A few years ago, I started my audio publishing empire with a public domain book. Today, I am thrilled to publish my first contemporary audiobook ROAD TO TARA: THE LIFE OF MARGARET MITCHELL by Anne Edwards.
I’m not the first narrator to acquire audio rights and publish an audiobook of a current book. Nevertheless, I wanted to retrace my steps in this article to inspire more of you to follow a similar path. As actor/writer/director Bob Fraser used to urge people, you can cast yourself!
This Date In My History is an ongoing series of blog posts taken directly from my private journal entries and are intended to help others along their path. I usually use an entry that is at least 10 years old. However, today is the 4th anniversary of a significant change for me. Perhaps after reading it, you’ll want to make the same change.
I received a Joyfully Jobless newsletter from Barbara Winter today. I just signed up for her newsletter recently although I’ve known about her for years.
Today’s was titled “The Company You Keep”. She wrote that John Tesh had received a letter from a 15-year-old boy who wanted to know how to make it in the music business. Tesh
said his best advice to was to listen to great music every day and study what other musicians do.
She also gave the example of Simon Cowell, who said that in his early days,
he was a sponge soaking up the advice of those around him who were more experienced.
She continued:
I’m surprised to discover that everyone isn’t an enthusiastic student of success…Would-be writer is not an active reader. Would-be entrepreneurs have never had a conversation with someone who is successfully self-employed about how they got started…
So where do you want to succeed? Study those who have done what you want to do. Absorb the lessons of success, not failure.
With that in mind, I realize I need and want to be an active audiobook listener. I think the last one I heard was in Hawaii last year [a year before this writing].
I downloaded Anne Frank Remembered narrated by the audiobook master herself, Barbara Rosenblat…I’ll be listening to the phrasing and pauses as much or more than the accent.
I will listen to an audiobook every day on my day job. It’s another good way to prepare for the audiobook success and constant work that is coming to me. I’m also thinking it would be great to listen to a book while swimming. I’ll have to give it a try.
1) To quote the fabulous and wise Barbara Winter one more time: Be a keen observer. Identify with excellence at every turn. It will make a huge difference in your ultimate results.
2) If you want to narrate books, you need to listen to books. If you’re an author who is considering making an audiobook from your text, you need to listen to books.
For the past 4 years, I have listened to an audiobook every day. I have listened to an average of 20 books in each of those years. Since audiobooks are a multitasker’s dream come true, you can listen while doing some other activity. This thread on Goodreads will give you some ideas of how to include audiobooks in your schedule.
3) I do listen to books while swimming, and I highly recommend the Waterfi waterproof Shuffle for that purpose. Since I don’t swim every day, I’ve found that it helps if I already know the story. Gone With the Wind accompanied me in the pool last summer, and I’m determined to finish it this summer! 🙂
Gone With the Wind is my favorite movie of all time. I could give so many reasons for liking it, but you would wonder why I thought about it today when this is a blog about voice-over. True, I was born and live in Atlanta, but a ride on public transportation to downtown Atlanta this morning actually reminded me of something in the movie.
Remember the big scene early in the film at the magnificent Twelve Oaks estate, where everyone went for the barbeque? The camera panned to a sign on the grounds that said:
Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.
No matter where I go, I always have things with me to advance my voice-over goals. I press any spare time into service. On the way to my appointment this morning, I studied background material for a major audition. Other times, I may:
In addition, my PDA cell phone is a Pocket PC, so I can surf the web and get e-mail anywhere. I can read my voice-over newsgroups and blogs while commuting. I also can respond to inquiries about projects and review web sites of prospective companies. Time spent on public transportation or in places like a doctor’s waiting room are always highly productive for me.
Whenever I ride public transportation, I have noticed that a majority of people get on board clutching their cell phones like Linus from the Peanuts cartoon clutched his security blanket.
I have observed that an incredible number of people are chronic cell phone abusers. Even at 7:00am, a girl sitting near me felt the overwhelming compulsion to call someone! She continued her conversation for the entire 40-minute trip; she was still talking when I left the bus.
Riding public transportation in the afternoons is like walking into the stock market, with everyone laughing and shouting into their phones as though they are the only people who exist on the planet. Aside from the fact that no one else around wants to hear these inane conversations — especially at 7:00am! — I have some advice for those of you who are serious about your careers in voice-over.
Hang up the phone.
Think of it as a golden opportunity to rest your voice.
People reach for their cell phones because they are afraid to be alone with the silence of their own thoughts.
I take notes as I read books, and you may have noticed that I love quotes. From one of the many marketing and publicity books I have read, I wrote down this quote:
Think.
Make time for self-examination.
[in the example of commuters on a train, the author wrote that]
Instead of contemplating something or giving their thoughts free rein,
they get on their cell phones.
Cell phones allow you to have conversations to pass the time
instead of passing the time in actual thought.
When I arrived at my destination building this morning, I got on the elevator with a girl who had a book in her hands. It was titled French in 10 Minutes A Day. I commented on her book, and she proudly told me that she was adding another language to her arsenal. I inquired about her other language skills, and she said she speaks Spanish and Arabic. She obviously is a girl who is going places — and not just in the elevator!
I often hear comments from people that they would love to start their career in voice-over or they want to do more marketing to increase their voice-over jobs, but….they don’t have time. We all have the same number of hours in a day. Since time is your most precious commodity, the question you should ask yourself is:
How do you want to spend your next 24 hours?
