Audio Book Anniversery!

Interesting article out from the Independent on the 75th anniversary of audio books.

A few fascinating tidbits here.  Did you know, for example, that audio books:

"started as an aid for battle casualties and elderly people with failing eyesight."

I poked around a bit online and can't find a reference for "first audio book ever."  It sounds like it would be something from the 1930s intended for veterans...I suppose it's too much to hope that one of those got digitized along the way?

A Royal Narration

Well, here's interesting news.  The Prince of Wales will be narrating his first audio book, Harmony: A New Way of Looking at the World.

According to this article, Prince Charles recorded the book at his home and his Scottish residence.  Hmm...hope that audio matches up!  Knowing people's first audio book efforts usually have room for improvement (especially mine), it'd be interesting to see his results.  I couldn't find a sample online, but if anyone has one let me know!

Voice Over Marketing

Recently I sat down to make a list of ways to market myself as a voice over.  That's the one thing about being self-employed...there's always something more you can do, always more time you can spend on getting your name out there.  My habit, unfortunately, is to get so involved with the actual projects I'm doing that when they end, I realize I haven't marketed myself enough to get that next job.

The Freelancer's Dilemma, as its often called (ok, I just made that up), affects a lot of people, including a lot of VO talent that I've talked to.  I also call it the Lethargy of Liberty, because you have so much freedom to choose your path you end up choosing nothing at all, and getting stuck in the same career rut.

Most marketing for voice talent seems to fall into two general buckets: offline and online.  Within each category, there are myriads of avenues:

Offline

- old-school traditional cold calling

- postcards

- in-person drop ins (creepy?)

Online

- email marketing

- PPC (pay per click with Google or others)

- pay to play sites

- your website

This is by no means an exhaustive list, and part of my reasons in listing these is to spur my brain to think of more.

The Goal: to devote 3 hours to marketing a week.  Whether that's cold-calling, gathering new companies/people to call, I think having a set goal will help spur me on.  In the past I would go overboard on the marketing for a solid week, then do none for a month.  Spreading it out like this should bring more consistent results!

Master Class with Barbara Rosenblat

Recently I had the chance at attend a master class on audio book technique with the renowned Barbara Rosenblat.  The class was held at the excellent Acting Studio Chicago and moderated by Darren Stephens.  The only downside to the whole affair was that it was only two hours long :)

For those who are unaware, Barbara has been called "the Meryl Streep of the audio book world," and this year alone is nominated for five Audies.  She's truly a master of the industry with more than 20 years under her audio book belt.

Barbara Rosenblat

She started off her introduction with a quote about actors in general: "you start off in the biz because you're a show off...I'm still one."  Her class contained many good nuggets and quotes that I'll try to pass along here in some vaguely organized fashion.

Barbara started by giving us a short history of her performing experience and what led her to (and keeps her in) audio books.  As I've heard elsewhere and experienced myself, she reiterated the passion needed to pursue audio books - they're simply too difficult and poorly paid otherwise.  I've been told ever since I started acting: "if you CAN do absolutely anything else, do it, only pursue acting if you are driven, if you don't have a choice."  The same can be said of the audio book niche in the voice over world: "Only pursue this niche if you HAVE to." :)

Barbara's first book was a Harlequin romance entitled Yet Will I Love Her, which, she claims, is "still bad."  If you're terribly interested, you can still buy it on audio cassette on Amazon here.

Here are some points and quotes I pulled out of her section on technique:
(note, these are her opinion or her specific way of working)

• You must engage the listener's ear within the first five minutes, or they will not stick with you through an entire book.


• ALWAYS use headphones, you must hear yourself and what the listener is hearing.


• Any character voice that calls attention to itself is not suggestion, but exaggeration.


• Create "the perpetual immediacy of the spoken word."  Or in theatre-acting terms: "the illusion of the first time."  Even though you're prepared, and your "third eye" is reading ahead and knows what is coming, the listener hears it as if for the first time.

Near the end of the session, Barbara closed with a wonderful quote from Ben Brantley's review of Martin McDonagh's new play on Broadway, A Behanding in Spokane.  The quote describes Christopher Walken's use of language, in a way Barbara thinks audio book narrators could be inspired by:

"Pauses pop up when you least expect them, entirely shifting the weight of the words around them. Inflections rise upward when normally they would curve down. A single clause can slalom from ennui to anger. These idiosyncrasies of delivery surprise you into close attention and, ultimately, into feeling you can trace the thoughts of the man speaking."

Overall the experience with Barbara was wonderful, and I'm glad I got to meet her.  As we were talking, she said to me: "our paths will cross again, you know," so here's hoping she's right!

A Happy Meeting

It's not every day that I get to meet the author of one of the audio books I've narrated...okay, it's never happened.  Kevin DeYoung, author of Just Do Something, was speaking here in Chicago, so I got to meet him and say hi!  I told him it was an honor to work on his book, and I hope he writes many more.

Kevin DeYoung