So the last few weeks were…a lot. Like a lot, a lot. 

And it taught me things about myself. But let me set the stage a bit.

See, last fall, I talked with an immersive audiobook company. I’ve done plenty of narration work before, but immersive audiobook narration is a different animal. It sounded interesting, so I went ahead and cut sample audio which they accepted. And then it got quiet. I figured I may never hear from them. Oh well. Easy come easy go.

And it was fine. Business picked up and I had plenty to think about. I quoted a very large eLearning project. They accepted and said it would be ready around late January. I connected with a couple of other audiobook producers and was just auditioning and recording, whiling away my days.

And then it happened. The exact day I knew, because of Murphy’s Law, would show up.

I got an audition for the immersive audiobook company that turned into a table read, and they let me know I was cast at that very moment. Wow! Yeah! Now, I auditioned for 5 female characters, but they felt I had enough differentiation between them, so it’d be okay. Honestly? I didn’t know I had it in me.

Then audiobook company #2 wanted a call, and low and behold I’m playing an FBI agent. But they have paperwork and contracts to fill out, and they use Slack. I’ve never used Slack so I need to figure all this out. And they use Riverside to record a few chapters at a time. Perfect.

About this time the eLearning project hit and it was as huge as I remembered. A full week of recording in fact. Not much auditioning, except for audiobook company #3. (And this one I really hope I get. I’d be the narrator! They record 3-6 chapters at a time. Nice little bits. Yeah!) I was sneaking in other projects around it. But I completed it in a week. That week felt crazy! I was looking forward to a breather.

But then, it was time to start the audiobook. This is where I started to learn things about myself.

They expected me to commit to 5-6 finished hours each week. Okay, that sounds big but I’m sure I can do it. It was 159 episodes at once, but I wasn’t sure how much of the text the female voice made up.

Lesson 1: The Reality of Audiobook Narration Time Commitments 

I committed 8–10 hours a day. It took every ounce of one full week, Saturday and Sunday included… and that only amounted to 3 finished hours. No matter my focus, it is not feasible for me to accomplish 6 hours of character voices in a week. I can do three, but if I want to work at a pace that let's me wedge in auditioning and other projects, it's probably one.

Lesson 2: Clarify the Demands.

You see, I had to record more than the 5 voices I auditioned for. I needed to do about 10.

I got desperate. I noticed I had voiced the opening lines for one character a bit quickly so I stuck with that for her, otherwise tonally she was too close to another. So many middle-aged characters were written into the book that I was running out of tones: light and soft; fast talker; authoritative; no-nonsense; ethereal; the list seemed unending. Panic was setting in. I finally pulled out a Southern accent because I honestly didn’t know where else to turn.

That’s when it happened… the old woman appeared. (sigh) Want to trash your voice? Try purposely sounding old.

Lesson 3: Really learn the tricks and tools in your DAW.

Thank you Reaper Universe! Months earlier when I first started talking with the client  I watched a couple YouTube videos all about recording audiobooks in Reaper. I’m familiar with making regions and dropping markers, but haven’t used markers extensively. You can drop a marker where a character voice comes up, label it with their name and even assign a color. Then you can quickly bounce back to it 5 chapters later when that voice pops up again. Lifesaver!

Lesson 4: Format the chapters or episodes so that things are reasonably tight.

If you're working on a "finished hour" rate, I found you want enough space for simple edits so that it’s easy to cut out your parts, but cozy enough that when you’re making your invoice, it’s effortless to pinpoint your finished time.

Lesson 5: Don’t try to download massive quantities of audio from a Google drive in one fell swoop.

I had (another) little panic attack. See the company had given me access to the narrator and main character’s audio so that I could respond appropriately with my lines. But these were very slow to play from the shared drive. Thinking I was brilliant, I decided to download the files so I could play them in Apple music much faster.

No. Google chokes. It makes it look like you deleted a bunch of files and didn’t even download the whole thing. I did not delete files. I didn’t even have trash permission. But regaining access was futile. I had to ask the company in India for help, and it never came so I had to plow ahead with my gut telling me how to respond. I fear the pickups that may come back to me.

So that was quite the education. Baptism by fire as they say!

Overall, I learned to be careful I'm not to biting off more than I can chew. And I learned that knowing your tools is not optional — it’s survival.

Audiobook company #2 and #3 are much more my style. One role. Clearly within my abilities. Consumed in manageable bites.

There’s something to be said for knowing what fits you — and what doesn’t.

Audiobook company #1? Very nice people. Low GVAA rate. Big demands. and the primary voice(s) and narrator is a brilliant talent. I feel like they should buy him a car or something!

But I’ve learned my lesson. Not every opportunity is the right opportunity.

And that might be the most valuable lesson of all.