It's been twelve months since I began narrating. Lots of lessons have been learned on the way to a year.
Some pieces of advice for new narrators from a good-as-new narrator:
1. Get training. Seriously. Regardless of your acting, voice-over or media background, audiobook narration is a completely different animal.
The best instructor bar none: Pat Fraley. Go to him. Learn. Come out of a workshop ten times better than you were going in. Or at least buy his book "Billion Dollar Read".
2. Put as much cash as you can into your recording space. A properly treated room will make even the cheapest microphone sound acceptable.
3. You are an audiobook narrator and not a mastering engineer, so please hire one, at least until you know what you're doing. You will never, ever regret doing this!
4. Due Diligence - "What, Wayne?"
On royalty deals, ask your authors to provide a marketing plan for their book. You'll be putting a minimum of 40 hours (a week's work) into a production for them. Unless you are using the book to cut your teeth and are happy to get nothing for it, make sure the author is into it as much as you. If they are not: negotiate a per finished hour deal. Even $100 is better than 10 sales after 12 months.
5. If you are not enjoying yourself.....stop narrating!
Thank you to everyone for a fantastic year...
I'm off to have some cake!
