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Auditioning Narrators For Your Audiobook
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Preparing the audition script
Preparing The Script
This may be more important than anything else you do in the auditioning process, regardless of where you post it. This is the manuscript that will give you the best idea of how someone will handle the words you have written.
Do I need to have a script?
No. You could listen to a voice actor’s audiobook demo and get an idea of how they may handle your book.
That said, you probably should use something from the project at hand for a few reasons:
You want to know how this narrator will do with your words, not the words from another project.
You will be able to hear multiple narrators using the same words, and this will give you a much clearer way to compare candidates.
How long should it be, in total?
It can be as long or as short as you think is needed to determine how well a potential narrator will handle the book, but it probably shouldn’t be less than 2-3 minutes, and should not be more than 5-7 minutes.
Why should you limit it to this time? It takes about 3 times as long to produce a section of audio as the finished audio will be; a 5 minute audition will take a narrator about 15 minutes to produce. Much longer, and that is a fair amount of time that they are spending on the audition instead of the other work they may need to do.
You can use this handy calculator to estimate how long your audition script will be.
What should be in it?
Good representations of the material.
Don’t just grab the first chapter, or a section of the first chapter, and use that as the audition script. Look at the total work, and find one or a few selections that are representative of the entire piece.
For example, if your book has some difficult language (either in terms of pronunciation or subject material), you should include a brief section that includes that so you can hear how the narrator will handle that.
This will also give the narrator the opportunity to pass on a project if they aren’t comfortable with the subject material.
Also, if you have multiple characters, you will want to include a section with some of their dialogue so you can hear how the personality is portrayed, or how the voice actor will handle the different voices.
This is where you need to make sure that you are getting a good enough sample size to determine if this person can handle the project.
Character descriptions.
If you have characters and have an expectation of them having different sounds or accents, include a character description with the audition so that the actor can figure out what you are looking for. Also include a pronunciation of their names if they aren’t common ones.
Pronunciation Guide.
If you have some words in there that may not be common, such as from foreign languages (real or imagined) or from places (real or imagined), include a pronunciation guide so that the potential narrator will be able to say it correctly.
RED FLAG: Typos in the script
This is a red flag for narrators. If the audition script has typos or improper grammar, many narrators will just keep on moving, as this (from their perspective) is indicative that the entire manuscript will be this way, and there is little worse for an audiobook narrator than to have to record hours of poorly written story laced with typos.
To this end, make sure that the entire manuscript is in its final form. This means that it’s been proofread*, proofread, proofread again, workshopped, revised, proofread, revised again…you get the picture. Don’t fall victim to the double-edged sword of self-publishing by putting something out there in the world that isn’t ready for prime time.
* Proofreading should be done by someone who is not you. You will never catch all of your own mistakes. This is a non-negotiable: find someone, preferably several someones, to proofread your work.
What to look and listen for
Once you’ve posted your audition script to whichever site you may be using, you should start receiving submissions from potential narrators. This can be overwhelming if you receive a lot of them, so here are some things you can be on the lookout for to help your decision-making process.
A warning for you, the author: this is where you will need to let go a little bit. You likely heard the book and the characters a certain way in your head when you wrote it, but now the readers might have a different interpretation. Similarly, the narrator might have a different interpretation as well. This is where you need to check what’s on the page, and allow for other interpretations.
Bad audio.
This is #1 on the list of sins you need to be on the lookout for.
Think of this as a job interview: if someone shows up wearing sweatpants with holes in them and a sweat-stained t-shirt, would you think that, if you gave them the job, they would start wearing a 3-piece suit to work?
The same holds true for auditions. If someone isn’t going to take the time to put their best foot forward and deliver the best audio they can, they will likely not offer better quality once they are hired.
This is the one time I would say that this should be a disqualifying factor. The other elements are negotiable, and may simply warrant some questions or some feedback. Bad audio is bad audio.
Go and listen to some audiobook samples on Audible from well-known authors who have written books in your genre. In their cases, they likely had very experienced narrators working with them, so you can rest assured know that this is what an audiobook should sound like. (It also means that those narrators were likely in the $400 PFH range, so temper your expectations in regards to performance.)
Here is what can make for bad audio, and what you should be listening for:
Background noises
Can you hear a dog barking, or a vacuum, or a lawnmower in the background? You shouldn’t. This should be clean audio without any extemporaneous sound. If the narrator can’t give you clean audio for five minutes, they won’t be able to do it for the remainder of the project.
Reverb
You should not hear their voice echoing in an empty room. Here is an example I made where you can hear the difference between being in a sound-treated space versus a space with no treatment.
Excessive mouth/breath sounds
You will hear some breaths during an audiobook; it’s virtually impossible to get them all out, and without any breath sounds it can sound robotic and will be unconsciously distracting for the listener.
That said, they shouldn’t be excessive or distracting.
What does that mean? It’s subjective. You need to decide for yourself. Maybe have someone else listen and see what they think.
You should not hear any mouth noises, such as lip smacking.
Overly processed/compressed
The audio should sound relatively natural. Again, to an untrained ear, this can be subjective, but the narrator should sound like themselves, and not amped up by them adding all sorts of compression and equalization to the audio to make them sound more “professional”.
A Natural Read
The audition audio should sound natural, not like someone is reading off of the page. You know how that sounds: choppy, flat, emotionless. You’ve definitely heard someone who was speaking in front of a crowd, and even without seeing them, it sounded like they were reading.
This is where the craft of narration kicks in. Just because someone has a “nice voice” doesn’t mean that they can narrate or do voice over. It’s a skill to keep things sounding more natural.
Commentary
The audition audio should be only the selections you provided, nothing more*. If they provide commentary at the beginning or the end (and I don’t mean that they announce the scene they are reading, that’s acceptable) of the audition, this is not the sign of a professional.
By commentary, I mean if they say something like, “I’d really love to work on this book with you.” It’s inappropriate and not professional.
Does it automatically disqualify them? No, but you need to ask the questions to figure out why they felt that was necessary.
* Sometimes a voice actor may “slate” an audition, where they say something like, “Brian Wiggins, auditioning for Coliseum Arcanist”. While this isn’t common anymore, you may get this, and this should not disqualify someone from the job.
Character Work
If you have characters in your book that you wish to have different voices, listen to how the narrator handles them. Were they right on the money? Did they completely swing and miss? Did they offer a different interpretation that you weren’t expecting, but like?
If it is a complete swing and a miss, you could ask them to please give the character another go; give them a little guidance to let them know what you were thinking (“I was thinking that the character would be a little more subdued, can you give me a couple of other takes with some other interpretations you may have?”) This way you aren’t micro-managing the performance, and you are giving the voice actor some room to play.
Emotion
How did they handle the emotions you were attempting to convey on the page? Were they completely flat? Was it overwrought like a telenovela? Did they nail it?
Again, it’s OK to offer a little feedback here (“Can you throttle it up/back a notch?”). Narration is a performance, and if the narrator can’t get the emotions conveyed, they may not be right for the project.
(Once more, temper your expectations here. You will likely not get a Tom Hanks or Meryl Streep performance unless you book Tom Hanks or Meryl Streep. This isn’t to say that you will get a bad or mediocre performance.)
Handling Feedback
If you do offer feedback to the narrator (and this should be general, not micro), how did they handle it? Did they take it under advisement and offer another take with those changes? Did they huff and puff and argue with you about it? Did they ignore you entirely? Take this as a sign of how they will work with you throughout the project.
Did you like their voice?
Ultimately, this is what matters after you clear out the other stuff. Did this person just sound right for the project?
It’s completely subjective, and that’s OK. If you get a great audition from someone but their voice just wasn’t what you were looking for, it’s OK to take a pass.
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Picking the right narrator for your project
Auditioning is a very subjective process. As long as the audio is good and the person can deliver the goods (i.e. they have the technical ability to record and edit the project, if that’s what they are doing), you really can’t make a wrong choice.
That said, before you offer up the contract, here’s some things you may want to find out from them or about them to avoid any issues later:
How many books have they narrated? You can probably find this by looking them up on Audible. Keep in mind that some people use stage names; ask them if they have one.
What genres have they narrated? If they’ve only done business books up to this point and your book is a sweeping fantasy epic, it could be a bit of a culture shock for them to take on such a different project. Find out what their motivation is for this change.
What’s the longest project they have worked on? Everyone needs to start somewhere, but if they’ve only done 2-3 hour finished projects, and your book will be 10 hours long when complete, there may be a rough transition here. It doesn’t disqualify them, but it’s good to have the info.
What equipment are they using? This is actually more important than you may think. A professional voice actor should be using professional equipment. This means that they are using a condenser microphone, not a USB mic for podcasting or streaming. What audio interface are they using? What Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) do they use? They should be able to answer all of these questions, and without hesitation.
Where do they record? How have they sound treated the space? There are lots of ways to sound treat a space, what’s important is that they have an answer for you.
Do they have any references? Someone who is just starting may not, and that’s OK; but then they shouldn’t be charging $120 PFH. Someone who is charging rates that fall into the moderately- or very-experienced rates should have a few authors they’ve worked with that they can direct you to.
After you have this information (and any other info you can think of that you may want), you’ll be in a good position to pick your narrator.
And don’t worry about hurting anyone’s feelings. Voice actors are used to rejection (or, at least, we should be) and we don’t take it personally (or, at least, we shouldn’t…if they do, that’s a huge red flag).
RED FLAGS
Here are some red flags that should get you thinking about whether this person is right for the job.
They ask for payment up front. This is very, very uncommon. Setting up milestone payments on a longer project isn’t unusual, as it can take months to finish a project, and we need to pay the bills. But you shouldn’t be paying for anything up front.
They want to take communication off of the platform where you hired them. With the exception of ACX (which does not expressly forbid communicating off of the platform, as they do not get involved with payment), most sites where you may hire someone have very clear policies about this. And if you do take communication off of the platform, you are no longer protected by their service agreement, and they may not be able to help you if someone takes your money and runs.
They don’t respond to communication in a reasonable amount of time. If they go days without answering your email (without good reason), this is not a good sign.
They refuse to take any direction at all. While you should give them the room to play and perform (after all, that’s what you hired them for), if you want some small changes (“can this scene be a little more emotional"?” or “I’m not sure that character’s voice is right, can we workshop something?”) and they out-and-out refuse, it may be time to cut your losses.
If it feels wrong, then it might be wrong. That’s the time to ask questions, and get input from other people (authors and voice actors) to see what’s what. It could be that what they are doing/asking is perfectly normal, or it could be klaxons sounding to head for the hills.
You can always reach out to me if you have a question like that.