0005: How Do You Get Started Doing Audiobooks?

well hey there hero it’s David H
Lawrence the 17th and in this episode of
the vo Heroes podcast I’m going to
answer a question that I get all the
time
and usually it’s from voice-over talent
or actors that are not yet using
audiobooks as a part of their
performance portfolio and the question
is simple how do you get started doing
audiobooks I’m gonna answer that in just
a moment so how do you get started doing
audiobooks all these audiobooks are out
there somebody is narrating them how do
you get started doing it so as I’m
recording this video we’re just about to
launch the ACX master class and the HDX
master class covers everything that I’m
going to tell you you need to do in this
video but what I wanted to do is give
you sort of a 30,000 foot view of what
you need to get started and it follows
along the pattern that I normally teach
with which is the art the Commerce the
science and the mindset of whatever we
do as performers so the first part of
that is the art of audiobooks and the
art of audiobooks learning how to do
that you probably have a head start on
it especially if you’re a stage actor or
if you’ve done other forms of voiceover
that revolve around narration like
documentary narration or specialty
narration or eLearning explainer videos
things like that it’s that approach to
doing both fiction and nonfiction books
that you need to learn how to do and
it’s actually pretty straightforward
it’s it’s it’s an opportunity to be very
expressive it’s an opportunity to slow
down and enjoy the process it’s a
category of voice work that isn’t like
go go go go go be funny be fast all that
stuff it’s actually be thoughtful and be
precise and be expressive gives you
opportunity to work on characters things
like that so you need to understand how
to do both fiction books and nonfiction
books along the way you’ll also learn
how to do children’s books but the
market for children’s books is a little
bit
than the mainstream market for fiction
and nonfiction books but those two
categories of the artwork are what you
need to understand then you’ve got the
commerce of it and in this case you want
to learn how the big publishers work how
they audition you how they pick you to
narrate books and to capture the
low-hanging fruit of the industry you
also want to understand how to work with
sites like ACX that’s the big 800-pound
gorilla on the block for at home work
for performers who have equipment at
home know how to do audio book narration
and want to learn how to produce in
partnership with authors and rights
holders so the commerce side of it is
understanding how to work with ACX how
to manage the project of the the
uploading of files the correction of
files the technical requirements and so
on
that kind of overlaps with the next part
that I’m going to talk about which is
the science but you got to understand
the business you got to understand the
deal flow of the business both working
with the big publishers like tantor and
penguin Random House and audible and
also the sort of democratized options
like a CX and find a way and authors
Republic sites that match rights holders
and authors who have books that haven’t
yet been turned into audiobooks with
people like you and me who narrate those
audiobooks so that’s the art and the
commerce then the science is
understanding how your microphone should
be attacked how you should record and
edit and master your work so that it
both is a great performance but also
that it matches and meets and usually
beats a cxas requirements for a
technical perfection and again all of
these things are things that we teach in
the ACX master class but even if you
don’t take a class like that if you take
the audiobook classes with vo heroes or
audiobook classes with anybody else or
you’re just teaching yourself on your
own you need to understand what those
technical requirements are and you need
to have a technical workflow how do you
set up your equipment how do you address
it how do you keep the room nice and
quiet
how do you then edit taking out your
your mistakes and later adding in
pickups that may be caught by a proofer
or by the rights holder and doing so in
a way that keeps your process working
efficiently but without worrying about
quality you know one of the things that
I teach is my stair step method which is
a different way than punch and roll you
may have heard of punch and roll as a
way to record and edit your work the
stair step method takes advantage of
audacity and some of the behaviors of
audacity and it also lowers your ratio
of work hours to finished hours in many
different ways and again without
impinging on quality so that’s the art
the Commerce the science and then the
mindset the mindset of doing audiobooks
is just as intense and just as sometimes
intriguing and confusing and ultimately
hopefully rewarding when you figure it
out when somebody shows you a method for
setting yourself up for how you approach
this work and how you deal with the
audition process in some ways it’s very
similar to other means of supporting
yourself and doing the work in the world
of performance and in some ways it’s
very unique I’ve had a couple of videos
that I’ve done in the past about the
isolation of voice-over performers
working at home in their studios and
this is taking that to a different level
because although some people mistakenly
think that audiobooks are grueling and
toughen and hard to do because it’s such
a long period of time first of all it’s
not a long period of time it is a lot of
short periods of time kind of strung
together you don’t do an audiobook all
in one fell swoop or in eight hours
straight or any of the things that you
might be considering but there are a
number of it’s like doing a whole big
episode series and you’re working on all
of the episodes in in serial order
but that mindset can kind of get to you
and the isolation that you
you’ll I know I felt like when I walked
out of the booth after a few hours or a
few sessions the total a few hours oh
wow look the Sun is still out and there
are people that I can talk to and the
over the phone and I can turn the phone
back on you know that kind of stuff but
the mindset in terms of your audition
and how you deal with rightsholders and
how you deal with the community your
peers both online and in real life how
you deal with the silent rejection that
we all deal with when nobody returns
your message after you’ve auditioned for
something and that’s their way of saying
you didn’t get it those things are
things that I really believe would give
you a leg up if you had someone to help
you with that and again as I said as I
record this video and release it for and
the audio if you’re listening to us on
your earbuds just listening to the audio
version of this you know the the idea
that there is a process that there is a
system that you can put in place to amp
up and and maximize your chances for
success should you decide you know what
I really do want to tell stories in
audiobook format I think it’s it’s a
good idea to just consider whether or
not having somebody like me or whoever
you want walk you through the process
lead you through a step by step by step
instruction on how to do it and the ACX
masterclass is a four week long course
don’t go in for any of these audiobook
classes that are like a Saturday morning
and at the end we’re gonna record your
demo don’t don’t do that please because
that does nobody any service whatsoever
this is a deep subject this is a broad
subject it’s a varied subject with lots
of different little paint pots to dip
your brush in to create the final
masterpiece understanding the art
fiction nonfiction understanding the
Commerce how to do how to build and
operate your business working with the
big publishers and also ACX and and find
a way in places like that how to deal
with websites how to deal with finding
work and finding
Editions the science the microphones the
the software to record edit and master
your work and the mindset those are the
things that you really want to have a
whole deep dive into to understand how
it works and that’s why we’ve taken an
awful lot of time to put the ACX
masterclass together and you can go
there if you want to just a real quick
short soft sell if you want to be in our
twenty twenty classes I’m recording this
you can go to a CX masterclass comm and
register again as we record this video
we close registration Friday night at
9:00 Pacific and then we kick off the
class this coming Monday now you may be
watching or listening to this podcast
episode of the vo heroes podcast after
the fact and if you go to a CX
masterclass com at that point you’ll
find a little form that you can fill out
so that we can then notify you the next
time we open up class but the point of
all this is know that there is a process
there is a system that you can put
together and that you can follow over
and over and over get better and better
and better at it we dive into things
like how to manage the client process
how to have client relations how to
manage your projects even how to arrange
your hard drive so you can find stuff we
go deep into the technology how to use
audacity to record your audio books and
all kinds of options in terms of how the
business works how your mind works how
the tech works how to be better at the
art it’s just a joy I can’t wait to
start but I did want to give you sort of
the overview in case you were thinking
yourself hmm how do I do this
how do I get started in audio books
that’s how you do it I hope this helps
if you’ve got questions about this I
kind of hesitate to talk about this
because you may be watching this after
the fact but as I release this podcast
on the next day on Thursday the I don’t
even know what day is but we’re gonna be
doing a Facebook live dan and I will be
to answer even more questions like what
kind of mic should I use and and all
that stuff you know do I need to know
accents and dialects all those things
and you can always leave
a comment for me below this video or on
whatever page you’re listening to or
with whatever podcast software you’re
watching or listening to either the
video or audio of this episode I hope
that helps I really do because I see a
lot of people kind of going at it in a
way that is confusing to me they think
they know how it’s supposed to work but
if they had just a little bit of
information or if they had a reasonable
amount of information their chances for
success would be a lot higher so I hope
that works out for you I’m David H
Lawrence 17th I thank you so much for
watching and for listening and I will
see you next time on the vo heroes
podcast.