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Many new audiobook publishers are only offering a royalty-share model of payment. In this model, the narrator is not paid anything up front and is instead paid a percentage of royalties based on the sales of the audiobook.
She goes on to offer 8 ways to increase your productivity. While her tips are aimed at writers, voice talent can extrapolate from them and apply the ideas to our businesses.
In his wonderful autobiography Up Till Now, William Shatner wasn't talking about audiobooks when he wrote these compelling words, yet his wisdom about taking risks certainly applies to this situation:
Two footnotes on Shatner's story:
Is a 50-50 split on royalties right for you?
Some people would get irate at the very idea of doing any work without guaranteed payment. They would rant and rave that taking a royalty-share deal makes one a low-baller, someone who is selfishly going to destroy the whole voiceover industry by not charging the appropriate rate.
I've seen these kinds of arguments in on-line voiceover forums so many times, and I'm not looking to start one here! It's my intention to present reasons on both sides of the table to help you make an informed decision.
Many voice talent are understandably reluctant to undertake this kind of work due to the tremendous amount of time required to produce a quality audiobook.
I can think of 4 other big reasons not to accept a royalty-share agreement:
1) The material doesn't interest me.
I am very selective about the scripts I perform, especially when it comes to an audiobook. Since you aren't guaranteed to make any money, the book can truly be considered a labor of love. Still, I want my audiobooks to emphasize the LOVE part and not the LABOR!
Although I didn't know it when I accepted the projects, the first 2 audiobooks I performed were thinly veiled religious sermons. They also contained about 80% dialogue with a lot of "walk-on" characters whose sole purpose was to advance the plot. I truly struggled in my motivation to finish the books.
After those experiences, I know to use the "Look Inside" feature on Amazon to see how the book flows. If the book looks unappealing, it's not worth it to me to spend my time on it, regardless of whether I'm paid per finished hour or on a royalty-share basis.
2) The material is not suited for audio.
Point number 3 in this article will give you an idea of the kinds of books that wouldn't make good audiobooks.
3) The audio publisher has limited distribution methods.
I have accepted royalty-share agreements on ACX.com because Audible.com is the undisputed leader of audiobook distribution. I know my audiobooks will be distributed on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. I also can have faith in Audible's accounting and payment processes.
I have passed on royalty-share agreements offered by new publishers with no track record.
4) You have responsibility for all of the roles: narrator, audio engineer, producer, director, pronunciation researcher, quality control listener, and marketer. If you can't outsource some of the functions, do you have the time and are you comfortable in performing all of them?
On the other hand, I can also think of 5 good reasons to accept a royalty-share narration:
1) You can create something of permanence that will be enjoyed for years to come.
Not only are the listeners able to enjoy your audiobook, but you may find that you enjoy a recurring, passive income stream from its sales.
2) It's a great way to improve your workflow and become a specialist.
I loved Kym Dakin's article about undertaking some royalty-share projects toward her goal of achieving technical mastery in audio production.
You also can explore new genres to see how well you like the material.
3) Productivity equals success.
According to Lee Tobin McClain in her article The Key to Success: Write More!: Artistic and scientific achievers from Picasso to Da Vinci didn't succeed more, percentage-wise, than other now-unknown creators of their eras; they simply produced more, and thus had more successes.
She goes on to offer 8 ways to increase your productivity. While her tips are aimed at writers, voice talent can extrapolate from them and apply the ideas to our businesses.
For instance, you can build an expectant audience (i.e., a fan base) with a royalty-share book. I actually did this with a book I performed for LibriVox. I've seen reviews of the book and even received fan mail!
4) What you put out in the world comes back to you.
I gave that LibriVox audiobook to the world after reading the advice of Eckhart Tolle. I've decided that I would rather get a commercial credit on a royalty-share audiobook than produce another book for the public domain. I have seen my LibriVox audiobook for sale on eBay, but that point doesn't trouble me.
The commercial credits are important so that I can become an Audible Approved Producer and meet membership requirements for The Recording Academy. Nobody cares how or when I was paid for my commercial credits.
5) You're planting seeds for a future harvest. You never know where the decision will lead.
In 1968 Decca Records asked me if I was interested in doing an album. I hesitated, I wasn't a singer -- but then it was pointed out to me that the first note in the musical scale is do...What I decided to was find a selection of beautiful writing and use that as a lead-in to a song that complemented it...Apparently it was a bit obtuse...for most people....I'd taken a creative risk. I'd tried to do something unique, something very different. And I'd learned very early in my acting career that you can't improve without taking risks...Decades later, my debut album "The Transformed Man" would lead directly to one of the most successful commercial ventures of my career -- and another album!...It turned out that the copywriter on the [Priceline] account, Ernest Lupinacci, was a big fan of my 1968 album "The Transformed Man".I am absolutely fascinated as I look over my shoulder at my past at how the simplest decisions I've made have had the most complex reactions. A career is a series of connected events. So when I turned down an offer, I wasn't simply rejecting a job and paycheck, I was completely eliminating the possibility that it might lead to something else. When you turn down an opportunity to work, you're also turning down an experience, maybe even an adventure, and a universe of possibilities.
- I recommend that you listen to his audiobook rather than read the book. Hearing him tell his story in his often-imitated but imcomparable style is a true pleasure!
- That fabulous gig as Priceline's spokesperson is about to end, but it lasted for 14 YEARS! Think how much money he made just from that one enterprise! And he never would have had it if he hadn't taken a risk.
I'm not saying that people shouldn't expect payment up-front for an audiobook. I am simply encouraging you to explore the possibility of narrating a book on a royalty-share agreement. Only you can decide how best to build your business. You may find that doing one or more royalty-share audiobooks is a better building block than you had imagined!
Have you done any audiobooks on royalty-share agreements? I'd love to get your comments on the blog!
Photo: iStockPhoto/LockieCurrie
At the end of each year, I review my journals to see what I accomplished. In doing this exercise for 2011, I found some comments that I want to share with you.
Just over a year ago, the media was in a feeding frenzy with news about a voiceover talent who seemingly became an overnight success.
You may remember the story of Ted Williams. In one day, he went from being a homeless person to someone who was overwhelmed with lucrative offers from the Cleveland Cavaliers, the NFL, MTV, Kraft, and other companies.
I might have been the only voice talent in America who didn't write publicly about this story at the time, with the exception of this comment I left on fellow voice talent David Houston's blog:
I am sooo glad to see you make the point that we shouldn't spend time worrying about any voiceover career outside of our own!I haven't commented on anything to do with this story until now. I am amazed at the time and energy that some voice talent have used this week in all the blog posts, forum comments, social media updates, etc. that they have devoted to this one topic.The reaction in the v-o community has become like the people who sit around and endlessly discuss any TV contest reality show, particularly American Idol.I choose to put my spare time and energy into the pursuit of my own goals and dreams rather than waste it thinking and talking about those of someone else.
However, I did write about the story in my journal. I was extremely irritated that so many companies wanted to attach their names to the story AFTER Ted's balloon soared. Of course, they all had to send out a press release to tout their benevolence in making offers of voiceover work to Ted.
More importantly, and the reason for this post today, is that my journal entry included 8 positive things I learned from watching the video of Ted and witnessing the reaction:
1. You have to believe in yourself and your talent before anyone else will.
2. You have to ask for what you want.
3. You have to persist and persevere through the bad times.
4. Chance or luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
5. You can't be denied the good things that are meant for you.
6. The power of video is an incredible tool for reaching your prospects.
7. People who are labeled as an overnight success generally have been working diligently for years to achieve their new success.
8. You can't sit on your past accomplishments and expect to continue receiving offers.
Although celebrated voiceover coach Marice Tobias did not mention Ted Williams in her recent blog entry titled Moving Forward, her words seem like a fitting postscript to this entry:
Good grief.Enough railing about the business. It is what it is.Concentrate on what you can actually do something about.Your delivery.Too many reads just don't hit the mark. Make sure what you are turning in will indeed stop people in their tracks.
Every script I've voiced, from the shortest audition to the longest audiobook...
Every call I've made...
Every email I've sent...
Every postcard I've mailed...
Every marketing campaign I've devised...
Every web site I've launched...
Every blog post I've written...
Every social media update I've made...
Every voiceover class or conference in which I've participated...
Every professional association meeting that I've attended...
...occurred while I worked a demanding, 40-hour-and-sometimes-more-a-week job.
After 12 years of concurrently working in a full-time job and a part-time voiceover business, it's time for a change.
I'm thrilled to announce that I was offered an early retirement from my day job and will be doing voiceover work full-time beginning 1 January 2012! YAY!!
However, as excited as I am to start a wonderful new phase in my life, this post isn't about me and my career plans. It's about you.
I want to encourage you to follow your dreams and give you 5 quick tips to help you do it.
1) Make a list of what you WANT.
A list helps you stay focused and fight discouragement. It also is the foundation to manifesting your desires. If you don't know what you want, how do you expect to get it?
If you don't do anything else, I advise you to RUN, do not walk, to buy the IT WORKS booklet and then follow Brad Jensen's extensive, amazing, and generous advice about using it.
As an example from my life, I made a list with attributes that I wanted in a job, like a certain income level, the ability to do voiceover work, and a private office with a door and window. I deliberately made the attributes a little more generic so that the list would cover my day job and my voiceover business. I reviewed this list frequently and added criteria over time, especially as I checked off attributes that were met.
Your results when working your list probably will turn out better than you could imagine. When I wrote that I wanted a private office with a door and window, I envisioned an office cubicle facing a window with tall walls on the other 3 sides. Of course, I would still be able to hear everyone around me in an open office concept.
What I got, though, was the ability to work in my gorgeous home office, which happens to have a solid wood door and 2 windows. It also has a TV, an iPod stereo, and a reasonable proximity to the refrigerator downstairs.
In another example, I wrote a new life list in September and included the fact that I want to be contracted at least once a month to voice an audiobook. I faithfully have reviewed my list, taken the actions suggested by the creative genie, and received 3 audiobook contracts since then, almost as if on schedule!
2) Think about WHY you want it.
I worked for the IRS for over 30 years. I always knew that I was trading short-term creativity and gratification for long-term security.
However, having the day job didn't mean I should put my dreams on hold....and neither should you.
So many people say things like "I'll travel when I'm retired" or "I'll start that business once the kids are out of school."
If it's your calling -- as voiceover is to me -- you want and need to do it to feed your soul. The only moment you know you have is this one, so why not be doing something because it makes you happy?
Yes, working full-time for an employer and part-time as an entrepreneur has its challenges. I would say it's a challenge to pursue any calling when you don't have unlimited time, money, and opportunity for it. The joy you get in pursuing your passion spills over into every other aspect of your life. Note that every passion does not lead to a career choice.
Also, since I mentioned the day job, let me just reiterate that having one can bankroll many of your dreams. You just have to change your perspective about it and know why you do what you do.
Knowing why you want something also helps you to prioritize the time, money, and opportunities that you have.
3) Don't think about HOW you're going to fulfill your dreams.
If you read any material on the Law of Attraction, the first thing you learn is to forget the HOWs. The forces of the Universe will conspire to bring about the changes you want when the time is right.
The only HOW to remember is this HOWEVER -- the root word of Attraction is ACT. You can't just think things and have them come true. You have to do your part to take ACTION. The forces of the Universe need your consistent thought and action, or no change is possible.
By constantly thinking of what you want and why you want it, the actions you need to take will be revealed to you over time.
4) Find a role model, and follow in their footsteps.
At the beginning of this article, I listed 10 things I consistently did for 12 years to build my voiceover business while still employed at a full-time job. I'm not saying I'm a role model, but think about it this way: If I did it, so can you.
Whatever your dream is, chances are good that someone else has done it. We live in the Information Age, with much of the world's knowledge just a few keystrokes away. You can read about success stories and get ideas to advance your own dream.
5) Help other people achieve their dreams.
Your reality is the mirror of the thoughts and words you've been saying and the actions you've been taking.
To paraphrase Wayne Dyer, if you only focus on what you want, you're essentially saying to the Universe "gimme, gimme, gimme". The Universe then mirrors that line back to you, making you feel that you are, using Dyer's words, always striving and never arriving.
On the other hand, if your thoughts, words, and actions are saying "how may I serve?", the Universe mirrors that line back to you.
What you put out in the world comes back to you, in a way and from a source that you probably wouldn't expect. If you are giving of time, attention, energy, and money to help other people, those things will come back to you.
As an example of this logic, a big reason that I write this blog is because I have a true desire to help other people. Because I write this blog, the Universe has sent that help back to me in the form of clients who find me because of my blog.
Retiring over 4 years early from my day job and working as a full-time voice talent is definitely a dream come true! And yes....it was actually on my list!
Have you started writing your list? I'd love to get your comments on the blog!
Photo: iStockPhoto/ErikReis
To compare is to despair.
I saw this quote in Bonnie Gillespie's recent column about competition and was thinking about it this morning after I found myself feeling that I could do so oh so much more to further my voiceover career.
Some voiceover colleagues seem to be on every social media site and practically living their lives online. Some people write multiple blogs. Others are producing podcasts and videos at a dizzying pace.
I have been a competitive person all of my life, first in school with grades, and then in the work place for projects and recognition. When I look at the wide array of activities in which some voice talent engage, it's easy to think I need to be just as productive and do the same things in order to stay competitive.
However, my corollary to Bonnie's statement is: To compete is to deplete.
Years ago, when I worked as a computer network administrator, the organization considered one of my coworkers to be the ultimate authority on server configurations. No matter what this man did, how rudely he treated others, or how his system changes might negatively impact the users, the organization always praised and rewarded him.
I didn't understand at the time that competing with him simply by trying to copy his actions was not the path to success.
For instance, he avidly devoured Microsoft Technet articles, discussion boards, and every computer magazine he could find. He read on the job and every night at home.
I felt compelled to read the same stuff in my evenings. I felt extremely competitive with him and wanted to stay at his level. He criticized the rest of us when we didn't know about a technical topic.
I hated spending my spare time that way. What's more, these competitive actions added to my feelings of being overly stressed and under appreciated in my organization. It was a competition that I could never win and one I really didn't want to enter.
I realized later that he read that material because computer networks were his passion. While I was extremely adept at my job, it was never my passion. I have never regretted leaving information technology positions for my true love of voiceover and communications.
All of the recent attention on Steve Jobs has made me feel a bit like I am not realizing my true potential. It's easy to think that I haven't done anything to change the world.
However, that's not true. I have changed the world just by being in it. No one sees things the way I do or does things exactly as I do.
I have changed the world with the hundreds of recordings I've created for clients and in public service. I know that people have watched videos and e-learning projects where I was the one telling them the information they needed to know. I know people have enjoyed listening to me narrate short stories and audiobooks. Sometimes, I'm even privileged to receive their kind words of praise about my work.
I have changed the world every time I helped someone physically, emotionally, and financially.
I have changed the world every time I thought and spoke positive, affirming words to and about myself and others. In fact, I've often thought of myself as an advocate for people who could not or would not speak for themselves.
My impact on the world may not be on the grand scale of Steve Jobs. My output in voiceover-related activities may not be as numerous or frequent as some of my peers.
But, you know what? That's OKAY. I am living a joyous, fulfilled life.
If you ever feel inadequate and think you need to compete with others as a result, remember these wise words from Steve Jobs:
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.
Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking.
Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice.
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
Everything else is secondary.
Do you ever watch the TV show Hoarders? It's about people who have let their houses become completely overrun with STUFF. The hoarding is usually caused by some sort of traumatic loss, like a death of a loved one, a painful divorce, or children leaving the nest.
For 6 weeks during August and September, Drew and I sort of learned how hoarders live while our old kitchen died and a new one was brought to life. I also learned a few things about clutter from the show and from our experience that I want to share with you before clutter kills your voiceover career.
Before our contractors could gut the kitchen (you didn't really think we were doing it ourselves, did you?), we had to empty the kitchen cabinets. All of that stuff had to be stored somewhere, and most of it landed on the floor in the living room. Some of it went in the hall bathroom, like drinking straws, dog food, and our printer and network components.
During a recent remodeling project, stuff from the kitchen cabinets was stacked
everywhere in Atlanta voice talent Karen Commins' living room.
Our house was designed with a dining room next to the kitchen, with a shared doorway between the 2 rooms. Since we use the dining room for the music room, we decided we wanted to enclose that shared doorway to give us more counter space in the kitchen.
Of course, this decision meant that the music room would also need to have new sheetrock and paint. We evacuated my harp and some other fragile things from the music room and stored much of them in -- you guessed it -- my voiceover recording studio.
People on the TV show always say they feel overwhelmed by the clutter. They frequently go shopping to temporarily relieve those feelings of overwhelm and despair. Naturally, the items they buy only add to the clutter when they get home, and thus perpetuate the cycle.
The hoarders often say that they can't do something they dream about doing because of the clutter. How can you really concentrate on furthering a dream when you have a pile of clutter in front of you, silently demanding that you do something about it before you tackle anything else? Clutter causes people to give up on their dreams before they even start.
in the past 2 months, Drew and I had to alter our routines and work harder just to do the simplest things. We constantly found ourselves looking for something we needed. Even though we had carefully placed our kitchen items neatly on the floor, we still had to look in boxes and step over things to get what we wanted.
The true hoarders always seem to have a variety of health problems. They are literally suffocating in their stuff. At a minimum, clutter can cause stress; at its worst, it can cause illness or even death.
I haven't seen a true hoarder's house except on TV. However, I have been in some horrendously messy, dirty offices in my professional life.
In my former job as a computer network administrator, I hated the times that I had to install something new or change out equipment due to the condition of the cubicles and offices. I didn't want to touch anything! People often piled papers and empty coffee cups in their cubicles and offices. Every surface was snowed under in a messy blizzard of paper, and old, stinky shoes and newspapers often lined the floor. I wondered if they lived that way at home. I also wondered how they ever got any work done.
The harp, an antique lamp, the music stand, and many other fragile things from
the music room found a temporary home in the recording studio.
I still can't answer the first question, but I have a better guess about the second one. Clutter zaps your mental energy and steals your creativity. It's really hard to get anything done at all, much less done well, with clutter blocking your path.
While the stuff from the music room was sitting in the studio, I was very disinclined to go in there for anything but necessary voiceover work. Working on my laptop in the living room wasn't any better because of the mound of stuff there. Blog posts, recordings for LibriVox service projects, a podcast series I'm developing, some follow-up marketing, a video I'd like to produce, even many auditions -- all these projects subconsciously went on hold until the kitchen renovation was done.
My extreme clutter was temporary, and thankfully, order, beauty, and calmness have been restored to my house. However, the fight against clutter is an on-going one, so here are 5 tips and tactics I use to combat it:
1) Determine your vision for your life and figure out how each space supports that vision.
I learned this powerful tip from professional organizer, TV star, and best-selling author Peter Walsh. He says that each room should have its own function and limits. Until you know these attributes, you can't really define what clutter is to you.
For instance, my studio serves a single function. If I'm in there, I'm doing something creative related to my voiceover career. I'm not paying bills, chit-chatting with friends on the phone, surfing Facebook, or designing scrapbook pages. My harp and the other stuff from my music room, while certainly beautiful and functional, did not further my vision for my studio. These pieces are treasures in my music room, but they felt like clutter when they were in my studio.
2) Adopt the motto A place for everything, and everything in its place.
This point is never more important than when you are faced with a life event such as job change, marriage, new child, divorce, or death. In those instances, you can expect LOTS of things to come into your house in a very short period of time. Since the life event brings stress with it, you have to be vigilant that clutter does not take root. If it does, it becomes a constant reminder of the stress from the event.
The key is to make immediate decisions about where each item will be stored, and then PUT IT THERE!
3) Ask yourself the hard questions, both for things you have and things you want to buy.
- What is your attachment to this thing? I've seen Peter Walsh work wonders with people over this question as it's important to understand emotions that cause us to have clutter. It's okay to have things because they remind you of a loved one or some special time. You have to realize, though, that the thing and the memory are entirely separate. Sometimes you can part with the thing, but you will always have the memory.
- When is the last time you used it? If you haven't used it in more than a year, you might think about getting rid of it.
- What is your plan for it? Saying "I might need it someday" is not a good answer and is a sure sign that you should consider letting it go.
- If you actually use it and have a plan for it, is this the best place for it to live, or should it be somewhere else? We found stuff in the kitchen that needed to be (and now is) stored in the garage or in the office files. In truth, we also found stuff that needed to be (and now is) in the trash, like addresses for our wedding invitations!
4) Don't accept stuff from other people just because they want to get it out of their house.
My in-laws are notorious in giving us things every time we go over there. Drew's mother usually wants to load us up with magazines that she wants returned, and his dad frequently gave Drew tools that Drew didn't need. None of this stuff needs to be in our house! Even in seemingly harmless instances like these, we have to make conscious decisions every day about everything that comes in our door.
5) Give yourself permission to sell, donate, or throw away anything that doesn't fit your vision for your space.
We frequently donate items to charities. We also post ads on Craigslist to give things away. For instance, you may not believe this, but I gave away the Auralex pyramid studio foam I used when I recorded in my walk-in closet.
When we've posted ads for free things on Craigslist, people respond immediately -- like within 10 minutes! People who are picking up a freebie are usually eager to come and get it, so Craigslist ads are a fast, easy way to declutter.
Your outer environment is a reflection of your inner thoughts. Is your environment orderly and serene, or chaotic and confused? Since your action follows your thoughts, a cluttered space can kill your voiceover career, while a clear space causes you to reach new heights!
Do you see any connection between clutter and voiceover success? I'd love to get your comments on the blog!
In May, I wrote about Audible's launch of the Audiobook Creation Exchange, or ACX.com. Audible, the leading company in downloadable audiobooks, created the site because they determined their listeners are voracious readers, and the demand for new audiobooks continues to increase. Currently,only about 5% of books are made into audiobooks. Since ACX is open to authors, I thought a narrator's perspective might help you decide whether to list your title on ACX for audiobook production.
I look forward to your comments the blog. If you do decide to post your book on ACX, let me know. I just might audition for it!
ACX is a marvelous tool to help you exploit the audio rights to your book, especially since the audiobooks will be distributed on Audible, iTunes, and Amazon. However, you should be aware that all books are not suitable for audio. You'll want to consider these factors when deciding to create an audiobook of your book:
1. The 2010 Audio Publishers Association (APA) Consumer Study shows that audiobook listeners are very likely to be doing something else while listening to the book: driving or traveling, housecleaning, creating crafts, exercising, or working on the computer.
2. The Consumer Survey also showed that most people would not buy both the print and audio versions of a book. Any kind of interaction that is needed with the physical book in order to understand the content probably is not a good choice for an audiobook.
Some info could be provided as additional download material, such as illustrations in a PDF document. Still, you can't assume that the listener has a device with a display or that they will take the time to download or view the additional material on their computer.
3. Some printed content just doesn't translate well to audio. A narrator would be challenged to do justice to material that relies on visual aspects like photographs. This kind of material could be a turn-off to the listeners. Examples include:
- Questionnaires with a point scale or essay questions -- Many personal development books contain assessments and quizzes that need to be worked on paper.
- Statistical graphs
- Textbooks with problems to solve
One of the ACX FAQs lists other types of books that would not make good audiobooks.
4. Audiobook narrators read your book as it is written. You may need to make some changes in the text to make it more friendly to the ear, which keeps the listener in the moment. For instance, if your printed book says "you're reading this book", you might change the verb to be "you're listening to this book."
Assuming your book is a good fit for audio, you next have to decide whether to narrate it yourself or hire a professional voice talent to narrate it for you. ACX has a wonderful FAQ for authors who want to narrate their books.
I wouldn't presume to advise you on this important decision. Instead, I'd like to direct your attention to this great discussion about authors as narrators on AudiobookCommunity.com. Pros and cons are listed for many genres, with a preference for authors as narrators on autobiographies or books written by comedians. An important comment in the thread is "how is the book best served?"
More often than not, you may decide that the book is best served by hiring a professional narrator. If you take this route, here are 4 more pieces of advice for the casting process on ACX:
5. You can query for a particular narrator's name, like "Karen Commins", or for certain narrator characteristics, like accent, genre, and pay rate. After you listen to the narrators' samples, you can contact a narrator directly. For your easy reference, here's the link to my ACX narrator profile.
6. You can post your title for auditions. In this case, narrators will record a short segment of text that you specify. You could pick a section with conversations or straight narrative text. It's a good idea to establish a cut-off date for auditions in your mind. Otherwise, you could receive a staggering number of auditions in a short period of time.
7. You might get more auditions if you post your project as a pay-for-performance rather than a royalty-share title. While a royalty agreement is highly attractive to an author, many narrators are reluctant to enter into a royalties-only deal because the narrator bears all of the risk.
Past experience taught me that I need to narrate a book that I love. I won't voice any kind of project just for the money, but I am even more selective about audiobook gigs. Audiobook narration tends to equate to a much lower hourly rate than narrations for corporate videos or e-learning projects.
As a narrator and producer, I would be spending a large amount of time with the book -- at least 5 hours for every finished hour of narration. Therefore, a book with a finished time of 10 hours requires 50 or more hours for me to research, record, and edit the recording. For a full explanation of the time needed for audiobook preparation and production, I refer you to this article.
Given the time involved to narrate and produce an audiobook, I would consider a royalty deal if I'm passionate about the book and want to promote its message in the world. The narration can be its own reward in those instances.
8. Pick a narrator whose vocal qualities best match the way you hear your book in your head. Just as all books are not suitable as audiobooks, all voices are not suited to read the same material. Wanna hear what I mean? Read this article titled Read Me a Story Brad Pitt: When audiobook casting goes terribly wrong.
9/1/11 edited to correct typo
When I wrote the article 5 pieces of e-mail marketing advice, I was referring to those times when you send a personal message rather than a general newsletter to your voiceover clients and prospects.
As you might expect, an e-mail newsletter has its own considerations. Since newsletters can be a great way to unobtrusively remind people that I am a voice talent, I have just started publishing a monthly newsletter. I want to share 3 things I learned in this process in case you want to create one, too.
1. Automated software is a must.
Lately, I've been hearing radio ads from ConstantContact -- yes, RADIO ads about email marketing! I've also been seeing banner ads for multiple email solutions on numerous other sites. Email marketing systems have obviously become a big business since people continue to have success in using email as part of their marketing plan.
You could send mail to your list using your own database and email client like Outlook. Another, more popular approach is to upload your database to an on-line service. Since on-line email services are so prevalent and offer an array of built-in features including templates and tracked statistics, it makes a lot of sense to use one if your finances can accommodate it. You can try the systems at no cost for a limited time or number of users in order to decide the best one for you.
Here's some research that may help you decide which one to use.
Earlier in the year, I saw a question in a LinkedIn group in which the participants were asked for pros and cons about email marketing systems. An assistant started compiling the results for me and got through 254 of the hundreds of responses. I had no idea so many email systems exist! If you're interested, here's the full list from those 254 comments.
Of the 84 companies found in those first 254 responses, the top 5 companies, representing 73% of the total votes in my list, were:
ConstantContact 41 votes
iContact 23 votes
MailChimp 22 votes
AWeber 18 votes
MyEmma 11 votes
Aside from this list, you can do a Google search and quickly find a chart like this one that compares numerous features across multiple systems.
2. Permission-based marketing is a BIG deal. A VERY BIG DEAL.
You've probably noticed that most emails from companies include a link to unsubscribe to mailings. That feature is mandated in the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.
Beyond that law, though, people have extremely strong feelings about being added to mailings without their permission. In fact, adding someone to your mailing list without asking them first is quite the polarizing issue.
I can make this assertion after reading questions about creating mailing lists in multiple LinkedIn forums. Each time, the question elicited extremely passionate responses. I decided to create a LinkedIn Poll in which I asked the question:
"When is it okay with you if someone adds
your e-mail address to their e-mail newsletter?"
- You're connected on LinkedIn or other sites
- They gave you their business card
- You have exchanged e-mail messages
- All of the above
- None of the above -- they need permission
Of the 14 respondents, 9 voted NONE OF THE ABOVE, with ALL OF THE ABOVE being the choice of the other 5 participants.
The comments on the poll page linked above and in a similar question I asked in 2008 when I first considered a newsletter give you a good snapshot of opinions on both sides.
I decided to use iContact for my newsletter host, and I felt they went overboard on ensuring that you have permission to send the message to each contact. You have to click a checkbox in several places to validate that you have the reader's permission.
Here's what happened to me when I set up my contact list in the system:
- I removed from my database a number of voiceover clients that I've dropped and prospects with whom I hadn't established a relationship. In some cases, I had been out of touch with a person for 2-3 years, so I removed their names, too.
- I uploaded my list of solid contacts from my stand-alone database.
- I couldn't add a name to my iContact mailing until the person confirms I have their permission, so I decided to let my contacts confirm their mailing addresses could be added to the newsletter list before sending them the newsletter.
- iContact made me initial that I could contact the person even when I was sending the pre-addition confirmation letter! That's a Catch-22 if ever there was one!
3. Timing is [not] everything.
Voice talent live by the clock. Radio and tv ads need to be 15, 30, or 60 seconds. Agents need auditions at a certain time, and clients expect a fast-turnaround for recordings.
Email has its own timing. I've read that the best time to send your message is on a Tuesday morning. I planned for my first issue of Success Leaves Tracks to be distributed on Tuesday, 5 July.
The only problem was that I didn't realize that I was going to hit the permission-based wall.
I thought I could add my database during the July 4th holiday weekend and have the newsletter appear in mailboxes when people returned to work on Tuesday. Nope. I needed their permission. I ended up sending out the "please confirm it's okay to mail to you" messages on Friday, 1 July.
Let's just say that I didn't get quite the enthusiastic response I had hoped for!
In hindsight, I wouldn't have sent my confirmation notices on any Friday, particularly one before a holiday weekend! I'm sure that many people deleted the message and moved on, which limits my potential to send them messages through iContact.
Even though my timing in setting up the database could have been better, I'm confident that the newsletter will find the right audience. After all, in the words of Buddha:
is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.
For years, I have wanted to produce a newsletter as a gentle way to keep in touch with clients and prospects. When I started writing this blog 5 years ago, I thought it might take the place of a newsletter. However, I see now that my voiceover business can benefit from both tools.
This blog focuses primarily on topics dealing with voiceover, audiobooks, and marketing. Many of the articles are prompted from specific questions that I receive about working as a voice talent. I also have started a discussion board on Facebook where people may wish to pose these kinds of questions.
Long-time subscribers of this blog probably know that I draw inspiration from reading lots of biographies. I often find myself repeating things I've read while in meaningful conversation with people who are looking to make positive changes in their lives. I didn't want to change the focus of my blog, but I still wanted some way to share inspirational stories with others.
I wasn't sure that a newsletter would fit the bill. Most marketers would probably say that the purpose of a newsletter is to keep readers informed about your product and services. To me, this viewpoint seems self-indulgent when marketing myself and my services as a voice talent. Just as I don't fill my blog with entries about my voiceover projects, I don't want to create a newsletter with that kind of content, either.
Instead, I want to offer something that people would want to read, something they would actually look forward to receiving each month, like they did when I sent postcards in the mail.
You see, I would would highlight a successful, famous person who had nothing to do with voiceover. I loved picking a person and doing some research about them. Then, I would write about their accomplishments and include some of their best quotations on the postcard. People actually called and emailed me to tell me they appreciated the mailing. I stopped the postcard mailings due to the ever-increasing printing and postage costs associated with mailing to a large database.
I don't know why it took me so long, but the lightbulb finally went on -- why not publish a monthly newsletter using the same general idea so that it serves as a virtual postcard?!
And so I am, starting with the inaugural issue of Success Leaves Tracks, to be published today.
In addition to a short biography, the newsletter will include a Success Track that may help you on your path to success. If it sounds interesting to you, I invite you to sign up for the mailing list from my Facebook page. If you don't receive the July issue, you'll be able to find it in the newsletter archives.
Now that I've told you about my newsletter, my next post will provide some info I learned that may be useful to you if you intend to include a newsletter in your marketing mix.
My email inbox continues to provide fodder for blog articles. Last week, someone sent me this question:
I've been asked to record a 200 page audiobook. I'm not in a union or guild. I do have some voiceover experience. What do you recommend I charge?
Original Answer
While the question you asked seems simple, the answer requires more explanation, as found in this blog post and the one from Paul Strikwerda linked within it.As basic info, you need to know the WORD count, not the page count, of the book you would narrate. You can figure out the finished run-time based on the word count. For instance, Audible uses an average rate of speed of 155 words a minute, or 9300 words per finished hour.Paul's article shows you a formula to calculate finished time. My article shows you how to calculate the real time required for editing to produce the book. As Paul points out in his comment to my article, you also need to add time for preliminary research.You'll have to consider all of these factors about the time commitment along with your experience, relationship with the client, training, and studio equipment to determine a rate that is fair compensation. Small publishers only pay $50-100 per finished hour. I would only perform an audiobook at that very low rate if I wanted to build commercial credits.I hope these thoughts are helpful. Best wishes for your continued success!PS. I have just started a discussion board on my Facebook page. Would you be comfortable if I re-posted this Q&A in that venue? Other people could benefit from the discussion and chime in with their own good suggestions.
Apparently, I overwhelmed this person with good information that would require her to actually do some research because she re-posted her question on a voiceover forum within an hour of receiving my reply.
Here's the simple mathematical formula for solving this problem:
1. Divide the word count of the book by your rate of speech per hour to get the number of finished hours. If you don't know your rate of speech, Audible uses 9400 words per hour, or 157 words per minute, in its calculation for books posted on ACX.
2. Multiply the number of finished hours by 6. This number is a very conservative estimate of the number of real-time hours you will spend in preparing to read (pre-reading the book, looking up pronunciations, etc.), recording, editing, and transmitting your book. For instance, a 10-hour book may require 60 hours of your life from the time you read the first word until the last byte is uploaded or mailed to the client.
3. Multiply the real-time hours by the hourly rate of pay you need to survive. Chances are very good that you will come up with a pay rate for this audiobook that is $1000s MORE than your client wishes to pay. You have to decide how to negotiate a rate acceptable to both of you.
Even with this formula in hand, you still will want to research current audiobook rates. Just enter "audiobook rates" into Google, and you'll get a wealth of information. If you want tips for negotiating a higher price, check out my article Cruising for a competitive advantage.
Once you know the amount of time you'll invest in the project and the amount of money you need to get for your time, you'll know whether to accept an audiobook project. For instance, I would voice a royalty-share book only if I were passionate about the topic and had the time available for the project. It's always good to be working and gaining credits if your survival needs are being met.
If you have more thoughts on this topic, I'd love to get your comments on the blog! If you have questions on other topics related to voiceover, marketing, or just living your best life, I invite you to post them on my new Facebook discussion board.
Photo: iStockPhoto.com/STEVECOLEccs
updated 9/1/11 to change Audible's word count per hour from 9300 to 9400
Yesterday, I posted part 1 of this topic, in which up-and-coming voiceover talent Linda Velwest asked about the legalities of using images that she found on-line within the audiobook trailer she wanted to create. Even though she is only using her trailer for promotional purposes, she might not be able to use images and music found on-line due to the owners' copyrights.
As Linda pointed out, finding images and music that are truly in the public domain and free of copyright restriction can be a tricky matter. Cornell University has created a very helpful Copyright Information Center which can help you navigate the copyright maze. In particular, this comprehensive chart lists dates that will help you figure out if something is in the public domain.
As promised, today's entry is the rest of the story. In addition to seeing her terrific audiobook trailer created with public domain components, you can benefit from Linda's list of sites of public domain images and music.
Hi Karen,Thanks for your note. When I started working on the video, I just started looking up pictures on the internet. Then I got concerned about stealing other people's work and I got a little obsessed about stealing! You were very clear in your blog that you wanted other people to think about doing the same thing you did, but I was all paranoid!So, here it is!I found a lot of resources for public domain pictures and pictures where it is very clear how to contact the person who has rights to them and what you need to do if you want to use them:The music I got from: http://www.best-otr.com/You can certainly share my emails on your blog - it would be an honor. Thanks again for your inspiration.Linda Velwest
As Linda pointed out, finding images and music that are truly in the public domain and free of copyright restriction can be a tricky matter. Cornell University has created a very helpful Copyright Information Center which can help you navigate the copyright maze. In particular, this comprehensive chart lists dates that will help you figure out if something is in the public domain.
With so much material available in the public domain, I'm sure that more voice talent will create our own promotional videos instead of only narrating them for others! I'd love to hear from you if you have created or plan to create a promotional video using elements in the public domain, so leave your comments and video links on the blog!
Recently, I had a wonderful e-mail exchange with up-and-coming voice artist Linda Velwest about creating a promotional video. Linda kindly gave me permission to repost her messages here on the blog so that others can benefit from this discussion.
Here's my response, with some formatting and highlighting added for readability.
Hi Karen,I've been following your blog and I've been voluteering at librivox. My name there is lindavw. I just finished recording my first solo project and I'm waiting for it to be PL'd. I saw the trailer you made for your Alaska book and it inspired me to think about doing one for the book I just did! I hope you don't mind me stealing your idea! It's a good one.The book I read is a short YA book from the 1930's about these girls who are in college and their adventures during their sophomore year. I was going to make a video with me talking about the book, maybe taking some lines from the book, and having a slideshow of colleges and college students from that time as the visual on the video.I looked up on the internet and found a bunch of pictures of college students from that era. I found some great pictures from a variety of sources - some college handbooks that have pictures of their history, some pictures of movie starts of the time, some cool old pictures I also looked up the legality of using pictures in a video. And I'm kind of confused so I was hoping you could answer my questions or point me in the direction of sources that can.I am not a voice actress at this time. I'm taking classes, getting coaching and practicing all the time. But I've never actually been paid for anything. If I do make this video, I'll post it around and use it as a way to promote myself and get my name out there. But I have no intention of getting paid anything for the book or the video.I think of it like a school project where I'm preparing to enter the workforce by dong things as similar to how a professional would do it as possible. I don't want to do anything illegal or unethical and I don't know what the boundaries are.Thanks for your inspiration and any help you can give me.Linda Velwest
Greetings, Linda! Thanks so much for the nice note; you made my day! I love the line in your last paragraph about preparing to enter the workforce. So many people dash off the question to me "I have been told I have a nice voice. How do I get started in voiceover?" without any thought or perusal of the wealth of info on my web site. It's so refreshing to hear from someone who is working at building her skills and taking a methodical -- and wise -- approach to starting a new career. Bravo!I'm delighted that you liked my book trailer and want to create one of your own. Not only do I not mind that you are using this idea, I expected and encouraged people to do so in this blog post.As you'll read in the comments, one voice talent used the idea to create a trailer for a local art exhibit and landed inquiries about creating a similar one for pay. Video is a very effective marketing technique!Also, take some cues from that article about ways to spread the video, as well as publicize your book. My book has been in the catalog for 1 week and has already been downloaded more than 500 times because I have been promoting it.Think of the target audience for the book or how it might relate to a group of people, and you can figure out some places where those people hang out on-line. For instance, I posted the info and link to my book in the Alaska forum on CruiseCritic.com because it's Alaska cruise season, and many people like to take audiobooks on a trip, particularly if it relates to their destination.I really don't have a lot of specific info I can share about picture copyrights. Generally, pictures on the Internet or in magazines, books, and papers are protected by copyright. You wouldn't be able to use them or a derivative of them legally without permission of the owner. In gaining permission, you might have to pay a usage fee or royalties.The same is true of music. You couldn't use something from your own CD collection or off the web. I'll come back to the music in a minute.Most of the pictures in my video were from the public domain book I narrated, along with 1-2 that my husband took on our Alaskan cruise. As the photographer, he owns the copyright to those pictures and kindly granted me usage of them.However, I also used some images from iStockPhoto.com, which is one of many on-line sites of stock images that you CAN use in your own work. Photographers and videographers upload their work to these sites. You purchase a picture or video clip, and a usage license comes with it. I've also bought and used these pictures in my blog.The music in my video was from a royalty-free collection of CDs that I have purchased. You can buy royalty-free music on-line by song, CD, or collection. As with the images, it may take some time to hunt down just the right thing.Since you've found images that you like, you can always write to those people and request their permission to use it. They may say yes or no, or they may ignore you completely.Sometimes the copyright owner will surprise and thrill you with their response. In chapter 12 of my book, the author included the chorus lyrics from a Stephen Foster song "Old Black Joe", and she described the setting for it. I first planned to sing the song in the narration (I did that with another Victorian song in the book), but I didn't know the melody.In researching it, I found a rendition on iTunes that captured the scene to perfection. While the song is in the public domain, and therefore free of copyright restrictions, the performance of it is NOT public domain. The artist has the copyright on the performance. It was so perfect, and I really wanted to use it in my book.I found the artist on Facebook and sent a message to him. Not only did he immediately grant me permission to use the snippet, but he offered to help me promote it with Facebook ads! He quite clearly told me that he didn't care of someone lifted the song out of the book and used it for something else. His purpose in recording it was to reawaken interest in these old songs.[Important note: Since LibriVox dedicates all recordings to the public domain, anyone could lift your free book and sell it without sharing the revenue with you. See the excellent discussion on Some Audio Guy's blog about this potential downside to volunteering on this or any other site that leaves your recordings in the public domain.][I uploaded the pertinent 1:08 section of the chapter with music if you'd like to hear it.] I am proud of the way it turned out!I hope these thoughts are helpful. Send me the link to your video when you finish it; I'd love to see it! Best wishes for your health, success, and prosperity!
Linda responded with a great list of sites where you can obtain images and music that are in the public domain for use in your own creative pursuits. She also shared her very cool audiobook trailer. All of these goodies will be in part 2 of this topic, which I'll post tomorrow. Hope to see you here!
Earlier this year, I wrote a popular article titled Reasons to Create Your Own Stuff. In it, I described the audiobook that I narrated for LibriVox and included a link to the book trailer I created to promote the audiobook. I also listed some of the marketing plans I had for the audiobook and trailer among my reasons to create my work in this way.
2) Rajkumari from Mumbai, India, left a comment on my post 10 ways to get work in audiobook narration, noting that an audiobook culture is not prevalent in India. When I responded, I said, "If the audiobook culture doesn't exist there, perhaps it's up to you to create it!"
Two bonus reasons to create your own stuff prompted me to circle back to this topic today:
1) My FREE, 10.5-hour audiobook of A Woman Who Went to Alaska is now available for download from LibriVox or through iTunes as shown on this page.
Bonus reason #1 to create your own stuff:
Copywriters have known for years that the word FREE is one of the most powerful and compelling words in the English language. If you can give away something valuable for free, you can get the widest range of potential buyers to sample your products, which in this case, includes my voice and interpretation, my audiobook production skills, my ability to write an effective script for a video, and my creativity in video production.
As I wrote that sentence, I was reminded of the important passage quoted below from Eckhart Tolle's incredible and highly-recommended book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose:
Bonus reason #2 to create your own stuff:
If the thought of lack -- whether it be money, recognition, or love -- has become part of who you think you are, you will always experience lack.
Rather than acknowledge the good that is already in your life, all you see is lack. Acknowledging the good that is already in your life is the foundation for all abundance.
The fact is: Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world. You are withholding it because deep-down you think you are small and that you have nothing to give.
Try this for a couple of weeks and see how it changes your reality: Whatever you think people are withholding from you -- praise, appreciation, assistance, loving care, and so on -- give it to them. You don't have it? Just act as if you had it, and it will come.
Then, soon after you start giving, you will start receiving. You cannot receive what you don't give. Outflow determines inflow.
Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you already have, but unless you allow it to flow out, you won't even know that you have it.
I have found this passage to be true of past voiceover jobs. In fact, Tolle's message was an underlying reason I decided to spend time narrating an audiobook as a service project. You see, I hadn't narrated an audiobook in a while. So, rather than feeling like an audiobook gig was being withheld from me, I gave this one to the world.
It feels great to be able to give!
What do you think of Tolle's assertion that you should give that which you think is withheld from you? Does it apply to your voiceover career or any other part of your life? I'd love to get your comments on the blog!
Like many of you, I love audiobooks and want to make it my major niche in voiceover. A couple of colleagues recently sent me emails asking advice about obtaining more work in audiobooks. As you might imagine, I wrote a rather lengthy reply from which I will add a condensed version later in this post.
At the moment, though, I want to share some hot news with you. The audiobook publishing industry has changed overnight with Audible's launch today of a new marketplace to connect audiobook rights holders with producers and narrators -- the Audiobook Creation Exchange, or ACX.
ACX launched with over 1000 titles, many of which have real budgets associated with them. You can find titles that interest you and submit an audition, much like the process on Voices.com.
However, ACX does not require a subscription fee from narrators. The thought is that the cream will rise to the top. Narration contracts wouldn't be awarded to talent who have issues in vocal delivery or sound quality.
You can read the official announcement from Audible. For more details, you may want to read today's blog article from my friend and fellow voice talent Dave Courvoisier.
As promised, here are 9 more ideas culled from my earlier emails to other voice talent that may help you meet and follow up with audio publishers so you can land work in audiobooks:
1) Obtain publisher contact info and submit your audiobook demo to them. Marketing your audiobook demo is the tried and true, #1 way of getting audiobook work. You can get publisher and producer info from the Audiofile Audiobook Reference Guide (where you can also be listed for a fee) and the Audio Publishers Association, if you're a member of it. Note that you should not submit a commercial demo to an audiobook publisher.
2) If you already have worked for 1 audiobook publisher, how did you get the gig? Can you replicate those steps to bigger success?
3) LinkedIn searches can lead to work. Have you contacted publishers directly or asked for introductions to them from among your LinkedIn contacts?
4) Volunteer to improve your skills, for instance at LibriVox or for a local organization that reads to the blind. Why not create something because you WANT to, rather than for the money and fame? (The money and fame will come.)
5) I went to Pat Fraley's audiobook class in 2006. One idea he presented to the class was to suggest a title (ideally with a movie tie-in) and send a custom demo to a publisher.
6) Connect with publishers on social media sites. Commenting on the publishers' posts on Facebook congratulating them on Twitter, etc. seems like a non-pushy way to follow up and consistently get your name in front of people who may hire you. Also, are you may want to become an active member on the Audibook Community site.
7) Think about a value added service you can offer to publishers. How much and what kind of promotion do you do for the other projects you have voiced? How are your video skills? I think if I can show added value to a publisher in marketing, such as by creating a video book trailer, publishers may be more inclined to want to hire me to narrate a book.
8) Start your own audiobook company and sell your offerings as digital downloads through Amazon. With tons of books in the public domain, you just have to look around for suitable books.
9) This last one may sound far-fetched, but give yourself an attitude adjustment every day in the mirror. Tell yourself "this is could be the day that an audiobook publisher offers me a narration contract for an audiobook that will get great reviews." Things I've been speaking into the mirror have been coming to pass!
I know that audiobook work, like everything else in a thriving voiceover career, requires persistence, patience, and an attitude of gratitude. I also know that the more I relax and go with the flow, the more things like lucrative voiceover gigs come to me. I can look back over the last 11 years in voiceover and see where I have tried too hard to make things happen. When you try too hard, you actually push away the good that was on its way.
You and I cannot be denied the good that is on its way to us. If I don't have something in my reality now, I know it's on its way to me....like my Grammy for Best Spoken Word after working the ideas in this list!
Can you add some more ideas about gaining work as an audiobook narrator? I'd love to get your comments on the blog!
Recently, I received this message as a comment on the entry A plan to break into voice-over:
Karen,I can not tell you how thankful I am for your blog, and your selfless giving of voice over artistry information.I am at turning point in my life and realize I've been working 20 years in a industry I have NO PASSION FOR! In thinking, "how do I change this?", I remembered the excitement I felt when asked to record automated attendant messages twice in my career. I've always been told I have a good voice and can't wait to become a part of the community.I know a lot of hard work will be involved but one day I hope to be successful and pass on my knowledge just as you.You are wonderful,God Bless,Veronica
While I truly appreciate and am grateful for Veronica's praise about my blog, I want to talk about her paragraph about passion. The key is not to find a job and industry that you are passionate about, but to create a LIFE that you are passionate about!
The last sentence was written with apologies to my eighth grade English teacher Mrs. Ellington, who would hate to see me ending the sentence with a preposition. She made us memorize a list of prepositions, and I credit her with my strong knowledge of and passion for English grammar.
There's that word again -- PASSION.
When people feel that something is missing in their life, they often say they want to feel passionate about something. Rather than doing the self-reflection necessary to understand what is missing in their life and make adjustments, I have observed that most people hurriedly make 1 or -- even worse -- a combination of the 4 life-changing decisions below. I've also included some of the common thought patterns that may lead people to the decision.
1) Have a baby
- "A baby would bring us closer."
- "A baby would always love me."
- "I might get a reality TV show if I have enough kids." (If you don't believe me on this point, do you remember the Octo-mom, or have you counted the number of shows about huge families on the TLC channel?)
2) Change residences
- "I'd be happy if only I had more space."
- "I'm tired of this neighborhood."
3) Change jobs
- "I have no passion for my job or industry."
- "I'd be happy if only I made more money."
4) Change relationship (get married or divorced, find a new love interest)
- "I want to be in love again."
- "I'd be happy if someone paid attention to me."
- "You don't bring me flowers. You don't sing me love songs."
Unfortunately, making any of those decisions without FIRST analyzing the cause of your feelings of discontentment will not solve the problem. Instead, the change will only serve to complicate the underlying issue, which often can be summed up as a matter of self-love.
If I were having a conversation with Veronica, I'd ask her these questions:
- What was it about recording the phone messages that you liked?
- Why did it matter to you?
- Did you like knowing you were helping people?
- Did you feel important or special to be asked to record the messages?
- Did you get a buzz knowing that people would be hearing your voice when they called the number?
Veronica's answers to these questions could be very illuminating in ways that she wouldn't expect.
In her landmark books Wishcraft: How To Get What You Really Want and I Could Do Anything if I Only Knew What It Was, Barbara Sher wrote about finding your touchstone, which is the emotional core of the goal. When thinking about the things you like to do, you can find your touchstones by asking yourself thoughtful, probing questions like those above for Veronica. When you know WHY something is important to you, you make much better choices.
From Veronica's message, it seems obvious that she has done some serious thinking and decided to embark on a new career in voiceover. Since I don't know Veronica, I can only speculate about her answers and motivation to become a voice talent in the hope that it gives you food for thought about finding your own touchstones and designing the life you want.
For instance, I wonder if Veronica has a touchstone of recognition. If so, changing jobs to become a voice talent may not be the most satisfying way to bring more recognition into her life. In fact, if she knew that recognition was the thing that she felt was missing in her life, she might figure out ways to get it in the very job for which she says she has no passion.
Her touchstone might have something to do with becoming wealthy. If that's the case, she will feel discouraged to read fellow voice talent J. S. Gilbert's thoughtful, in-depth analysis of the annual salary review in Parade magazine. Gilbert notes that a voice talent profiled in the review had the lowest income of any of the respondents. He also mentions that his article may extinguish the flames of passion.
Of course, Veronica may truly have a touchstone that involves creative expression through her voice -- something more meaningful than simply being told she has a nice voice. Every person who contacts me about getting into voiceover tells me that exact same thing! I'm not picking on Veronica here. I'm just pointing out that the people who write to me probably have nice eyes, nice fingernails, and nice knee caps, but, since no one has complimented those things, the prospective voice talent don't try to turn them into career choices.
Without further exploration on Veronica's part, she wouldn't know whether she should become a voiceover talent, a puppeteer, singer, telemarketer, lawyer, or a political advocate. These choices could have the same touchstone but would require wildly different actions.
I think we all yearn for some way for creative expression, and the lack of it may be at the root of some of the dissatisfaction with our lives. I've read that Adolf Hitler dreamed of being an artist but couldn't get into art school. Can you imagine how much better the world would be if he had only followed his dream?
Where other people paint a canvas using brushes, I do it with words, either by giving voice to words written by others or putting my voice into words for others to read. The right kind of creative expression for each person would be that thing they want to do for its own intrinsic enjoyment. Maybe it becomes a career choice, but then again, maybe it doesn't.
Through her self-assessment, Veronica might realize that she needs the cheers or applause from an audience. Voiceover is usually a solitary pursuit, which again indicates it wouldn't be a good career choice. She might even realize that she doesn't enjoy reading!
On the other hand, she could be passionate about using her voice to make a difference for others, but she doesn't want to take on all of the myriad responsibilities associated with running a business as a voice talent. In that case, Veronica might prefer to volunteer to read for the blind or the children's story hour at the library.
You can have passion for a lot of things, but you don't have to make a career from them. You don't have to make any money from them at all. As an example, I use my passion for English grammar when writing these blog entries and my private journals.
I'm also passionate about the Eiffel Tower. I have a web cam app that lets me view it any time I want to see it. I just spent my birthday week in Paris, and we stayed in an amazing apartment a block away from the Tower. It was so close that I felt like I could touch it out the open window.
While there, I found a way to combine my passions for writing and fine pens with my passion for the Eiffel Tower -- collecting antique inkwells featuring the Eiffel Tower. I've started researching pictures on-line and creating a compendium of available styles along with selling prices.
Voice talent Karen Commins marries her passions for writing and the Eiffel Tower
by collecting antique souvenir inkwells from Paris featuring the Eiffel Tower.
In this one, the Tower tilts back to reveal the ink reservoir underneath.
Will I ever make any money from this new hobby? Probably not, but it's not my intent to make money from it. My intent is to honor my touchstones of romance and beauty by bringing those attributes into my life (and consequently, these antique inkwells into my display cases!) as much as possible.
The good news is that each time you follow your passion in one area, the enthusiasm, excitement, and joy you feel from your new discoveries will overflow into every other area of your life. As a result of simply researching what it takes to work in voiceover, Veronica has already increased the level of positive energy -- or passion -- in her life.
If, after spending time in contemplation and figuring out that a voiceover career truly gratifies your touchstones, don't be too hasty to quit your current job. Since security is one of my touchstones, you can trust me when I encourage you to think of your current job as a subsidy to your art.
Every moment has meaning, so whatever you're doing now will only help you in the years to come. By analyzing your touchstones, you can figure out what's missing in your life and take the action needed to develop a rich, full, wonderful life that you are PASSIONATE about!
One reason that I am performing some audiobook work on Librivox as a service project is because it allows me to practice some acting techniques needed for effective storytelling in audiobooks.
A project that was recently completed and is now available for free download is a multi-cast drama of The Perils of Pauline. I voiced the role of the heroine Pauline for two-thirds of the book.
I only read the lines for my character. Much like an audition for a radio dialogue spot, I didn't have the benefit of hearing and playing off the other voice actors in the scene. I had to imagine that I had heard the other characters speak and then react with an appropriate emotional response.
This particular project lasted over 2.5 years due in part to lots of casting changes. Editing all of the hundreds of character reads into the narration was a herculean task undertaken by David Lawrence. I enjoyed hearing the finished product.
LibriVox is a great way to hone your narration and editing skills, but you can also volunteer in other ways such as being a proof listener on projects. I am proud to be part of this active, thriving community.
Suddenly, I am receiving a rash of emails with the question: "can you direct me to some Atlanta voiceover agents?"
Many people think that the key to voiceover success lies with an agent. Once you get an agent, you just have to sit back and let the lucrative offers come in, right? Ah, if only it were so easy to make money at your microphone!
This week, someone wrote to me about getting an agent while still enjoying the flush of success from working his first paid gig. He lives in another city and was ready to get on a plane to Atlanta to meet agents. In responding, I explained that I was offering this information in the same spirit of helpfulness that I write my blog.
If you've only booked one job, it's doubtful that you're ready for a voice-over agent to want to represent you.
I guess my answer above is just another case where I tell people what they need to know, not what they want to hear.In order to land a voice-over agent, you have to show that you are a marketable commodity and can offer them something that they don't already have among the people they represent. You should listen to the reels of their talent to determine whether and how you might fit on their roster.Most reputable agents have listings on Voicebank. You can sort the listings by city to find the agents' contact info and hear reels of their talent.You also want to compare the professional sound of your demo against those you hear on-line. Those professionals are your competition for booking jobs. If your demo is homemade, you'll want to invest in any necessary training with a coach before getting a professionally produced demo.Hard work, initiative, and knocking on doors does indeed pay off. I just think you need to knock on some other doors to establish yourself before you approach an agent. You can get work without an agent; agents are just one avenue, not the only avenue, of obtaining work.Check out the advice page on my site and look in the archives of my blog for more in-depth advice and resources on finding and marketing yourself to people who might hire you right where you are. To quote Teddy Roosevelt: do what you can, where you are, with what you have.
A few other thoughts about agents:
- Far too many organizations are ready to prey on people's dreams by taking their money and giving them unfilled promises in return. Modeling/talent agencies that set up in malls, organizations that hold "open casting calls" or regular searches for new talent, and places that run radio ads are probably some sort of school that makes their money from selling classes and pictures, not from booking talent. A legitimate voiceover agent doesn't need to solicit more talent, and they only charge you when you book a gig through them, usually 10-15% of the gig!
- If the agency doesn't have a voiceover department, I doubt they could really help you.
- You probably don't want to sign an exclusive agreement with one agent. Many voice actors have numerous agents located across the country and in other parts of the world. To reduce potential conflicts of interest among your agents and clients, it's best if you only have one agent per city or geographic region. Also, the relationship gets tricky when you receive the same copy from multiple agents. In those cases, I send the audition to whomever sent it to me first.
- If you are active with your marketing, be sure any prospective agents are not threatened by your efforts. One agent asked to represent me because she loved my clever pieces of direct mail and then dropped me a year later (after rarely sending me an audition), telling me that she felt my marketing competed with her. I have booked most of my work as a result of my own marketing, so I would not sign with another agent who discourages it.
- For thoughts from an agent, you will want to read the helpful article that Voices.com ran just a few days ago titled How to Get An Agent Dos and Don'ts.
If you still worry that you don't have an agent, you are focusing on what you perceive you lack in your life. Instead, look at and be grateful for all you have. Keep a list of your accomplishments ready for review so that you can maintain your confidence and positive outlook.
A good talent agent can send you auditions and open doors that were previously closed to you. With polished skills, research, and patience, you will be able to attract the right agent representation at just the right time.
Photo: iStockphoto / Talaj
Aflac fired Gilbert Gottfried after the so-called comedian made crude, tasteless jokes on Twitter about the Japanese earthquake/tsunami disaster.
In case you didn't know, Gottfried was the voice of the company's signature spokesduck for many years.
It's not the first time that a major company fired a voiceover talent due to the talent's remarks that reflected badly on the company. In April, 2010, D.C. Douglas left a politically-charged voice mail message as a private citizen that set off a media frenzy. The negative public attention and pressure from the political group caused GEICO to fire him from a new campaign.
What can we learn from these 2 scenarios?
1. Although you work on a freelance basis, you should consider yourself to be your client's employee.
Voice talents generally know about conflicts of interest. You shouldn't voice a script for a competing product in the same market.
However, we need to take the employee stance even further. Since anything you do could reflect on s/he who pays your invoice, it's in your best interest to avoid doing anything that even has the hint of impropriety. If you've never read an employee code of conduct manual, take a look at this sample document to see the wide range of attributes expected of an employee. You may find ways to improve your dealings with your clients.
For instance, many scripts are now arriving with a non-disclosure agreement in which the talent promises they will not share their involvement in any form, including posts on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites. If you always acted like an employee, you wouldn't risk disclosing proprietary information about your clients.
2. A little integrity goes a long way.
Integrity is defined as a soundness of moral character and honesty. Its synonyms are virtue and honor.
In my voiceover business, integrity means that I won't voice scripts that are dishonorable, like political ads that attack an opponent rather than discuss the plans of the candidate in the ad. I compare any script to my moral compass to decide whether I will perform it. I won't voice a script just for the money.
Integrity also means treating other people with kindness and respect, something Gottfried apparently overlooks in favor of making jokes at others' expense.
3. Words have creative power.
I believe so strongly in the power of our words that I led a session about it last month at Faffcon. You can use words to build up or tear down yourself or others. Since you always have a choice about the words you think, say, and write, why would you choose to create more negativity in the world?
4. What you put out in the world comes back to you.
I usually tell people that the energy you put out comes back to you in a way better than you could expect. In those instances, I am talking about productive actions that propel one toward achieving their dreams.
However, this theory holds true even for those counterproductive actions that destroy dreams. In those cases, the negative energy will also come back to you in a way you probably didn't expect. The key is to decide beforehand whether the action enhances life or diminishes it.
Many people don't seem to realize that the creative power of their words coupled with a broadcast medium (TV or Internet) can cause the energy to come back in an exponential form, either positively or negatively. As I've written previously, the words you write on-line live on into perpetuity. I am continuously shocked by the things that I've seen other voiceover talent post on various sites, particularly a few vicious flame wars in one LinkedIn voiceover forum.
When a celebrity write on-line, the power of the words is magnified. In Gottfried's case, the venom he spewed into the world came back to him in the form of intensely angry public feedback and the loss of a lucrative, long-term gig.
Even if you don't believe that doing good things in the world will attract good things to you, you'll never know for sure unless you give it a try. Besides, I'm pretty sure that Aflac will be looking for someone who radiates with positive energy when they begin their nationwide search for a new voice for their quirky quacker.
Attendees at the original FaffCon had nothing but glowing things to say about it. After all, how often do voiceover actors get to spend an entire weekend in the company of other working professional voice talent, much less actually sharing ways to improve our performances and business operations to get more work?
In order to encourage everyone to reveal their secret formulas to success, what happens at FaffCon is supposed to stay at FaffCon. Some of the session highlights for me were:
I was unable to attend the first FaffCon, held last September in Portland, OR. To be perfectly honest, I don't know that I would have attended the second one if travel had been involved. However, to my great delight, FaffCon2 was held this weekend in Atlanta. Add me to the list of the glowing FaffCon alumni! Not only that, but I'm already making plans to attend the next one! And yes -- there WILL BE a next one, so keep reading!
Let me start by saying that this or any other blog post cannot do justice to the event! I have pages of notes and a head full of great ideas about tactics to take my voiceover business to an even higher level. I finally met people in person whom I've known on-line for years, and I also made new friends. Most exciting of all, another participant had an amazing idea as a result of one of the sessions and asked me to collaborate on a new project!
FaffCon Founder Amy Snively guides participants in Atlanta.
FaffCon is the brain child of the vivacious and indefatigable Amy Snively. While FaffCon might seem like a big voice talent meet-up where people just schmooze with each other, it actually is a potentially life-changing educational event that requires tremendous planning and organizational skills. I am extremely impressed with how smoothly everything ran, and I don't know how Amy possibly had time to sit and enjoy the sessions.
In terms of voiceover training, FaffCon is unique because it:
- is entirely participant-driven
- fosters cooperation and camaraderie rather than competition as egos are left at home
- doesn't have sales booths in the back -- or in any part -- of the meeting rooms
- gives participants unparalleled access to go "behind the curtains" to learn success strategies from other professional voice talent and industry leaders
Participants jockey to post topics and decide sessions to attend.
Amy explained that we should think of FaffCon as a field of golden nuggets. You have golden nuggets to share with others, and you'll get some in return. However, no one knows when and how those nuggets might turn up. You may not even know you received a nugget until you're away from FaffCon and review your notes.
- 3 sessions with the charming and extremely knowledgeable David Goldberg from Edge Studio in which he discussed and demonstrated why the vast majority of demos are rejected along with other marketing Q&As
- Numerous methods to attract repeat clients from the creative and clever Mercedes Rose
- Inspiration to "invite the avalanche" from the highly esteemed yet incredibly humble Bob Souer
- Positive energy and synergy generated in the session that I led, "The Power of Your Words Away From the Mic".
I need to decompress, think carefully about what I heard, and develop an action plan to use the armful of golden nuggets that I received. As I said to a number of people over the weekend, everything about my voiceover business is an evolution. FaffCon was a much-needed jolt to help my business evolve exponentially instead of incrementally!
If you're a working voice-over talent who wants to improve your business, make plans NOW to attend FaffCon3 this fall! I hope to see you there!
FaffCon logo for event scheduled 23-25 September 2011 in Hershey, PA.
When I started my voiceover career, I recorded in a tiny closet with accordion doors. The room is upstairs on the front of the house and faces the street. The only entrance to our subdivision is about 150 yards away from my house.
Consequently, 99% of my 200+ neighbors must pass my house every time they enter or leave. To make matters worse, we live at the top of a hill. The neighbors step on the gas to get up that hill. I constantly had to stop my recordings every time a car passed.
Moving to a walk-in closet across the hall helped to alleviate some of the car traffic noises. However, it didn't help with the air traffic, leaf blower, lawnmower, and other noises around here. The county airport is not far from our house, so planes with small propellers are constantly flying overhead.
In 2005, we decided to take drastic measures to reduce the noise. We started by replacing all of the windows on our house with triple-pane, casement windows. Instead of the common double-hung windows, which have 2 pieces that open by sliding them up or down, casement windows are one piece which opens outward. The movement forms a better seal to the house, and the 3 panes of glass with krypton gas between them significantly buffer outside noises.
We also built my stunning soundproof studio employing the following techniques:
- 2 layers of ceilings with R30 insulation between them
- 2 layers of 5/8" drywall (instead of the usual single layer of 1/2" drywall) in each of the ceiling layers and all 4 walls
- 2x6 studs instead of 2x4 to provide additional space for insulation
- sound barrier insulation under the siding and R30 insulation in the walls
- air pocket between the garage and the studio
- 2 entrances, each with an air pocket between 2 doors
- no windows
- built on a concrete slab
I also bought a 6'x8' WhisperRoom sound isolation booth. The WhisperRoom adds more density and air pockets in my quest for silence. Since the floor is on wheels, it can eliminate the low, rumbling noises that could be generated by passing trucks.
What a joy to record in this room! I can't remember a time when I had to stop work due to a noise outside the studio.
I thought you might like to see and hear a short demonstration of the effectiveness of my studio. Using my iPhone4, I made a little video today after Drew started his motorcycle. I deliberately left the video in one continuous, unedited take, so I apologize in advance for any jerky movement. Turn your speakers up to really hear the difference!
Edited 1/30/11 to fix a spelling error (gasp!) and add a detail about the video
Creativity is not something that you wait for.
Creativity is something that waits for you.
-- Neale Donald Walsch
A few years ago, Drew gave me a Valentine's present of joint membership at a local pottery studio. While we weren't envisioning a re-do of the famous scene from the movie Ghost, we had been interested in learning how to create some crockery. Instead, I learned something more valuable through the experience:
When I exercise my creativity in a new or different way, I'm more creative in other areas.
Each time I came home from the pottery studio, I might perform a voiceover audition with more inspired choices, play my harp more fluidly, or design a scrapbook page with lots of layers and textures. Any of these things make me feel even more pleased and give me the desire to do more.
I discovered this theory holds true when I attempt to draw in my journal. Even writing this blog, which itself is an artistic endeavor, causes me to feel more innovative when I finish each entry.
No matter how you express yourself, each way that you can be creative is scooping more good stuff into your life from the same bountiful well. Why use a teaspoon when you can use a jug?
In the last week, I've done a couple of things in marketing my voiceover business that allowed me to express my creativity in new ways. First, I created the book trailer video for an audiobook, which I included and discussed in my previous entry "Reasons to Create Your Own Stuff". Many voice talent have written to me saying that they felt inspired by the ideas and marketing info that I presented, so I encourage you to read that entry if you haven't already.
The other thing I did was enter the Voices.com photo contest on their Facebook page. They wanted pictures of voice talent in their studios with the Voices.com web site displayed on some sort of screen. While winning the prize would be wonderful, I entered because it was a direct call to action to be creative. After all, the judging criteria is the "most creative, coolest picture".
I wanted to do something with recursion. In computer programming, recursion occurs when the program calls itself repeatedly. I also wanted the picture to be as much about me as Voices.com, making it good marketing material for both of us.
It only took a few minutes to come up with an idea that met both of those objectives.
Atlanta voice talent Karen Commins can't get enough of Voices.com!
What are you doing to feed your creative spirit? I'd love to get your comments on the blog!
Karen Commins
Voice Actor
Voice Actor
• Greetings from Karen
• How to Reach Me
• Places I've Been
• Advice for Your Journey
• So You Want to Get Into Voiceovers?
• My Path So Far
• How to Reach Me
• Places I've Been
• Advice for Your Journey
• So You Want to Get Into Voiceovers?
• My Path So Far
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