Before becoming a professional voice talent, I volunteered as a reader for 5 years at the Georgia Radio Reading Service. I read newspapers, Sunday sale pages, magazine articles and books for visually-impaired listeners who heard the broadcast over a special radio. I loved using my voice to help other people.
It is still important to me to be of service to other people. While Drew and I give money to charitable organizations, nothing can match the satisfaction of volunteering one’s time. I have been looking for a service project where I could once again give the gift of my time and voice-over experience to benefit others.
I am pleased to announce that I have decided to volunteer as a narrator for LibriVox, which is an Internet organization that creates audio recordings of works in the public domain. While working in my stunning soundproof studio, I can continue to serve a larger audience of visually-impaired and other people who need and enjoy audiobooks.
10/30/21 Update:
I previously suggested that people volunteer for LibriVox. Be warned that LibriVox releases its recordings into the Public Domain, which means someone else could sell your recording and/or harvest your voice for AI without any compensation to you. For that reason, I no longer recommend newcomers volunteer there.
Hi Karen!
I too have volunteered with Librivox. Love them. Very supportive community. My only issue has been that even if you actually want/crave/desire/NEED feedback on your performance, it’s hard to come by there. This is for a very valid reason: they do not want to discourage volunteers in any way. However, it would be great if they had an easy and highly visible way to address the critique aspect of things. What have you thought of your experience so far?
Best,
Xe Sands