Voice Actor For Audiobooks
As a professional Voice Actor, Audiobook Narration is an area that either suits you down to the ground, or the idea of it makes you run to the hills.
Here’s a look at the way I like to approach a self directed audiobook recording project from my Hampshire based studio.
Before I get into that, a few words on the pros and cons of taking on audiobook narration as a professional voice actor. I describe myself as a British Male Voiceover first and fore-most, experienced in long form content, with over 60 titles under my belt.
One of the advantages of getting into audiobook narration, having been successful in other, short form styles such as character, game audio, commercial and narrative work, is the amount of crossover there is.
Audiobook narration requires all of the enunciation, pacing and intonation skills that you will have as a character specialist for instance, but it also requires its own set of specialist skills.
If you’re feeling over-whelmed by the scale of the task, its likely that will reflect in the quality of the narration. The only way to do this is to be fully immersed.
How Long To Narrate An Audiobook ?
It’s a cliche to describe audiobook narration as a marathon, not a sprint, but there-in is the essential truth. One of the benefits of working on a project over a number of weeks is the sense of routine that it brings, which, as a freelance creative, locked away in your own studio for days at a time is a real plus.
Counter to that though is the amount of hours that audiobook work demands your exclusive attention for one client. Its therefore crucial that all of he other stuff thats needed to run a successful freelance business isn’t neglected in the process.
There’s a temptation, especially when starting out to over promise and then thrash yourself mercilessly. The idea being that a client will be impressed by both the quality and the speed of turn-around.
It’s so important though to judge the timeline of completion with all factors taken into account, otherwise you may as well be signing up for a full time job without the benefits.
How Much Do Audiobooks Narrators Charge ?
Understanding what to charge as an Audiobook Narrator has to be approached with a balance of commercial realism, business acumen and an honest understanding of where you are in the development of your professional career.
Audiobook Commercial Reality
The audiobook industry really is booming and has been for a number of years. However another area that’s seen incredible growth is that of the freelance creative, working from home.
Recording used to be done exclusively in city based studios and narrators would move between locations for recording sessions. These days, access to the technology and the availability of training and coaching services, means the entry level bar is quite low.
Clients will be able to have their audiobook narrated and mixed to a standard that ACX will accept, cheaper somewhere else, I promise. Some people are even happy to let AI take care of it, (though not Audible). The question is really how discerning an ear they have ? What quality of audiobook are they after ?
Voiceover Business Acumen
The first time I narrated an audiobook of over 10 hours finished audio, I’d honed the narration skills and the technical know-how and was trusted to record remotely in my own studio.
However, I still lacked the experience to understand how best to manage my time, to the detriment of my business.
Filson Young’s 4 volume epic biography of Christopher Columbus came in at just over 17 hours in the end; in keeping with the theme of arduous voyages.
It wasn’t that I’d bitten off more than I could handle, it’s just that my work-flows in those early days were not slick. Audiobook narration is priced per finished hour, so it pays to be efficient.
This creative freelancer learned some lessons:
If you take on longer form projects, its tempting to lock yourself away in a cave for weeks until its completed. Please don’t do that unless you have the means to turn work around quickly, freeing you up to run other parts of your business.
Retainers are sometimes un-knowingly implied by clients with budgets and timeline constraints, that your business just can’t afford.
You do, of course have to lock yourself away for a good chunk of time to deliver the work, but the mistake is to not factor in running a freelance business when giving a time estimate.
If you do venture down the path of longer audiobook narration though, the act of reading texts that you wouldn’t do normally can be very rewarding.
Professional Rates For Voiceover
Cutting to the chase then, the best references to use for establishing fair rates for audiobook narration are:
The former focusses mostly on UK and European pricing models, whilst the latter is largely US based.
What Do Audiobook Narration Rates Include ?
This will vary from one narrator to another, but generally speaking it’s expected that audiobooks incur no useage fee and that once the files are delivered, a client is effectively licensed to publish the audio in perpetuity.
Some audiobook narrators quote a PFH based on raw audio alone, with an additional weighting for editing, mixing and multiple file burn-down.
When deciding which approach is best, a good strategy is to use the Rate Guides mentioned earlier, see what the accepted norm is and maybe factor in an additional charge based on whether International Currency Conversion takes too much away from what you would expect for the project in your country.
ACX Standards
It’s now widely accepted that the industry standard of technical quality for audiobook narrations is the ACX Standard, which is as follows:
– Length – Audio files should be no more than 120 minutes in duration.
– Content – Each file should contain one chapter or section
– Retail Sample – Specifically for Audible submissions, a retail sample is expected, lasting no more than 5 minutes.
– Credits – Again, Audible are specific about the title, author and narrator details being included at the start, with at least a ‘The end’ to close the audiobook.
– RMS – (Root Mean Square) is a measure of loudness over time, rather than just peak volumes. It should sit between -23dB and -18dB
– Peak Volume – no higher than -3dB
– Noise Floor – no higher than -60dB
– Format – MP3 – 192 kbps or higher – Constant Bit Rate (CBR)
Though not specified, its expected that editing will have removed excessive breath noise, clicks, pops and extraneous noise.
Audiobook Methods Of Recording
My preferred method of recording, along with many other professional audiobook narrators, working from home studios is ‘punch and roll’. This requires the use of a controller, external to the computer which allows swift access to editing functions on the fly.
A few simple adjustments within your chosen Digital Audio Workstation will allow macro button settings to return the cursor to the last position, or stop at the current position.
The beauty of this approach is work-flow efficiency. It allows the narrator to manually manage the edit on the go, making the post production edit far easier.
Some prefer to use clickers to mark errors as they go, so as not to disturb the flow of narration. However I personally find this a clumsy and cumbersome approach.
Audiobook Editing
A good Audiobook Narrator can usually edit the audio at a speed ratio of 3 hours per 1 hour of finished audio (3:1), which can be reduced to 2 hours if a there was dynamic editing with the punch and roll technique.
It’s always preferable to make the edit as manual as possible, removing pops, clicks and other anomalies before turning to software like Izotope for instance.
Humans are expected to breathe, so excessive editing will make you sound like a robot and it will grate with the listener over time.
Audiobook Editing Software
Following a careful manual edit, I always elect for Izotope to get the best results. Less is certainly more and it’s important to constantly review the before and after.
Here is the software plugin chain that I use for all of my ACX Compliant Audiobooks:
- Steinberg Limiter – (for macro removal of extreme peaks)
- Fabfilter – Pro DS
- Izotope – Mouth de-click
- Neutron – EQ & Comp
- Steinberg – Expander
- Izotope – Pro Comp
- Steinberg – Normalise
Avoid Noise Gates and always reach for an expander, rather than any kind of hard knee limiter. This stops words being cut off. Also go gently and check the effect that your settings are having.
Once you have settings you can trust, they can be templated and as long as your delivery volume, mic placement and studio space don’t change significantly, it will save you time in both the edit and the mix.
It’s pointless giving a range of settings for these as each voice, studio and mic is different.
However, this is a chain that has produced excellent results for me now for around 60 Audiobooks.
James Fowler Voiceover – Lets Talk
If you’re a Voice Artist looking to expand your portfolio offer into Audiobook Narration I’ll be happy to chat.
Also if you’re an independent author or publisher, looking for an experienced British Male Voiceover, just reach out and I’ll be happy to discuss your next project.
Feel free to take a listen to my work at James Fowler Voiceover
Best regards
James
