13287: How Stressful Is Audiobook Narration Really?

Raw transcript:

How stressful is it to be an audiobook
narrator? I just got finished answering
a question along those lines uh for a
viewer, a listener, and it struck me
that some people have um maybe not such
an accurate idea of what it’s like to
narrate an audiobook in terms of the
recording session. So, let’s take a look
at that in this episode of the VO
Heroes podcast.
A lot of people will look at audiobooks,
you know, hours in length, 7, 10, 15, 20
hours in length, and they will
sometimes, unfortunately, jump to the
conclusion that the production of that
audio book is somehow akin
to the final product. that somebody was
sitting there for hours
straight recording and that’s awful. And
I just answered a question from uh a
potential audiobook narrator, potential
student who is an opera singer and she
was very concerned about
long long recording sessions and what it
would do to her voice which is very
valuable to her and I completely
understand that. So, I want to clarify
what it’s like to actually narrate an
audiobook. At least for me and for many
of the people that I know and certainly
for uh my students, it’s what I teach
them to do.
Audiobook narration is not about sitting
in front of a microphone for 5 hours
straight or eight hours a day straight
narrating the book. It may sound like
that in the end, but the truth of the
matter is I don’t sit there for longer
than a chapter before I take a break.
And sometimes I’ll take a break within a
chapter if it’s really, really long.
Um, you know, I’ve seen books that the
chapters are a half an hour long, 45
minutes long, an hour long, and then
there are books where the chapters are 3
minutes long, 10 minutes long, 15
minutes long. The way we teach in the
three main courses that I teach, VO
Heroes, ACX master class, and narrate
your own book, is I teach people to
narrate a chapter at a time and then
edit and master that recording of that
chapter, to give your voice a break, to
grab a cup of coffee, maybe a snack,
whatever it is, but to be easy on
yourself. And that’s the way it’s done.
Not just me teaching my students to do
that, but when you go and work in the
studios of big publishers and big
producers, you do it that way. You don’t
sit there and narrate for hours at a
time. It’s minutes at a time, at the
most an hour before you take a break.
And and rarely is that the case. I
always take a break before that. And
it’s really easy on my voice. Uh the
other thing that was brought up was that
uh you know shouting and yelling and and
um screaming and other stressful what
are called efforts in the world of uh
video games. Well, wouldn’t that be
damaging to your voice? Well, that that
happens very rarely in audiobooks.
It’s not a common thing to have that
happening even in murder mysteries where
people are screaming or fight scenes.
It’s it’s just not that common. 99% of
what you narrate is at a normal volume
level or even a softer volume level.
It’s actually easier on your voice than
a lot of different categories of voice
work in particular video games where
they’ll set aside a bit of time every
day to do the efforts the and the and
the shouts and the things that actually
can be detrimental to your voice. So you
do these little islands of work and then
they are assembled automatically by ACX
or Audible or whoever your your platform
is, you know, Scribe or or or any of the
producers or the production platforms or
the publishers, you know, it shows up in
the player as one big long 7, 10, 15, 20
hour product,
but it’s never produced that way.
And in fact, if I had to rank audiobooks
in terms of the amount of stress that it
puts on your voice versus other
categories of voice work, it would be at
or near the top in terms of the easiest
on your voice and in general the easiest
on your mental health as well. It’s so
awesome to do audio books in terms of
the calming nature of them, the
centering nature of them. even when it’s
a a murder mystery or a horror book,
it’s still such an easy easy thing to
approach as com as compared to some of
the more strenuous stuff that you’ll do
as uh a voice talent in animation in uh
video games, etc. So, I hope that puts
your mind at ease. Uh especially if
you’re in a category of work like an
opera singer where your instrument is a
fine uh fine device. It’s it’s a much
finer I I you know I belt I don’t I
don’t do anything spectacular in the
world of singing. Um but uh I can
understand somebody being very concerned
especially if you make money doing that
and audiobooks is one of those things
that you can easily and safely do
without worry to the wear and tear on
your voice. I hope that helps. What have
you found uh is stressful or not
stressful about audiobooks? Do you find
them like I do, calming and soothing and
centering and all that stuff that I
talk? Let me know in the comments below.
Uh, let me know what you do in terms of
being careful about protecting your
voice. I’d love to hear what you have to
say about that. You can also hit the
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You can share this with other actors and
voice talent who might be concerned
about the stress that voice in general,
voice talent and voice over in general
puts on their voices if they’re singers.
Share. Go ahead, copy the the the link
above and and send it off to them. I’d
love if you’d do that. I’m David H.
Lawrence the 17th. I thank you so much
for watching and for listening and I
will see you in the next episode of the
VO Heroes Podcast.

(from YouTube)