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I wanted to provide an honest look at what new audiobook narrators should expect, especially before they invest money in an audiobook workshop. This is info you’ll get once you’ve already paid to take a workshop but I feel that you should have it before you commit financially, to see if it’s really for you. I’ve also been inspired to write this by hearing many bad audiobook demos from talent who don’t have a studio suitable for recording books and – based on their performance – they haven’t had any training on how to properly approach this unique genre. I can hear it, so the casting director can certainly hear it. First things first – part 1 starts with your foundation, if you missed it, read here. Thanks for joining me for part 2.

As I’ll break down for you in the next section, you’re going to spend a lot of time in the studio recording. Since you’re running a business, and especially if you’re a full-time voiceover talent who depends on this income to pay your bills, you’re trying to maximize your working hours for profit. Let’s go over how you’re paid to do books. There are some publishing companies that work on the royalty payscale model. This means no money upfront, no money on completion, but all your money is made on the backend when (or if) listeners buy the audiobook. In general it’s either a flat percentage, a percentage until an equivalent PFH rate or total has been met and then a lower percentage from that point onward, or a structured percentage range. For example, ACX’s rates on their Royalty Share titles start at 25% of Audible’s net sales per title, and can go as high as 45% if the book sells over 20,010 copies. This can be a lucrative payment model if you’ve recorded a great title or a book with a built-in devoted fanbase.

Being paid through royalties of course isn’t your only option, but it’s the most widely available option for the brand new narrator. Most companies aren’t enthusiastic about being your “first,” so a pay-based-on-sales option works for them. Just because you’re not paid a set rate upon completion doesn’t mean it’s not a good book. Maybe it just needs the right narrator (you?) and good promotion, and then you’ve got a nice little income stream going.

The gold standard for audiobook payments is by PFH – per finished hour. If the book is 10 hours long and your finished hour rate is $200, you’ll make $2000 upon completing the book, no matter how long it takes you to complete it. Unless you’re working directly with an author or bidding on a pay-to-play site, for the most part it’s the publishing company who’s going to tell you what they intend to pay you PFH. There may be room to negotiate, or maybe even try to get a small royalty percentage on the backend, but good luck trying to call the shots before you’ve done a few notable titles or received positive industry reviews.

Okay… so how much am I going to make and how much time will I invest producing an audiobook? What’s fair to expect? I’m going to answer that based on the cumulative experiences of myself, friends who’ve shared their recording stats and other websites that suggest timeframes for the work.

This example is based on a 10 hour fiction audiobook where the narrator is responsible for providing clean, edited, proofed and totally complete audio for the book. Here’s where your time goes:

Reading the book

5 hours – If it takes 10 hours to listen to it, we’ll go with 5 hours to read, take notes on plot, characters and items that require further research, along with marking up the script anywhere something might be confusing (long sections of dialogue without he said/she said, for example).

Research

5 hours – There’s a huge range on this depending on content, accents required, unfamiliar words, cities and names to pronounce, or questions you need to ask the author or publisher and how long you spend preparing your characters (if any time at all). A few publishers even do the majority of the research for you! You can also ask the publisher if they have anyone available to help even just for a few hours. It doesn’t hurt to ask, and it would get the book completed a little faster.

Recording the book

30 hours – This is a conservative estimate, assuming a 3:1 ratio of studio time to completed hours. It assumes you’re adept with your software, you use punch-and-roll recording, you’re a very accurate sight-reader, and you are confident in your choices through each scene and don’t stop to revisit much. You could just as easily be at a 5:1 ratio, or 50 hours, just to record, if you’re not up to speed with these tasks.

Recording corrections and editing

30 hours – This is a somewhat arbitrary estimate, it depends on how the publisher wants corrections handled and how many corrections there are. It also depends on how you followed your recording guidelines from the publisher while recording in regard to breath preferences and pauses, and if the publisher has editors or someone to compile and master the audio in-house. As for the corrections themselves, no matter how accurate you felt you were, there will be transposed and misread words over the course of 88,000 words in 10 hours. ACX suggests that it takes 2-4 hours to edit each finished hour of audio to their standards (the standards for Audible.com). I’m rolling all studio work after the original recording into this one total and assuming 3 times the finished length should get all your corrections edited back in to the audio.

Proofing

20 hours – Of course, the only way to find corrections is for someone to listen to the book with the script in front of them. Sometimes that’s the company or author you’re working for, and sometimes that will be you (or a very kind friend.) If you’re proofing efficiently, add in twice the time of the finished book to your total – here, another 20 hours.

Total hypothetical time on a 10 hour audiobook: 70 hours (90 if you’re proofing, as well)

As a new narrator producing from home, if you opt for a PFH rate and not payment based on royalties, you’re looking at making $100-$175 per finished hour of the actual audiobook. You’ll make between $1000-$1750 for around 70 (or 90) hours of work. So on the low end that breaks down to $14.28 (with proofing, $11.11) per finished hour; on the high end – $25 (or $19.44) pfh.

I’m certainly not saying you couldn’t do a great job faster. If you’ve never recorded an audiobook before and are trying to enter the field, this is a reality check, but each person’s speed varies and each book will offer unique challenges. Sure, you could make the same money with a few short narration gigs or a couple local commercials and it would take a fraction of the time. You can’t pursue this line of work if you’re thinking that you’re going to make money hand over fist – that’s not how the industry is structured. PFH rates have only gone down the past few years as publishers lean on digital distribution and can’t keep up with the rates they were charging for selling CDs in bookstores. But also consider that you’re not going to be giving up your other (higher paying) work to work solely in audiobooks. Only the top names in audiobooks don’t have to supplement with commercial work, and they command very different arrangements with the publishers. Those of us who won’t be getting $500/pfh and upward really need to be better with managing our time so we can find a couple hours a day to work on audiobooks.

If after reading this you’ve decided that this is far more involved than you’d like, then put audiobooks on the back burner and come back to the idea in a few months, or a year. If you’re not terrified of all the hours involved, congratulations. You’ve got the heart and guts (and I hope time management skills) to become an audiobook narrator.

I just got a mass email the other day about how accessible audiobook work is, saying that many more books need to be produced and no-name narrators are grabbing all this great work. The email then goes on to suggest that you can setup a home studio at the cost of solely a $40 mic. There’s so much “anyone can do it” hype in this industry and especially surrounding audiobooks, and I wanted to offer up what I’ve learned to share with newcomers and anyone interested in pursuing audiobook work. There’s so much to consider that I had to break this topic into 2 posts.

As to my own experience, earlier this year a book I self-directed and produced from my home studio, Blood Angel, written by Justine Musk, was released, and I’ve done a few shorter pieces for self-published authors. I have friends who’ve done 8 or 9 books in the time I’ve done one, but they’ve worked harder to make that happen when I’ve put my focus elsewhere. So I’m not coming to you as an Audie nominee or someone with a ton of titles to my name right now, but as a peer who’s about 3 years down the road you’re interested in traveling. What I can tell you of value is information you’ll want if you’re curious about or considering audiobooks.

Here’s the first thing – not everyone is cut out for narrating audiobooks. It’s important to figure that out upfront as a lot of time is involved in getting your name in front of people and you don’t want to let them down once they’ve trusted you with a book.
Ask yourself:
1) Do you have (or are you willing to commit to) the training suitable to perform this specialized genre of long-form narration?
2) Can you record from home without a director?
3) Are you willing to do a lot more production and editing than you’re used to?
4) Would you accept royalties on sales in lieu of payment for the first book (or first few books) to get a few titles under your belt?
5) Once you are contracted to do a book for a set per finished hour rate, do you have a realistic idea of what you’ll make for all the time you’ve invested and worked, and are you happy with that?

The most important element of whether you’ll have a future in audiobooks is your level of performance, directly related to your training and preparation to do the work, and second to that is your demo. Most of the audiobook work done by non-celebrity narrators is done by you in your home studio, without a director. You’re wearing your director’s hat while narrating, and listening to yourself as a producer at the same time. There’s a lot of do’s and don’ts that you won’t know you need to do, listen for, or avoid without investing good money with an audiobook pro. Knowing the “rules” and giving a great performance are two pieces of the puzzle. How to perform will be covered in your training with a reputable coach – someone who has a history with audiobooks and perhaps some awards or nominations for a job well done. I’ve studied under Pat Fraley and he has another workshop coming up in LA, if you’re interested. Paul Alan Ruben directs and produces audiobooks with a different flavor than Pat and also offers personal coaching, although I understand that his style will be harder for beginners to grasp.

A good coach can also direct you and produce a solid demo for you. The casting director isn’t going to listen to an entire audiobook you’ve completed to hear if you’re going to do a good job for them. They rely on your demos, your resume of books you’ve done, and reviews when available (even if it’s just how many stars your audiobook received on Audible.com). Personal relationships and visibility are important in audiobooks just like any other industry, too, but your demo is your calling card, and it represents your abilities AND your studio quality. Make sure you can deliver what your demo is promising, and that it’s put together well.

Now, when it comes to recording the session and editing, this is where you’ll have to do your research to see what each company requires and what you’re willing to do (a phone call will get a faster response than email). Not every company will want you to edit your pickups back in to the original audio, and some of the larger publishers have editors in-house and you just need to send in a clean read and later send the corrections they request. But if you’re doing a book through ACX, production houses producing for a larger publisher, smaller publishers, or working directly with the author, you can almost guarantee you’ll do more editing on your own. You may even have to proof the audio for your own corrections, but keep the goal in mind. You need to find someone to trust you to record your first book. Do a little research to make sure you’re a good match for the company you’re submitting to.

This is leading me to payment and time spent per book, which is a big enough topic to save for my next post.

Well, I’m back in business… not that I actually took much time off, but my regular clients knew my availability would be shot for a week and slow for another, and I’m grateful to them for their patience! Due to our child being born 11 days late, I had closer to 5 days completely off but everything has worked out great.

It’s been a wild 2 weeks. Briefly: August 17th around 4pm, I went into labor. My husband and I watched The Hangover and had a light dinner before labor got more intense. We’d planned for a home birth with our wonderful midwife Mary and her assistant Amy, the help of my friend Kristy, and 2 of our photographer friends documenting the experience as a team. By about 1:30am or so, it was clear to our midwife that this baby wasn’t going to come out easily. We got to the hospital affiliated with an OB friend of hers and I was admitted and given an epidural around 3am. The hope was to take away the pain but still gain some progress by 6am. That didn’t happen, and I went in for a (non-emergency) c-section at 7:30 that morning.

At 7:47am, with my husband (and his camera) by my side, the doctor pulled out our baby and my husband declared (twice), “It’s a girl!” We were totally ecstatic! I’d like you to meet the newest, most important person in my life, Amaya Natalie DeLisle. At birth she weighed 9lb, 8.2oz and was 21″ long (no wonder her home birth was not meant to be!) She’s a good eater and thankfully a good sleeper, and allows me stretches of time to be in the studio while she snoozes adorably.

Will this blog now turn into mommy central? No worries, friends. That doesn’t mean I won’t occasionally share Amaya with you or tie-in my new life as a mom in a hopefully insightful way (okay, and sometimes just so you can get to know me a little better.) This is a blog about voiceovers and life, and now my life includes being a mom to a cool little person, but I’ll save the majority of the baby/mom stuff for our family blog. I’ve worked hard over the past 13+ years to build a career that began in radio and directed me towards voiceovers, and now that we’ve started our family I feel like I’ve got the best of both worlds ahead of me. Thanks for following my journey.

I’ve found that as a (very) soon to be new mom, a lot of completely unsolicited opinions about “The Best Way” to handle a newborn/baby/child are directed at me in casual conversation. I’ve learned the most tactful way to handle this is to thank people for sharing their opinions and personal experience and keep in mind they are acting out of good intentions, even when I completely disagree with their opinions.

So far, the most interesting question I’ve answered that generates very polarized responses is “how are you decorating the baby’s room?” They seem disappointed when I tell them that we don’t have a dedicated nursery-bedroom and the baby won’t be getting her/her own room, possibly for the first year or even longer. Since we don’t know if we’re having a boy or a girl, we’ve simply thrown a few fun decorations in the designated baby corner of our bedroom in something totally neutral and cool: dinosaurs. That only happened because my friends threw me an awesome baby shower around our “theme” and we took home their handmade decorations.

Even as a first-time mom, I know that all a baby actually needs is love and attention, to be fed and cared for, and a safe place to sleep. Maybe because I’m in my 30′s and not right out of college (or high school) I’m able to avoid some of the pitfalls others have fallen into – being afraid that the easy answer isn’t the right answer, and all the extras are necessities (ie, omg if you don’t have a diaper genie, the world will end!) and my baby will suffer because of this lack. I have a calm confidence that Andy and I will make the best choices we can and as a team everything will be taken care of to raise our child. I’ve definitely felt judged by other moms about this, like somehow we’re depriving our child of his or her god-given right to an outrageous, thoroughly theme-decorated bedroom with brand new furniture, and if we don’t decide to let our baby ‘cry it out’ then we’re unfit to call ourselves good parents because we’re spoiling our baby. The thing is, I happen to believe there’s a middle ground between meeting all the ‘wants’ of the parents and covering the basic ‘needs’ of the child.

This keeping up with the Joneses attitude and judgement directed at new parents reminded me of the studio and gear wars that go on sometimes subtly, sometimes with great vigor, within the voice over industry. I hope this post can bring some reassurance to those of you recording in closets, soundproofed corners and shared spaces that aren’t designated solely as studio space. Perhaps other voice talent have told you that your studio isn’t representative of someone serious about working in this industry. Maybe the forum bullies have made you feel bad about your setup because you didn’t spend thousands of dollars on all your equipment. This post is to say “you don’t have to do that to get the job done.”

Since when do our clients really care what our studios look like? At the end of the day we’re dealing in sound, and the best sounding talent will usually win out, regardless of how ramshackle your space may look. I believe 100% that if you spend more money WISELY, you can get a substantially better sounding studio. I won’t be going into that here. While you can add in a dedicated preamp, a channel strip or processor, any number of pieces of hardware that are now mimicked via software plug-ins, an ISDN line or a mixer and phone setup, this post is talking about the minimum for good sound; it’s about beds and blankets, not matching nursery furniture.

These are the very basic items you need for your studio:
- a soundproofed area: walled in or separated with heavy curtains or sleeping bags, a space that doesn’t let outside noises seep into your recordings
- a mic: there’s a million opinions on this, I’m more old school and prefer to spend more money on my mic but you could get a USB mic that compliments your voice and doesn’t eat all your budget
- a computing device with a DAW: that’s digital audio workstation, whether you can make do with the limitations of Audacity, enjoy using Garage Band that came with your Mac or want ProTools, the workhorse that some will say is overkill, you’ve gotta have a way to get your VO recorded. I’ll go so far as to say there are even apps for the iPad that claim to have good quality, I disagree based on the samples I’ve heard but that doesn’t mean that something awesome won’t come out tomorrow for $4.99.
- cables: you can degrade good quality audio if your cabling is crap. Shielded cables are best suited for audio transmission as they add an extra layer of insulation from static and other electronic interference.
- Add a good pair of headphones and/or a monitor to your setup, and you’ve met the basic needs of recording from home.

It all boils down to this: are your clients being well-served by the space you record in and the equipment you use to send them your voice? 

If you’re unsure, get in touch with a reputable studio near you and see if one of their engineers would be willing to consult you on your studio sound. I couldn’t tell you what the going rate is on that but you should expect to pay them for their time and expertise. Be very selective if asking other voice talent to evaluate your studio sound, as you’ll want to ask someone who has an audio production or sound engineering background. Dan Lenard is a well-informed guy who can evaluate your sound by sending a sample and discussing it over Skype. With over 8 years working full-time as an audio producer and VO talent, I’m willing to throw my 2 cents your way and give you my ears for a few minutes as well.

I’m not one who settles for good enough, and I bet you’re not, either. You can ‘get by’ with just the basics and it really can sound fantastic if you don’t skimp on quality. The basic needs of a studio are relatively simple, just as a newborn doesn’t ‘need’ all the extras. However, on both fronts, I’m motivated not to just meet the bare minimum requirements, but to keep pushing ahead to offer the very best I can. Besides, who doesn’t love dinosaurs?

Because I have the tendency to be very detailed and write novellas instead of blog posts, here’s a short recap of my trip to NYC for the Audiobook Publishers’ Association Conference from May. My husband was there on business as well (meeting with photo editors, as setup by his agents and himself) so we hardly were able to catch up unless we had dinner together, otherwise it was sometime after 1 or 2am!

Saturday: Got into town that evening, saw my extended family and a friend came in to visit us from Boston.

Sunday: Lots of walking and just hanging out during the day (ate lunch at Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner building, yum!) Then, the conference unofficially started with the APA Mixer at 3 Monkeys bar that night; afterwards I got together with my audiobook crew and caught up after the mixer and had an early night in preparation for our busy day

Monday: APAC! Highlight: my one-on-one critique session with Bob Deyan from Deyan Audio. Elevated my read in a major way and encouraged me to keep pressing on and don’t lose hope that I’ll be working more in this industry! The conference was pretty good, and my friends surprised me that night with a baby shower in the hotel room!

Tuesday: BEA (Book Expo America) – lots and lots of walking, Gary joined me midday and we made the most of our time in the huge Javitz Center. Must have put a few miles on my shoes that day. Back to the hotel to update the rest of the girls on our day and then prep to head out for The Audies!

Tuesday evening: started at 7pm, ended at 2:30am. The Audies were a lot of fun and it was great to spend more time with people we’d met on Sunday and Monday. Everyone looked fabulous, and our group of narrators was no exception (I even found a lovely maternity dress to wear!) The awards were a lot of fun and we cheered on friends, narrators and the many producers we knew. We were invited to the Audies After-Party and of course we went, extending our evening a few more hours and having a lot of fun chatting with everyone.

Rachel Fulginiti, me, Amy Rubinate, Heather Henderson, Gary Dikeos; photo by Andy DeLisle

Wednesday morning: catch a cab at 7:45am to get to the airport! Did you read anything about sleeping during this trip? Didn’t think so. It was so totally worth losing sleep to make the most of our time we had with friends and new connections! We headed not home but ‘back home’ – to Raleigh, NC to spend 6 days with friends and family and have a little vacation time after going non-stop in New York!

I’ve promised an update about the audiobook conference (APAC) and that’s coming, although my iPhone decided to wipe out my half-done post so I’m still rewriting that. However, before much more time passes I wanted to make a very special announcement, one that my friends who read this blog already know, but not all of my VO friends and clients know about yet.

My husband Andy and I are expecting our first child in early August! We’re super excited about welcoming and facing the unknown changes and challenges this baby will bring into our lives. We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, so there’s the old fashioned element of surprise left for us when I deliver our baby on top of all the wonderful and overwhelming feelings that go along with being first time parents. I’m pretty sure being cat-parents doesn’t count ;) (although nearly a decade of dealing with litter boxes and hairballs has had a stomach-strengthening effect over the years that should do well by us with all that babies do on a regular basis.)

So now that this is out in the wide open, here’s my rough game plan in terms of VO for the upcoming months. Starting when I give birth (estimated to be August 7th but realistically could be a week on either side of that) I will spend 2-3 weeks focusing on just being a new mom, where I won’t be taking on any new clients, but will handle any “emergencies” for my current clients. Anyone I’m currently working with will get an email reminder of the dates that may be affected and I’ll have a notice of when that time off officially starts ready to send out once the baby comes. My husband is more than qualified to hit the “send” button on that email on my behalf. After that initial time away from my studio, I will be working 100% from home, guaranteed for 8-9 more weeks. My husband also works from home, so since we’ll be sharing as much of the newborn responsibilities as possible (while certain things will naturally be 100% my job), I’ll have regular studio time and will be “back to work” for new and existing clients. The biggest difference will be figuring out my turnaround time on projects based on all the new changes going on in our lives, and that will be communicated on a per-project basis as we take things one day at a time until we’re more accustomed to our baby’s schedule and needs.

If you regularly read this blog, you know that I also have a full-time production and VO job in radio. At this point and for many reasons, I won’t be speculating about the choices I will make towards the end of my guaranteed 12 weeks of leave. I’m grateful that we’ll have our insurance through them and that my leave is at least partially paid, as the time off from my freelance work and my husband being away from his editorial assignments and other photo work during the first few weeks won’t be a hardship on us and we can focus on what’s important – being parents to this awesome little baby!

If you follow me on facebook or twitter (which I don’t post on frequently so I won’t be an annoying add), I will be broadcasting my availability changes on there. Even though I’ll have a brand new baby on my hip, I’m still hopelessly attached to my iPhone and our iPad so I probably won’t be taking any time off from social media (or Angry Birds or Ticket to Ride…) During those middle of the night feedings with baby, I welcome you to challenge me to a game of Words with Friends and help me stay mentally sharp (username – arielleaudio). It’s a very exciting time for us and I’m happy to share that baby and I are healthy and having a low-risk pregnancy, and I’m feeling great, fully enjoying these last 8 weeks or so before becoming a new mom.