition. There are a variety of DAWs that will get the job done; it’s about creating a system and process flow that gives you confidence and allows you to get on with the job of performance most effectively. For me, the simplicity and comfort of the Reaper interface perfectly suits my needs during the performance phase, while the functionality of Audition allows me to process every aspect of my recording and easily master files to the right specifications.

At this point, I had recorded over a dozen books, and learned a lot about the technical part of the process. But, I knew I still had a great deal more to learn about performing, and especially how to find work, build my brand, and to take my career to the next level.

Stay tuned for the second part of Hannibal’s narration career journey, where he’ll tackle specializing, outsourcing, and goal-setting.

Audiobook airwaves are all a-flutter with a spectrum of sweet-to-sizzling love stories for the month of February. Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward have dozens of individual NY Times best-selling romance titles between the two of them, and together they have co-authored nine novels and counting that have gone on to capture the ears of audiobook listeners with the voices of Sebastian York, Andi Arndt, and other top narrators. In celebration of their gal-mance and gal-mances everywhere, we got them to tell us (and romance writers looking to learn from their success), what they love about each other’s audiobooks. Take it away, ladies!

Authors Vi Keeland (l) and Penelope Ward (r)

Vi Keeland: Just One Year is one of my very favorite audiobooks for so many reasons. It starts out as a light and fun story about a British college student coming to the United States to study abroad, but turns into a heartfelt story exploring why we sometimes need to travel far to find ourselves. One reason I loved the audio of Just One Year, and it might just be at the top of my list of reasons to listen to this book, is the hero’s sexy British accent. So, when I sat down to ask Penelope some questions, I was curious to know how she decided which narrator was the right fit for her character. Penelope, before you decided on casting, how many narrators did you listen to?

Penelope Ward: I actually listened to several! I had a pretty good idea whom I might want to cast as the hero, but I wanted to keep an open mind before finalizing my decision. I’d never written a British hero into my solo books before, so this was my opportunity to branch out and use a new-to-me narrator. I’d listened to Shane East several times before, so it felt comfortable casting him.

VK: How did you find narrators with a British accent to listen to?

PW: I knew a few because I’m an avid audio listener myself, but I also checked out Audible’s Accent on Love page. They list books with all different accents.

VK: Did you write the “British” into your book or give the narrator free rein to decide how to make the character sound like a true Brit?

PW: A bit of both, actually. I incorporated some British terms into the written book to give the narrators something to work with. But the narrator also had free rein to determine which words to play up with the accent more than others when speaking. If there are special notes about pronunciations, accents, or any other concerns, I make them known to the narrators when I send them the manuscript. However, since I’m privileged to work with very experienced talent, I pretty much let them do their thing with little guidance. They always message me if they have questions along the way.

PW: Okay Vi, now I have some questions for you! I recently listened to Inappropriate and loved it. It’s actually my favorite book of yours. One of the things I loved was the dual narration of Sebastian York and Andi Arndt. They just became Grant and Ireland, and their performances were amazing.  Sebastian’s deep, sexy voice was perfect for the alpha CEO, and true to the typical Vi Keeland heroine, Ireland is strong, independent, and feisty, and Andi nails that side of her personality. Why did you choose dual narrators over a single narrator?

VK: I think dual narration allows listeners to connect to the individual characters more. It also provides a nice break of voice, which keeps the material feeling fresh. I’ve been dying to try duet narration, and I think Inappropriate would have also been perfect for that.

PW: What’s the difference between dual narration and duet narration?

VK: In duet narration the female reads all the female parts and the male reads all the male parts—they’re acting it out together. Whereas in dual narration, one person reads an entire chapter based on which point of view is being presented in the text, so that each narrator must read both the female and male roles at times. Lauren Blakely does a ton of amazing full-cast and duet narration audiobooks.

PW: I think you should definitely try that! Okay, here’s an unrelated question. If you could choose one actor to voice one of your characters in an audiobook, who would it be and why?  You have no budget constraints!

VK: I think I’d have to pick Sam Elliott! I’m in love with his voice. It’s iconic and memorable, and his delivery is just so dry and on point with sarcasm.  Same question for you…who would you dream cast?

PW: For a male, I would have to say Josh Duhamel. I was watching a movie with him once and couldn’t help but think how good his voice would be for an audiobook. For a female narrator, I would say Claire Danes. I recently listened to her narrate The Handmaid’s Tale.

VK: While we’re on the subject of iconic voices, do you ever give direction to your narrators using a famous actor or scene that you had in mind while writing dialogue?  For example, if your character is saying “Could you be any more difficult?” you might suggest the narrator make it sound like Chandler from Friends?

PW: Not yet, but that’s a great way of helping give the proper direction for a performance. It’s a little more specific than a direction like “spoken with a Southern twang” or something like that!

Okay…one last question. Who’s your favorite author to co-write with when publishing audiobooks?

VK: I’ll get back to you on that one. 😉

We’re a month into 2020, and now is a great time to check in on your 2020 goals to see what progress you’re making. Didn’t make any resolutions? It’s not too late! There’s still 11 months left to set and meet some big audiobook goals for this year. Not sure where to start? We’ve got a device that can help you figure it out: S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, and Time-Related, and when applied to planning for the coming year, it can help you set goals that you’ll actually attain. Here’s your ACX guide to putting S.M.A.R.T. to work for you.

S is for Specific

Think about any task you set out to complete—it’s always easier to get it done if you have good, clear instructions. Choosing definite areas for your goals makes it easier for you to get to work on them and measure your progress. For example, if you’re an author, instead of setting the goal of growing your fanbase, consider setting a goal of increasing your social media followers on Facebook or Twitter specifically. If you’re a narrator, instead of setting the goal of expanding your repertoire as a voice actor, perhaps you set a goal to master one or two new specific accents or dialects.

M is for Measurable

Setting goals that are measurable is essential to achieving them—otherwise, you have no way of determining whether your goals have been met. That means you need quantifiable indicators of progress. So, if you’re that author that wants to grow your social media followers on Twitter, set an amount by which you’d like to grow them. Or if you’re a producer and your goal is to master a new dialect, maybe your quantifiable indicator of progress is adding a sample with that dialect to your ACX profile, or auditioning for three new titles for which that accent is required.

A is for Assignable

This one might not make sense for you at first glance—but as self-publishing authors and independent producers, you are your own business, so wouldn’t you just assign everything to yourself? Not quite. Maybe this means taking the time to assess your workflow to see what you can outsource. For authors, that might be cover art or advertising graphics, as a producer, maybe that’s editing and post-production. But it could also mean taking a look at all the different hats you wear as an indie creator, and determining which of your many personas each goal falls under. Is it your writer persona that will be working toward  these goals? Your publicist persona? Your actor? Your engineer? Assigning your goals to the different sides of yourself-as-business can be a good way to make sure you stay focused and on task (authors have told us, for instance, that they separate writing work from marketing work by time of day, so they can better “activate” those areas of their brain to get the job done). If you have too many goals in one area of your business, it might be the time to consider balancing with other goals or outsourcing some work. Which conveniently brings us to our next point…

R is for Realistic

We know you’re dreamers and risk-takers—as independent creators, you have to be! But when setting smart goals for yourself, it’s important that most are things you could realistically achieve. Consider the resources you’re working with—time, skills, finances, outsourcing, and what you’ve managed to achieve in similar periods in the past—and set your goals accordingly. For example, if you’re that author looking to grow your social media followers, look at how your followers have grown in previous terms. If you’re a voice actor mastering those dialects, consider how long it took you to learn similar skills in the past. Maybe that means increasing your goals compared to past years if you’ve gained more resources, or maybe it means pulling back a little if you’ve found yourself overwhelmed. Either way, setting realistic goals is a great way to keep yourself motivated—or put another way, setting a bunch of goals you won’t achieve is a great way to get discouraged fast. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dream big—you can break big goals down into smaller goals so you’re hitting milestones along the way, and you can and should set a few reach goals for yourself outside the ones you know are realistic to give yourself something to keep reaching for.

T is for Time-Related

We all know we start big with the enthusiasm when we set new goals, but it can be difficult to maintain that momentum if we don’t have deadlines. When setting your goals, be sure to specify when you want to complete them by and whether it’s a short, medium, or long-term goal. Maybe you set your social media follower goal at 100 new followers in three months, 300 in six months, and 1,000 by the end of the year. If you’re that dialect-mastering narrator, set a date by which you want to submit your first audition in that dialect. And if you aren’t already, consider using a marketing or production calendar to track your goals and keep yourself accountable. It doesn’t hurt to put a little pressure on yourself to stay motivated, and seeing a deadline in writing can do just that.

Now that you know how to plan your goals for the new year and beyond, we want to hear what they are! Let us know in the comments if you’re setting any 2020 audiobook publishing goals, and what you’re doing to make sure you’re meeting them. Now get to work—you only have 11 months to go!