This group is BUSINESS...where are the jobs today that pay narrators? Who has these jobs? What are the sources we might contact with a demo to get narration jobs? Sure, we can talk about narration techniques too...
A thought from Bettye.... You are entering the PUBLISHING INDUSTRY. Learn about it!
You must have a killer audio book demo to get paying work in this field especially from PUBLISHERS. You also must separate jobs you do on your own in your home studio from voicing for publishers, often in their studios. When you read for publishers, the pay is better and you often don't do the audio engineering. Mostly, they prefer readers in their own studios. The audio book jobs advertised on the online pay to play sites are usually from vanity publishers or the authors themselves or for other reasons...not publishing house jobs. Know the difference. And get used to the fact that audio books usually pay for THE FINISHED AUDIO HOUR. How long will it take you to get one finished audio hour that is perfect? That depends....could be two studio hours could be twenty studio hours with you engineering and voicing it too! Be very cautious on your price bidding.
Bettye Zoller
Bettye Zoller
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Sometimes it's ok to hire someone to edit your book reads. It speeds things up as you can be narrating more books and paying someone to clean up files same time. Track expenditures and measure if this is paying off. For me, it often does.
Just finished narrating the audiobook "Enduring Success - What We Can Learn From the History of Outstanding Corporations". Look for it on Amazon, iTunes, and Audible.com. Eager to do the next one!
http://www.amazon.com/Enduring-Success-History-Outstanding-Corporations/dp/B008PRAJS8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1343782511&sr=8-2&keywords=enduring+success+what+we+can+learn+from+the+history+of+outstanding+corporations
Thanks everyone for all of your help and suggestions. I will utilize them all!
Dawn it is one of the 'common dipthongs'. Wikipedia is a good source
Yep! Bettye works hard to bring good information to her students. It's what you (the student) DO with that information that makes the difference. Do your homework! Do your research! MAKE your career happen, don't expect others to spoon-feed it to you. And make the most of your learning opportunities when they arise... such as seminars with important people like the upcoming one.
Ann is my student and I made her audio book demos and she has worked constantly ever since. So proud of her. Plus, we share our passion for dogs!
Regarding pronunciations, I have had authors call my cellphone and leave the pronunciations on my voicemail. Another option is to have the phone on speaker with you in the booth, and record the conversation (with their knowledge, of course). Both of these methods are conducive to replaying over and over again. Works brilliantly for me.
If you're not auditioning on ACX you should be. It's free! Do it. Get hired to read audio books folks. My students are doing great things with ACX. Also, I got one email off an audition this week where publisher wants to send me other scripts to audition for. Likes my delivery for couple of his projects, so you see, you get heard. Just audition and forget it and see what happens. The site's owned by Audible.Com.
Remember: The only stupid question is the one you DON'T ask. I love that saying told to me long ago. And FYI, on recording sessions with a producer or client or author present, ask away! It shows you are serious and interested!
Dawn, Building on Xe Sands idea about calling the author: if you use Skype, you can get a simple recorder as an add-on. I got mine for $20; it's called Call Recorder. Just yesterday I needed help with surname pronunciations (Przybyla?, Czcerowsky?) for a nonfiction audiobook I'm narrating. The author was unavailable, but I called the library in the town where the book took place, and was able to quickly get a recording I can refer back to as often as necessary.