How a Retired Air Traffic
Controller Launched a
Thriving New Career as an
Audiobook Narrator (Video 1)
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Running time: 32 minutes
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(YOU’RE WATCHING: VIDEO 1) How a Retired Air Traffic Controller Launched a Thriving New Career as an Audiobook Narrator
Don’t believe “The 7 Myths You’ve Heard About Narrating Audiobooks!”
(COMING SOON: VIDEO 2) The Art of Picking the Right Audiobook Projects
Plus: Mistakes most ACX narrators make with their profiles
(COMING SOON: VIDEO 3) The Secret of Accrued Audiobook Assets
Plus: Case study of one narrator who went from “newbie” to ”star” with his first audiobook
To ask a question about audiobooks, ACX, Audible, the class or whatever: just scroll down to where it says LEAVE A REPLY…Dan and I are ready to answer them and help you begin your journey as an audiobook narrator on ACX, for Audible and for any other production platform or publisher you want to work with.
And remember, if you miss one of the videos, you can click on the little image of that video below the main video on this page, and it will take you to that video that you missed.
So…Just post your questions below.
One major thing holding me back in voiceover is that I heat with a pellet stove, which is very noisy. I have an acceptable mic and audio interface, but for most of the year, there is just too much ambient noise to make a clean recording.
And then there is the problem of marketing myself.
Every single narrator deals with temperature regulation from time to time – we all have similar issues to you, but some, rather than dealing with heating, it’s cooling: air conditioning, the running of a fan or the low but audible hum of a refrigerator etc.
The good news is that audiobooks don’t require hours and hours of non stop continuous recording (despite the finished product’s sometimes enormous length), rather a series of short, 30-69’minute sessions, sometimes shorter, with stretches of editing and mastering between. And everyone simply turns off the offending device for that period of time. I do it all the time here in Southern California (I have the Google Home app to control my HVAC system from my phone), but if I lived back in Cleveland where I grew up, my furnace and your pellet stove would be treated the same way. Hope that helps!
Re: Marketing yourself:
ACX provides the marketplace for you. It’s up to the successful narrator to use it as an effective marketing vehicle. That begins with your ACX profile; I’d estimate 95% of narrators’ profiles do nothing to attracts rights holders (authors, publishers, etc.) and plenty to drive them away almost immediately.
Many narrators think, “Well, the demos are the only important thing.” While obviously the quality of your demos is crucial, there’s also the selection and the presentation of your demos. But most profiles cause rights holders to “keep on going” to the next narrator without ever hearing any of the demos.
You’ll find a bunch of hints re: marketing from some of the 200+ verbatim reviews from our graduates: https://www.acxmasterclass.com/kudos/.
Looking forward to having you join the class!
Is there a way to do audiobook narration outside of ACX? Or not have to produce the narration as well?
I’m not quite sure what you’re asking here, Megan. Can you clarify with some more details about what you want to accomplish? If you don’t want to produce an audiobook at all, or you have an issue with using ACX, give me some clarity so I can give you your options.