What It's Like To Be An Audiobook Narrator

Over the past few months, I've become an audiobook narrator. This is one of many careers I've had in the space of the 5 years since leaving school. The others being copywriter, financial journalist, masseur, estate agent, SMS psychic hotline responder and probably some other ungodly jobs I've erased from my memory. Though most of those are equally ungodly.

Swiftly moving on, I just thought I'd share with you what I've learned producing audiobooks. I have 3 audiobooks out now on Audible (links at the end). Although I haven't earned much money from it yet - it's something I've really enjoyed. It's fired every creative neuron in my brain. As much as anything it gives you an excuse to dwell in an imaginary world for some time and escape yourself. I guess that's why anyone gets into acting. You can have multiple identities, you can wear different personalities, different skins. It's intense work that uses every fibre of your being. It gives you a incredibly safe space where you can express feelings and energy. It's a kind of socially acceptable madness & genius.

You start the process by going through ACX.com - this is a website owned by Amazon. It matches up Authors and Publishers with Narrators/Audiobook Producers.

Then it came down to equipment. For Christmas I bought the Zoom H1 Handy Recorder on the recommendation of a friend. He said some BBC Radio producers use this microphone to record outside the studio. Having tested it's really good for 360 degree sound or eavesdropping on conversations (not that I have overheard anything I'm not supposed to). However, in hindsight, audiobooks lend themselves more to direct, face on communication. You're having a conversation with the listener. So I would have bought a cardoid mic which instead of capturing the noise 360 degrees around, it collects the sound from a kind of heart shape in front of it. But by the time I started, I wasn't going to buy another microphone.

The next step was doing some samples for your profile. Here's my profile . I took some of my favourite books, sat in the shed at the end of the garden and tried to bring them to life. I did 'Toast' by Nigel Slater, where I was a 10 year old boy describing the taste of crispy bread and melting butter. Then there was 'Perfume from Provence' by Lady Winnifred Fortescue in the 1920s who moved to the South of France. I had to be the posh old Lady bossing the servants around. Then there were some other non-fiction books that I made as samples and that was that.

After that I started auditioning. I did it in drifts and drabs. I might do a couple in an afternoon then not touch it for a month. But I persisted when I had the motivation and energy. I'd lost hope and confidence after a while. But then after 3 months and 10 auditions I got my first job - "The Trials of Sherlock Holmes"

I was unprepared. The problem was, listening back to my files I was noticing the birds, the traffic, the radiators turning on and floorboards creaking. You think oh crap. So I rummaged around the internet and eventually found a good ebook "The Stressed Out Writer's Guide to Recording Your Own Audiobook" This explained that in order to get a low noise floor, you need to isolate the sound with a studio. But as most people can't do that, the best way is to create a mini studio. Or rather, a box.

So there I was finding the box and foam and it just so happened we had the right stuff laying around the house and I cut up the foam, glued it around the edges of the box, made a little dint for where the microphone would stand and voila.

Then it came the performance. It was hard. I didn't realise quite how much energy it would take to produce even just a few minutes of audio. I did a lot of research on the characters and drew on what I'd seen in the BBC Sherlock series and my knowledge of Central London. Then I just recorded straight through in chunks. The hard thing about audiobooks as opposed to other acting is that you are all the characters and you are also all the scenery. You are the buildings. You are the people. And you are also the empty space between those characters. You are the atmosphere. And you have to convey all that within your voice.

Thankfully I had a very vivid imagination and bursts of intense energy (which is why I needed something like this to channel it into). And I performed it. I would have a picture of everything in my mind's eye. You go into a kind of trance as you perform, and every time you do it it's different. Depending on what you sense on the day, the energy of characters will have a life of themselves. I'd change the voice for each character, but perform it all linearly. I felt it best that way. Then you carry the flow of the story all through in one. Some performers will seperate different characters and record their parts seperately, but that I think can harm the momentum of the story. If you make a mistake, you just pause, calm down and resay that line.

It does drive you nuts and it is frustrating. I was screaming and banging my head against the box at least once every session, but it was the most worthwhile energising work I've done. During it, or even at the end I'd feel a bit dizzy, light-headed, often quite nauseous and shaky. But then I'd do something grounding, really dull like doing the washing up and it would pass. Effectively you're creating a whole universe out of the ether, so it's natural I guess to feel a bit queasy afterwards.

The next step was editing which was a real pain in the backside. First you have to clip every mistake. Then you have to rebalance the audio levels, cut down the noise floor. It was tiring job, especially since I had a very slow 5 year old laptop at the time. Every stage took 5-20 minutes and it was just slow slow slow. Nevertheless I ploughed through the frustration and self doubt. And eventually it came out.

Only then, ACX found some technical problems and wanted them fixed. So I had to go through the whole process again. But after that it was released.

I created a little video for the first one. Maybe a little slow, but it was just for promotion. Then the author loved it so much he made his own trailer.

After this the sales dropped in, little by little, one by one. I'd obsessively check the sales dashboard on ACX every morning. It was lovely to see those first sales drop in. And more importantly it was the realisation of: "I can be paid for doing something I enjoy!"

After this, the publisher approached me to do other books. I've now got 3 available for sale. And the fourth book is in the process of being edited.

So far, I haven't had masses of sales. Mid-double figures. And if you factor in all the time I've spent learning and producing and editing, I'm earning less than the minimum wage. I probably couldn't afford to do it if I wasn't living with my parents and hadn't made some money writing on here for Steemit last year. (Typical Millenial excuse for not having a proper job)

But once you have enough money for your basic needs, you start to focus on and work on things which have a more soulful purpose. Or moreover, things that only you can do. I mean I have this intense creative energy and vision that I have to channel into something otherwise I will end up in the funny farm.

On the other hand, these audiobooks are assets. They are passive income. It's another dribble of a few pounds here and there every month. And ideally I want to build a kind of back catalogue of stories of maybe 50, or 100. It's developing a craft. And I guess once you have a certain portfolio it's easier to get new and better jobs. I don't know.

So what's it like being an audiobook narrator? Extremely intense hard work which is underpaid at least to start with. However it's an incredibly rewarding on inner, psychosocial development level. Is that even a word? Never mind.

Thank you for reading and please upvote. Also let me know if you're an author and you have a book which you might like produced.

The Trials of Sherlock Holmes
(UK Link) http://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Crime-Thrillers/The-Trials-of-Sherlock-Holmes-Audiobook/B073PFNMJ7

The Beekeeping Handbook
(UK link) https://audible.co.uk/…/Practical-Handbook-of-Be…/B0757XMZ19
(US link) https://www.audible.com/…/Practical-Handbook-of…/B07584GFKV/

Rendezvous at the Populaire
Audible UK: https://www.audible.co.uk/…/Rendezvous-at-the-Po…/B075TH6R66
Audible USA: https://www.audible.com/…/Rendezvous-at-the-Popu…/B075TH322J