Whether you are just beginning or a professional, I cannot recommend too highly my voice-over coach Susan Berkley for training classes. Susan is the voice of AT&T, Citibank and other companies. She holds teleclasses, voice-over bootcamps and specialized workshops throughout the year to meet the needs of voice-over students.

I am a member of Susan’s inner circle coaching program and have taken several classes that she sponsored. One reason I like the Inner Circle so much is because we have a monthly teleclass. We usually speak with someone in the voice-over industry, but we also have branched out and talked with experts in business areas like marketing. I was excited last night because we spoke with my friend and teacher Hillary Huber about audiobooks.

Hillary was just nominated for an Audie Award by the Audio Publishers Association (I linked to the complete list of finalists). The Grammys only have 2 categories for spoken word, so the Audie awards were established to recognize excellence within the audiobook industry. Hillary’s nomination for this prestigious award was in the mystery category for the book A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Reed.

Hillary talked with us about her process of researching the book prior to recording it. It’s not enough for her to simply look up pronunciations of words. Whenever possible, she contacts the author to glean insights about the characters.

She also talked about how she obtained the work. The audiobook industry is burgeoning, and voice talent can independently obtain work without an agent.

Next month, Susan is sponsoring a very specialized workshop in NY on obtaining work in audiobooks. The class will be taught by Pat Fraley and Hillary Huber, and it will be limited to 12 attendees. Special guests in this upcoming class will be multiple Audie-award winner Barbara Rosenblat (who is once again nominated this year) and Grammy-winning producer Paul Ruben, who will direct you in the studio. You will produce your audiobook demo while you’re in the workshop.

I took this class with Pat and Hillary in LA. They are lovely people and fantastic teachers. You can read about my experiences in that class on my blog. As marvelous as the LA class was, I think this upcoming New York class will be even better due to the presence of these particular guests. I almost wish I could go again!

On-going training is a necessity in this business. If you call Susan’s offices, please tell them that I referred you. You will always receive excellent value for the money with her programs.