After I published my last article, Drew and I moved to a new house! We had lived in our other house for 30 years, so it took 6 weeks to get everything relocated from there to here. We’re STILL unpacking and hanging artwork in between our other activities, including actually doing some work!
Like finding the right place to live and physically moving in, choosing the right career — even if it’s a career change — should start with significant self-reflection about the way you want to structure your life, the activities you enjoy, and your skills. I think most people spend more time planning their vacations than they do in planning their lives!
Many people think they want to become an audiobook narrator until they realize that being successful in this career entails a large number of skills and personality traits they may not have considered. I therefore created my Audiobook Narrator Self-Assessment Quiz.
In the first article about analyzing your answers, I explained the rationale behind the questions in the Baseline and Language sections.
Today, we’ll look at the first 8 of the 15 questions in the Personality/Work Habits section.
Do you like to work independently or with other people?
Most narrators work in their home studios without aid from anyone like a director or engineer. As a result, some people report that the isolation and solitary nature of the job wears on them.
However, others say that they feel they need to be around other creative people to maintain their energy. If you fall in this category, you may want to consider renting an office for your booth.
The newer narrator you are, the more you need coaching and directorial guidance to shape your performance. I recommend that you book time with one or more reputable coaches before starting your first projects.
Are you a self-starter?
When I switched from part-time to full-time work at the IRS, I was surprised that they rang a bell at the start and end of each work day. I already was accustomed to the regimented and precise 15-minute break times. Full-time employees also had a 30-minute lunch period. You didn’t go a minute early or stay a minute late during either break or lunch. Any personal business must be attended during those times or off hours.
As an audiobook narrator, you have complete freedom in setting your schedule. No one will be looking over your shoulder telling you when to start or stop work or ensuring that you even perform any work. You don’t fill out time sheets or submit your accomplishments to anyone. Best of all, no one will hound you about the dreaded TPS reports!
Producers and publishers want to work with people they can trust. You prove your value to your clients by being efficient, maintaining communication, and completing quality work within your deadline. You must determine how much time is needed to prep and narrate your book and plan your days around getting it done.
Do you consider yourself organized?
Organizational skills extend beyond the number of papers — or stacks of papers — on your desk. A narrator must manage the project from beginning to end.
Your computer files need to be orderly so that you can quickly and easily find and load the project recordings when you receive corrections. You’ll need to know when, to whom, and for what amount to submit invoices and follow up if payments are late.
Being organized for success includes having the necessary materials to attract clients, especially a well-functioning web site with demos that are labeled and immediately clickable. As somewhat of a tangent about being organized, I also suggest that you have an email address with your own domain as it looks more professional than a free account.
I could write an entire article about organization. Wait. I already did! This article offers lots of ideas and resources related to 3 main areas of organization that would be useful regardless of your career.
Are you detail-oriented?
Attention to detail goes hand in hand with organization. In addition to sometimes extensive pronunciation research on individual projects, which I’ll address in the next article in this series, you ALWAYS need to pay close attention to the recording specifications and file naming conventions provided by each publisher or distributor. Detail-oriented people also log every communication with prospects and clients in order to build and maintain relationships and improve their results.
You need to maintain consistency of character voices across the book or even a series. A large part of your prep for a book is learning about the characters. I described my process and gave an example in the “Take Notes” section of this article.
During the recording sessions, my director makes WAV files of each voice and stores them in a folder for a project. Since they are WAVs, I don’t have to spend time to find and load a different project file in order to hear a character’s voice. This practice becomes even more useful for books in a series as quite some time may pass in between book releases.
When you receive corrections from a proof listener, you’ll want to listen to the original recording in order to match your voice before re-recording the line. Such re-recorded segments, known as “pick-ups”, must be inserted seamlessly into the original recording. Our goal is for listeners to feel like we told the story in one sitting.
Are you adept at time and project management?
If the narrator is also the producer, as is the case on ACX.com, you’re responsible for hiring, scheduling, and paying editors and proof listeners. Once you become established, you could be doing the prep for one book, recording another, and re-recording corrections on a third. Of course, you have other things going on in your life that must be planned and scheduled concurrently with your work.
Are you thick-skinned when it comes to criticism?
As a performance artist, you can’t escape criticism. Audible listeners often hide behind a pseudonym and leave soul-destroying comments about your narration or even you as a person. Professional reviewers will point out flaws in your vocal abilities and acting choices. I therefore encourage you to read my article How Do You Respond to Criticism? for more information and thoughts about coping with the negativity in reviews.
Are you curious? Do you like to learn new things?
I think that if you don’t learn something new almost every day, you might as well be dead. Aside from that mindset, though, I added this question because of the research involved in narration. Fiction books often require a narrator to learn the flavor of an accent in order to portray a character. With a non-fiction book, you need to sound like you know what you’re talking about because you are standing in for the author who is indeed an expert. In either case, getting up to speed quickly will be easier for those who are innately curious.
However, research can easily send narrators exploring one rabbit hole after another. Did I mention you need to be good at time management?
Aside from the research, the best narrators are constantly looking for ways to improve our performances and work flow. We listen to audiobooks, talk with other narrators, get coaching, read articles, and experiment with everything from software usage to mic technique.
How do you deal with constant rejection or perhaps even feeling ignored?
Some new narrators who audition on ACX think the rights holder casting the title should let them know whether they listened to the audition. These same narrators also want feedback about their performance. Experienced pros, on the other hand, know that you do the best you can in the audition, submit it and FORGET it. Actor Bryan Cranston gives the best advice about the actor’s job in the audition process in this 1:22 video.
Beyond auditions, you can expect that you may not receive a response for weeks, months, or ever, no matter how persistent and consistent you are in marketing yourself to prospects. Your goal is to stay in touch frequently enough that you pleasantly stay on the radar of producers and publishers without being perceived as a nuisance. If you need constant strokes of praise and/or can’t live with the uncertainty about your next contract, you will not enjoy being an audiobook narrator.
We’re halfway through this section and will get to the remaining 7 questions in the 3rd article in this series. In the meantime, are you writing things down? To further encourage you to spend time writing answers to the quiz and thinking in depth about how you want your life to be, I will send a special journal to the first 5 people who leave a meaningful comment on this post! I’d love to know your thoughts about the quiz, and, if you’d care to share, any revelations you’ve had after taking it.
Karen, whenever I see a post from you in my email, I read it right along with my inspirational readings for the day … because that’s what you are to me … thank you so much!!
Hi, Denice! I am honored and humbled to receive such a nice message. Thank you!
Please let me know by email if your mailing address is different than the one in the APA database. Otherwise, I will send your journal to that address.
I appreciate your support of and interest in my work.
Karen
Karen, I enjoyed your ACX-U session and am following-up reading blogs on your website and watching linked videos and podcasts (half-way through Seth Godin interview link). So this email blog that arrived today caught my eye. From it, I’ve noted several steps I can do to develop my brand of audio narration and organize my business. Some I can do quickly – listen to 1:22 video – others are in process – create a website with clickable links – and some I will address in the future – an email address with my own domain. Thank you for specific steps to grow my audio narration career — actually, second career. Lynn Carnefix, Vocal Artist
Hi, Lynn! I’m so glad you found the ACX U session to be helpful! I’m writing an article that captures all the links I mentioned (and some I didn’t!), along with the Q&As from the chat.
Please send your mailing address to me by email. I can’t wait to send you the journal!
Karen
Karen, Thank you for the journal you sent in response to my comment on a previous blog entry (which I’ve been unable to find in my search on your site today). I’ve journaled through most of my life and have kept records in a journal since beginning Vocal Artist work again in 2015. The journal you gifted me inspired me to begin journaling often about the process I’m walking through each day. Also, a ransacking break-in in our vacation home, prompted me to sort through all the files there (many of which were strewn across the floor). I’ve found journals dating back to 1960’s. I’ve found records of my work to market my first audiobook produced in early 1990’s. Before I finish sorting and refiling, I hope to find my journals from those years as well. I write all this to concur that journaling our journeys is valuable and insightful and a blessed guide as we walk on.
(Karen moved the comment to the previous entry and comment thread)
Thanks. I look forward to using it. Lynn
This is a quiz that anyone who is interested in voice over work take and then take it to heart! I discovered your blog today while doing some research on a Whisper Room. And, I love it! I downloaded the quiz and started writing down my answers which began to validate why I have become so interested in seriously exploring audio narration. Thank you Karen for being so generous with your sharing experience and expertise.
Hi, Diana! Thanks so much for this enthusiastic note! I’m glad you found the quiz and other content on my site to be useful.
I plan to mail your journal to the address on your web site. If you’d rather I use a different address, please send it to me via email.
Thanks again, and best wishes for your success!
Karen
Thank you Karen. I am excited to receive and start using the journal.
Hi Karen,
This quiz has convinced me that audiobook narration is exactly what I want to do! Thank you for helping to reinforce what I already suspected. BTW, I also work for the IRS and am one of the government employees currently on unpaid furlough so having some additional income from voiceover work would be really helpful since there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for the government shutdown!
Hi, June! Thanks for the nice note. I have every empathy for you and all government employees, contractors, businesses, and families who are immediately affected by this ridiculous government shutdown.
With all respect, though, audiobook narration isn’t a job you can quickly get into for extra money in the current situation. As I explain in part 4 of the explanations about the answers, audiobook narration is a business that has start-up and ongoing costs.
Once you get back to work, you can use that day job to bankroll your business expenses. Get in a habit, if you aren’t already, of saving any raises. Every time I got a step, a grade, or a COLA, I added the new net difference to a savings account that was funded off the top on every check through an allotment. The increases might seem small by themselves, but added together over time, each bi-weekly deduction grew rather large. The cumulative effect of this plan allowed us to comfortably live on my income when my husband was unexpectedly laid off from his job.
I worked full-time at the IRS and part-time in voiceover for 12 years. I found that the joy I experienced in following my voiceover/audiobook dream spilled over into everything else in my life, including the day job.
Please send your mailing address to me via email as I’d love to start your new journey with a journal!
Best wishes to you during this difficult time.
Karen
Oh, one more thing —
You may want to join this FREE webcast on Tues. 1/22/19 from the Audio Publishers Association to hear pros talk about what they wish they knew when they started. It’s open to non-members of APA and is the first time the APA has done such an event.
I am so grateful for the time you’ve put into this article series. I’m a burnt-out middle school teacher who reads and listens to books voraciously to hold onto my sanity. My daydreams have now been of me narrating audiobooks, since I get such joy from listening to them and from telling stories. I’m now coming to understand how much work and training is needed to even THINK about making it more than just a daydream. Thank you for your work!
Hi, Bonnie! When I responded to your comment on part 4 of this series, I forgot to add this request:
If you’ll send me your snail address to me via email, I’d love to send you a special gift to aid your daydreams about your new career.
Thanks again, and best wishes for your success!
Karen
This is my first time reading your articles and I am very excited to try to narrate as a part time job. I’m retired but work part time. Your information is so informative and I look forward to reading more, learning more and making this my new, additional part time job!
Hi, Blondie! Thanks for your good comments. It’s a highly competitive industry, and you’ll find even more advice about becoming a narrator on my new site NarratorsRoadmap.com.
In the meantime, if you send your mailing address to me via email, I’d love to send you a journal in which you can write your hopes and dreams for the future.
Best wishes for your success!
Karen
Wow, thank you for all of the great information. I’ve recently opened a narrator account on ACX.com and have started building my business and production studio. I’ve been researching and googling as much information as I can to make sure I am well prepared for this new adventure in narrating audiobooks. I appreciate all the time you have put into the articles to help people like me know exactly what we are getting into. This quiz has definitely given me lots to think about. It has helped me understand why I have chosen to pursue this career path. And it has given me even more ways to make sure I am successful.
I’m currently answering phone calls for a roadside assistance company as my “day job” until I can transition into narrating as a full time position. I value all of your amazing information and included articles from other audio professionals. I’ve already bookmarked plenty of sites for further research. I have always been told I have a great voice, that I am very articulate and that I have a very calming voice. My kids always preferred me telling their nighttime stories because of how well I could do each character. I understand it takes more than that to be successful as a narrator. But hopefully with lots of hard work, dedication and patience I can make this a new career. I look forward to reading more on both of your sites. Best wishes!
Hi, Jennifer! Thanks for the note. I’m so glad you find my info to be useful.
Yes, you’re right in saying that becoming a narrator requires so much more than having a nice voice. Just about everybody has a nice voice, and this profession is extremely competitive. A journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step, and getting performance coaching from a vetted coach will start you on the right foot.
You’ll find a spreadsheet of coaches, along with a ton of advice from other pro narrators and lots of other resources, linked on the home page of NarratorsRoadmap.com.
Thanks again, and best wishes for your success!
Karen
Hi!
I am a teacher seriously thinking of a career change with everything going on. I am quite skillful (too skillful for some) when I proof written materials. After listening to several audio books, I thought that is what I want to do. However, I think my real niche might be in the editing side. Is it possible to work as a proofer without being a narrator? I noticed in another part of the site that there is a list and experience is necessary to get on that list. Can you offer guidance? Thanks!
Hi, Denise! Thanks for the note.
You mentioned proofing written materials. That part happens when the author or publisher edits the text before publication. It is very different from proof listening to an audiobook.
A proof listener makes sure that the narrator says all of the words on the page in the order they are written without adding, subtracting, or transposing them. Unless the narrator is the author, she has no latitude to change words in the text except in a clear case of a typo. An audiobook proofer notes extraneous sounds, as well as incorrect pronunciations, slurred words, etc.
Like any career, you need some experience before you can consider yourself a professional in the field. This page has some info and resources for learning how to proof listen as a volunteer and gain entry to the field.
It takes a while to market yourself and build your clientele. This article about using volunteer work as a stepping stone in a career change may give you the inspiration and resolve you need.
I hope this info is helpful. Best wishes for your success!
Karen