12 Things Actors Should Know About Starting in Audiobook Narration
Drawn from what is actually said on camera, so you can decide whether to
spend the 13:47 watching it.
You already have 75 to 80 percent of the skills
An award-winning narrator with hundreds of titles behind her, including the biography Madonna: A Rebel Life, puts it plainly: actors arrive with most of what the work requires. Character creation, scene study and trained breath support, including diaphragm breathing, all transfer straight into the booth.
The missing 20 percent is craft translation, relationships and gear
Three things are left to learn. Adjusting your acting for narration, the way you would adjust moving from theater to film. Building relationships with people on this side of the industry and knowing where your life and acting experience make you a fit. And building a home studio.
A quiet space comes first, and treatment can make a loud environment workable. Only then choose a mic. As her husband and business partner Justin puts it, microphones are like shoes and the same size does not fit everyone. Skip the prepackaged kits and match the mic to your voice and your room.
Expect an interface, cables and recording software too
Beyond the mic you will need cords, possibly a preamp, an interface to connect to your computer, and recording software. It sounds like a lot, but they have walked more than a thousand people through it at every tech level and every age. Willingness matters more than being raised on technology.
Ten or fifteen years ago narrators submitted a single MP3 with three pieces on it. Publishers now want several distinct tracks. Build three that show the genres you actually fit, whether that is non-fiction business, romance or children's books, and aim for 90 seconds to three minutes each.
Pull demo material from published books of the last five years
Choose pieces from books published within the past five years, and make sure each sample genuinely demonstrates the genre it is selling. If you are pitching romance, the excerpt needs romance in it, not just a conversation between two best friends.
Narrators reach out directly to publishers, who have multiple jobs coming up throughout the year. Once you understand where you fit, you are the one making contact. That self-representation is one of the most empowering parts of the field.
Audiobook credits can be the portfolio that lands a VO agent
She signed her first voiceover agent after booking 40 audiobooks entirely on her own. The response was essentially: if you can book that much solo, we will be a strong team. Commercial and video game agents read a self-generated audiobook list as proof you are already competitive.
Mid-five-figure income in her second year of narration made her the breadwinner in her family and let her consistently clear SAG-AFTRA health insurance and pension minimums. Fewer actors pursue this work, which is part of why so much of it is available.
Constant booking changes how you show up for everything else
Narrating close to 200 audiobooks put her in a permanent state of working, and that state affects every other audition that comes her way. If auditions have started to feel desperate, steady narration work is one way out of that pattern.
Vocal health becomes a daily discipline, not an afterthought
Audiobooks are the longest form in voiceover, so the voice needs deeper care than most actors are used to. While narrating 9 to 5 and doing a three-hour musical at night, she cut out loud talking in bars, drank water constantly and protected her sleep.
A whole empty day plus a long deadline is a trap. She sets goals like 50 pages or two finished hours of audio, and recommends knowing your own personality type, using an accountability partner or a coach, and tracking your energy so you are not scrambling at the end of a project.
Thinking about audiobook narration but have no clue where to start? You're in the right place. Audiobook work can be a perfect fit for actors. And for many of them, it becomes a creative, flexible career that can replace the regular day job. In today's video, I sat down with Elise Arseno, an award-winning narrator whose voice can be heard on dozens of national commercials, video games, and industrials, plus hundreds of audio books, including the recent biography Madonna: A Rebel Life. She'll answer the most common questions new narrators have, like how to get started, what gear you actually need at home, where to find paid narration gigs, tips for protecting your voice with long days in the studio, and what makes an awesome audiobook demo. Let's do [Music] this. Thank you so much for being here, Elise. I feel like audiobooks is such an unexplored market for so many actors, and it could really replace a day job or become their new dream job. So, I'm really happy to have the go-to expert on the topic here for my community today. So, thank you. Thank you for being here.
Thank you so much for having me. And I agree with you. It totally can be a day job replacer and it's has the power to really shift your acting career in a major way. Awesome. Awesome. Well, everyone has to start from somewhere, right? So, a big question I'm sure you get a lot is how do you become an audiobook narrator with no prior experience in the field? Good question. So, becoming an audiobook narrator is very possible, especially if you're coming from an acting background. So, if you're listening to this right now and you are an actor, I need to let you know that you have 75 to 80% of the skills that you need to do this work. And those skills are character creation, scene study. If you've taken scene study classes, if you've trained your voice in any way, if you know how to use diaphragm breathing, these are all skills that you need as an audiobook narrator that you probably already have experience with as an actor.
So really, you have about 15 to 20% of the rest of the skills to learn to get you ready. But I want you to know that you already have so much of what you need. So the things you'll need to work on are translating the craft of acting to that of narration. Like if you're moving from theater to film, there are some adjustments you need to make in your acting. The same is true when you move into audiobook narration. Also, building relationships with folks in this part of the industry and understanding how you fit into the scene. What does your life experience and acting experience already make you a great fit for? And understanding how to communicate that with industry professionals. And then finally, building your home studio. We'll talk more about that, I'm sure. Um, but in general, it's okay if you don't have prior experience as an audiobook narrator. You're already bringing so much experience to the table as an actor.
I love that so much. My husband is now an audiobook narrator. You know this, and a little proud wife moment. He has an earphones award and two nominations now. Um, but it was really you and your husband that that helped him in the beginning, especially with the technical side. Um, and sometimes he's lucky and he gets to record with a publisher, but most of the time it is at home in his studio. So, can you give my listeners some tips for what equipment is essential for recording audiobooks at home, especially when you're getting started? Okay, so the equipment that you need is first a quiet space. So, I want to say it's okay if you feel like you live in a loud space. We actually help folks all over the world uh create home environments that will work for recording audiobooks. So if you happen to live in a quieter space, that's going to help you. But in general, creating treatment and creating a space that will be quiet is the first thing.
Then depending on the sound in your space, there are different kinds of microphones that will be a good fit for you. one microphone like microphones. I'm quoting from my husband Justin who is my business partner in in all of the training that we do around audiobook narration and Justin always says microphones are like shoes. The same size doesn't fit everyone. So the same is true for both your voice and your space. So it's important that you don't just go ahead and like find a kit somewhere that someone has is selling out there. It's it's important that you take the time to understand the challenges and um benefits of your space and then understand how to get the right mic for you in your space. And then there are are all sorts of things like I mean you need to connect your microphone to your computer. So of course there will be some cords and wires and things. There may be some preamps. There will be an interface. Um and then there's going to be recording software that you will use on your computer.
It might sound like a lot to get started, but we have helped over a thousand people get going in at all different tech levels, at all different ages, too. Cuz sometimes people come to us and they're like, "Well, I'm such and such an age. I don't know if I can learn tech now." If you are willing, uh, this is something that you can learn how to do. I feel like it's just like social media. It's never too late to learn. even if you didn't grow up with the technical side and you're looking at the person that can help you help you with the audiobook technical side. Next question that I hear a lot and I know you can answer it because we just mentioned your husband Justin and uh you have the Tree Cave Studios. Um do you have any quick tips for creating audiobook demos that really help people pay attention? Audiobook demos are essential to your work, introducing yourself to the industry, and you'll continue to cultivate and update your demo as you go on, just like you would with head shot. So, the way that demos are created for audiobooks is a little bit different than how they were created maybe 10 or 15 years ago. In the past, it was one reel with all different maybe like three different pieces all on one MP3. Today, publishers are looking for a bunch of different tracks.
So, we do produce demos at the Tree Cave, and what we offer is three different tracks. So, we help you cultivate three solid pieces that will showcase you in the in the genres that are such a fit for you right now. So, we want to figure out your wheelhouse, what you do best. That could be non-fiction business books. It could be uh romantic. It could be children's books. So once you take the time to get to know how you fit in the industry, you'll want to clarify that in the creation of your audiobook demo. And you'll want to choose pieces from that are that are published books that are out there from the past 5 years specifically that will showcase you the best. And we love our demos to be about 90 seconds to a yeah 90 seconds to 3 minutes long. That's what we're aiming for, the sweet spot. And then I think the final thing I'll say, I'm giving you lots of juicy tips here, is make sure your sample piece showcases exactly what you're trying to showcase. So if you are trying to showcase romance, make sure there's some romance in there versus just a conversation between two best friends.
I love these specific juicy tips. big question I think because you know actors usually get their jobs from agents or casting profiles you know actors access casting networks where can you find audiobook narration jobs can you speak to that and I know money sometimes is a you know a weird conversation but how much can you expect to earn as an audiobook narrator especially starting out absolutely so the great thing about this work is you don't need an agent to do this work I think it that can be one of the most empowering things about it is that you are reaching out on behalf of yourself. So again, once you know how you fit in, you're you are the person reaching out and you're reaching out directly to publishers who have multiple jobs available throughout the year that could be potentially right for you. Before I get off the agent question, I want to say because you can book this work on your own, you can book a lot of this work and then if you are looking to maybe say connect with a voiceover agent like who does commercials and video games and things like that, you could use the jobs that you have cultivated as a really awesome portfolio to showcase that you're already competitive in the industry. I got my first voiceover agent after I had already booked 40 audio books on my own. They were like, "Whoa, how did you do that?" Obviously, like, if you can book this work on your own, we're going to be a great team together. So, I just want to let you know that it it can be really empowering when you're getting to this place where so much work is coming to you self-rep. And then in terms of how much money you can make, uh, I actually love talking about this because I became the bread winner in my family as an audiobook narrator. Uh, by the second year of doing this work, I was making mid-5 figure income. So like between 40 to $60,000 a year, which helped me consistently reach SAG after health insurance and pension minimums, which is huge. Uh, so if that's something you are looking for, I highly recommend exploring audiobook narration. It's so hard to get your health insurance through SAG these days.
And yes, this could be a way and it could be a way to quit that day job you don't you don't like, right? Yes. I want to speak on that, Heidi. I think more than the money I think like the not more than but just as important as the money and the health insurance because I've been in this place of I I've narrated almost 200 audio books over the past year. Just being in that state of booking all the time has it can't help but affect all the other auditions and all the other work that comes my way. So, if you're someone who's been like feeling like desperate when it comes to auditions, I want to encourage you to consider this avenue as work that's readily available and a lot fewer actors are pursuing this work. That's why there's so much of it available. I love that. That's so empowering and I feel like it brings you so much freedom, too, especially knowing that you can do this from home. So, I love this message for for my audience. So, thank you so much. Um, a big thing I I mean I I can't even fathom being a narrator.
I make tons of video content. I make vlogs, everything. But the idea of being in a booth like for hours, sometimes all day, multiple days. Do you have any tips about how someone can maintain their their vocal health during a long recording session or even balancing it out cuz they may be in the booth and then, you know, recording self- tapes or doing theater. How do they how do they keep their their voice healthy? Vocal health is more important than any other job. I think I I think when you are focused in voiceover work because an audio book is the longest form out there, you do need to take deeper care of your voice in a way that you might never have before. When I started, I was working in musical theater as well as narrating. So, I would be narrating audiobooks from like 9:00 to 4:00 or 9:00 to 5:00 and then I would go and do a 3-hour musical at night. So, I really had to learn quickly how to take care of myself um in a deeper way. So, for me, there were some basic things that maybe were not so fun, like not going out to bars and speaking really loud at night in a way that before was okay. Um, so holding back and paying attention to how I'm using my voice in the everyday spaces that I might find myself in.
And then of course drinking lots of water, staying super hydrated, making sure I get enough sleep. And then in terms of staying focused in the booth, that is another challenge that comes up. So learning what you need. I am um an obliger personality type. I don't know if you've ever done like the Gretch and Rubin's four personalities. I'm an obliger. So, it can sometimes be tricky to have the whole day ahead of me and to have the goal to maybe record 50 pages that day or record two finished hours of audio. So figuring out what works for you, maybe having an accountability partner, working with coaches to set up systems that you're where you're more aware of your energy levels so that you can hit your deadlines and so that you're not waiting till the last minute to complete the big project. Well, you have been so gracious today with your knowledge and you have another gift for my audience. It is a free class, narrate your way to abundance, that's going to help my community explore this world of audiobook narration even more. I put the link in the description below for anyone interested, as well as all of the ways you can get in touch with Elise across social media and online. Thank you so much for being here with me today.
You want to sign off with me? Would love to. Until next time, we'll see you on social. Bye. [Music]
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