I reject far more auditions than I accept, even if no one else is auditioning for them. And if you find this true of the auditions you are sending out, here are some possible reasons why you’re not getting cast and what you can do about it. 99% of the time, you’ll never know why you’re not getting cast. So Consider this a gift.

1.  You are not right for the book. 
   This is the reason you should strive for. Not that you should hope to be rejected, but if you’re going to be rejected, this is the reason you want. We often have a style of narration or vocal quality we’re looking for. And since we get author input, they also may have a certain style in mind. So if this is the reason you’re not being cast, then forget about it. There’s nothing you can do about it. Unfortunately, this reason is also the rarest, in our experience.
   What to do about it:  Nothing. move on to the next audition.
2. Your acting is bad.
   Sorry, no other way to put this. We get a LOT of standard voice over (or worse, radio) folks trying to branch into audiobooks. And usually the result doesn’t work. Of all voice work, audiobooks are the most act-y of them all. You have to believably capture every single character in the book in a unique way, including the main narrator. If you have no acting experience, we can tell. We don’t care how awesome your voice sounds. We care how well you tell the story.
   What to do about it: Unfortunately, this is the hardest problem to remedy. You need to build up some acting chops. Take some acting classes, get a professional coach (Pat Fraley is very good, as is Marc Cashman). Take improv. Learn to be an actor. And if you’re a radio person, for goodness sake, get the radio out of your voice.
3. Your sound quality is awful
   I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about your technical stuff. You have 15 decibels of white noise or an electrical hum. Not only should you be able to hear those things in your recordings, you should be able to SEE them in the waveform in whatever sound editor you use. And once the sound gets compressed and normalized by me in post, any sound artifacts are even more pronounced. Plus the more signal noise you have, the more work you create for me to get rid of it. And I just don’t have time to deal with a problem that you shouldn’t have in the first place.
   What to do about it: Get rid of the noise. If it’s a computer fan in the background, move it further away from the mic. If it’s electrical buzz or hum, swap out your cables (especially USB) and try a line conditioner. If you record into a laptop, run off batteries instead of the wall.
4. Your sound quality is awful (part deux)
   This one warrants it’s own bullet point and it’s not strictly technical. It’s about your setup and mic handling.  One of the worst problems I hear is that I can “hear the room”. If you’re recording in your kitchen, I can hear it. There’s echo, reverb and general room acoustics. And if you’re too far away from the mic, this is exacerbated. Where you record is just as important as what equipment you have. Also, learn proper mic technique. Popping Ps and volume fluctuations are a sure sign of an amateur.
   What to do about it: if you can’t hear your room, its probably because you’re listening in the same room you recorded in. So of course you won’t hear it. Listen to your recording outside and see if it sounds like you’re still in your kitchen. If you have a walk-in closet or some space, fill it with clothes and use that to record in. Or you can hang heavy blankets in your recording space. No matter how you do it, just get rid of the room sounds. Oh and get a dang pop screen, wouldja?
5.  Your sound quality is awful (Seeing a trend here yet?)
   This one is 100% avoidable. I have heard auditions with TV sounds in the background, rustling papers, chair squeaks, mouth pops and even a train going by. Seriously, people. Do NOT just brush these off as auditions. I will assume your audition is representative of the final product and if I hear your kids playing video games in the background of your audition, I will assume you’ll include that same crap in the final product.
   What to do about it: Listen to your audition and get rid of the crap. It’s called editing and it sucks. But it’s part of the job so suck it up.
6. Your editing is bad.
   There is so much more to this job than sitting in front of a mic. Editing is a grueling marathon and as much an art as a science. You have to know pacing, how dialogue should be cut, and when its appropriate to have room tone. Poor editing can absolutely destroy an otherwise good audiobook. If your audition doesn’t show decent editing, you’re not getting the job.
   What to do about it: Listen to professional audiobooks with an ear to pacing.
7.  Unprofessionalism
   Ok let’s be clear. Just because this book is royalty-share and we’re splitting it 50/50, this does not make you a co-publisher. You don’t get to demand things such as specialized credits in the intro, choice of music bumpers or editorial rights to change things you don’t like in the book. That last one was not a hypothetical. After he was hired, we actually had someone ask for the right to change things in the book.  We don’t have time to deal with prima donnas and big egos. If you’re so awesome that you can make those demands, then you probably don’t need to be on ACX.
   What to do about it: Don’t be a diva.
8. Not following directions
   The biggest one here is people submitting a generic demo, instead of a demo of the script provided. I really don’t need to hear your crappy Aussie accent in the fake Outback Steakhouse ad you (didn’t) voice. I need to hear how you sound reading my book. Why? Because anyone with a few hundred bucks can go into a pro studio with a pro engineer and a pro director and come out with a glorious demo. But unless you’re recording MY book in that same studio with all those people, your generic demo is virtually useless. Not only does the author want to know how you sound reading his/her characters, *I* need to know how your sound quality is from the place you’ll be working (see reasons 3-5 above).
   What to do about it: Read the snippet we provide, please.

How do we do that? By asking our narrators to share in the risk/reward. The narrators will be taking a small upfront payment in exchange for a high royalty until their fee is met. And then a smaller royalty payment for the life of the book.

And with distribution agreements already in place with Audible, iTunes, Amazon, overDrive, and more, we anticipate success. Why else would we do it?

So please pass this on to your authors friends! We’d love to start off with a bang!

Taking Control | E Learning Development | E-Learning Software | ELearning Design | NogginLabs, Inc..

In my humble opinion, here’s why you should consider hiring a professional narrator:

1. Savings

I can hear it now: “But Jeff, your services are EXPENSIVE!! How can paying you to read my book save me money??” Quite easily, actually. First of all, my rate is very affordable at around $.03 per word. The average 80,000 word books comes out to $2400. Now, for the unpublished writer with a day-job, this may seem horribly expensive. But what the naysayers are not factoring in is time. Let’s break it down.

80,000 words = 500 minutes = about an 8 hour book
Average time investment per finished hour = 5-6 hours on a  good day.
Total time to produce = 40-50 hours

That’s an 8-hour-a-day work week, folks. Suddenly $2400 for 1-2 weeks worth of work doesn’t seem like such and unreasonable salary, does it? This is, after all, my job. And what could you be doing with that time?

Marketing! PR! Networking! Marketing! Marketing!

Why in the world would you want to spend your time sitting behind a microphone when you could be out there drumming up business for the release? Isn’t your time better spent building the business aspect of your book and leaving the narration part to an expert?

2. Professional Quality

You’ve got a professional quality book. You’ve got professional quality business cards. You’ve got a professional quality website. You’ve got a professional quality cover design.

Then why wouldn’t you want the centerpiece of the release, the very product you’re putting out there to be professional as well? Grabbing a $50 podcasting mic and recording in your den is not professional. Why would you represent your work in such a mediocre way?

I don’t listen to amateur audiobooks. Why? Because I’m spoiled to the likes of Scott Brick and Grover Gardner, people who know how to narrate books. And with the proliferation of audio books, I can’t be the only one who gets turned off by a dull reader creating subpar recordings? Your book needs to have the same level of professional narration that you put into writing it.

3. Bringing your book to Life

If you’re one of those authors who’s so married to their debut novel that you figure you’re the only one who can truly capture the voice of Treenok the Terrible, then you’ve got a problem. Because if that is indeed true, your audience won’t be able to capture it in their minds either.

Thankfully, most writers who feel that way are incorrect. Most good voice talent are actors, plain and simple. It is their job to find the characters and bring them to life. If you think you’re as good as classically-trained Shakespearean actor Scott Brick, then, power to you. I’m certainly no Scott Brick, but I do have 20 years of theater experience. It’s my passion and job to have these characters possess my voice and make them alive. Narrating a book is not reading a book. Narrating a book is putting on a performance with a single actor playing all the roles. If you don’t honestly have those acting chops, outsource it to someone who does. Doesn’t your work deserve it?

4. Technical aptitude

OK, perhaps you’re a podcaster. Sorry, it’s not the same thing. While your audio book may be in podcast format, you really should think of it as an audio book. And audio books are different from podcasts. If you think that recording in Audacity and dropping your files into Levelator and sending them off is going to give you the best sound, then think again.  Will it be good enough? Perhaps. But do you really want your work represented in a way that’s just “good enough”?

You need to properly compress and EQ your voice for optimal quality. Failure to do so will cause fatigue with your audience. I use professional software in which I’ve fine-tuned the compression and EQ to best fit my voice and give professional results. As well, such publishers as Audible have fairly strict guidelines about how their audio is to be produced. I’ve narrated for Audible. I know how to do it.

5. Stamina

Narrating an audio book is hard work. Seriously. If you think sitting in front of a mic for several days reading a book is easy, I urge you to give it a try. There’s a reason why the folks at Podiobooks request 5 episodes up front. Not only is it to hook the reader, but to assure that you or your narrator have the stamina to pull off the whole thing. Because you’ll realize a few chapters in after you’ve spent the good part of a day just to record one single hour, that vocal stamina plays a huge role in this.

After recording dozens of audio books, I’ve built up stamina and patience for the process. I’ve also learned how to pace myself to get the most bang for my vocal buck.

6. Avoiding the “read by the author” Stigma

Go to Audible.com right now. Do it. Note how many novel writers narrate their own books?Very few. And they usually suck for a myriad of reasons, the primary one being that they are authors, not narrators.

Longtime audio book listeners often avoid listening to books read by the author. I learned my lesson with Harlan Coben. His book, Promise Me, gets absolutely slaughtered in the listener comments simply due to his narration. It’s bad. But honestly, I’ve heard worse. John Nance insists on reading his own books, and he has a pronounced lisp, for goodness sake.

Now, you may not have a speech impediment, but think about how it looks to a potential listener that you took the time to seek out someone else to narrate your book. You love your work so much, that you wanted to make sure it was in the right hands. You avoided the stigma of “read by the author” that turns off so many listeners. Plus, unlike most podiobooks, there’s a certain coolness to working with a pro. It’s a step above the rest of the pile.

7. Tax write-off

First of all, I have to say that I’m not an accountant or lawyer and this shouldn’t be taken as actual legal tax advice. However, if your book-writing is a business, you should be able to write off this expense on your taxes as a legitimate marketing expense. Consult your accountant about this, as tax laws vary from state to state.

8. Distribution

So once you record this book, what do you do? Where do you sell it? If you simply have one book, I guarantee you that distributors won’t give you the time of day and probably won’t even return your emails. There’s no point in making an audiobook if you can’t recoup your expenses.

I have your solution. With my partner company, SpringBrook Digital, I’ve got distribution channels and can offer higher commissions than anyone I know of in the industry. I can get your audiobook on Audible.com, SpringBrook Audio, CrossRoad press, iAmplify, iTunes, Amazon and OverDrive.

When disaster strikes » The Voiceover Boblog http://ow.ly/2d0nH

There’s actually a lot more than you think. Without going into the details of my job as a professional voice talent, my primary purpose is to make a genuine connection with the audience. When I put it that way, it sounds more relevant to what you do, doesn’t it?

That’s because it is. And if it isn’t, then you’ve probably been missing something in the way you’ve been delivering your corporate or business presentations. So whether you’re pitching a new project to your boss, presenting a proposal to a large room, or showing off the latest tech at SXSW, here are some tips to help you connect with your audience.

Tip #1 – Slow Down

This is the single biggest thing I see and hear in business that makes you fail to connect with your audience. Most people who get up in front of an audience are not professional speakers. They are business people. Take someone out of their comfort zone and they’ll finish up as quickly as possible so they can return to that comfort zone. And rushing through your script will achieve that. But it won’t achieve the goal of having a dynamic presentation that connects with the audience.

If you’ve ever watched a baseball game, you’ll often see batters warming up by swinging two or three bats. This is to train their muscle memory to get used to swinging multiple bats at once, so that when they swing a single bat, it will seem much easier. You can do something similar. Take your script and read it achingly slow, slower than you’d ever actually give it. Don’t lower your pitch like you’re imitating a slow record player, just read the words much, much slower, as if there’s an imaginary comma between the words. Once you’ve done that, read your script again without intentionally slowing down. You’ll find your brain has retained some of the muscle memory and your reading is slower.

Tip #2 – Learn to love the Whitespace

Script analyzers will tell you to pause in key places to let the audience clap or to build some sort of suspense. Actually, they can look at a script and tell you precisely where to pause for clapping at your amazing list of newly announced product features. But that’s not the kind of pausing I’m talking about. I’m referring to the pause in your narrative. Take this for example:

Jim went to the store to buy some milk and he never came back.

Sort of dramatic because of what’s being said, but not off the charts. Compare it to this:

Jim went to the store.

And he never came back.

Big difference, right? The drama is in the pause. Respect the whitespace. Use it to build drama, to leave your audience hanging on your words, wondering what you will say next or how you will complete your thought. How do you know where the dramatic moments are? Here’s a silly exercise that works: Pretend you’re the late, great Don LaFontaine, the movie trailer voice artist. This will sound ridiculous to anyone around, so it’s best to do it in the privacy of your office. Read the first few lines or paragraphs of your script in the over-the-top movie trailer style (“In a world…. Where magic was real….”). If you do it right, you’ll naturally hit the dramatic pauses in the script. Make note of them, then try the speech in your natural delivery. Some of the pauses will remain, others won’t. But you will have a more dramatic speech.

Tip #3 – Make the script your own

If that sounds like some soft of Method actor-y thing, that’s because it is. And it’s what you need to learn to do if you want to have any kind of real believability and connection. So how does one achieve this heightened state of credibility? In your prep, toss the script and do a practice run or two off-book. Don’t even have it in your hands. You know the product. You know the gist of the presentation. Just talk about the product in your own words and highlight the features. Talk about the call-to-action and why it’s important. In your Own Words. Now do the whole thing again off-book, but pretend your audience is different with different needs, say a group of grandmothers. Again, in your own words. Just talk to them. How have the bullet points changed? Did you speak differently? Now go back to your script and give the written speech. It will be different because you’ve processed the ideas of the script in different ways and have internalized them.

The point of this exercise is to make you connect with the script so that you can better connect with the audience and simply tell them a story. The idea is to be conversational and the only way to do that naturally is for the script to be a part of who you are.

Tip #4 – Believe what you’re saying

This is often the hardest thing to really nail, especially if your product is, perhaps, a version 1…. But if you want to get to version 2, you’ve got to sell version 1. Which means you need to believe in the product. Again, this can be done in the prep stage. Do a little whiteboard work as your prep. Write down the highlights of the product from your script. Then detail why they are so great. Skip the corporate speak. There’s no “synergy” or any of that nonsense. Simply write down what people will get out of your product or service. How will it honestly make their lives easier/better/faster/whatever. Find the good.

Once that’s internalized, your presentation will take on new believability because you’ve analyzed the good and believe it yourself.

Tip #5 – Handle lists with finesse

Bullet points or lists are often the most important parts of any speech. After all, the are the digestible bits of info that listeners will take with them. And they need to be hit with style. There are two ways voice talent attack lists:

Stair Step

This tactic starts low and then builds from item to item in pitch or enthusiasm, like a series of stairs. Then it ends on the high note, with the best item in the list capping it all off. Using the other tips above of making the script your own and loving the whitespace, you can create a sense of escalating drama by building your list until the grand finale of bullet points. Boom, you’ve taken it home in grand style and credibility.

Random

This is a great way to provide a list if there’s no obvious pattern of escalation. The tone, pitch, and enthusiasm in your voice changes randomly, but always ends on a high note. Like stair-stepping, this is done to build drama, and is achieved by making the audience wonder what’s coming next. Instead of expecting an escalating build up, they feel the pattern of randomness. I know, that sounds really esoteric and touchy-feely. But think of it like a bingo game. The game wouldn’t be very dramatic if the balls came out in sequential order. The very randomness of the ball draw is what makes the game exciting. You can achieve a similar excitement, by randomly mixing the way you give the items in your list. Keep them on their toes, hanging on your words.

Conclusion

Building a connection with your script and your audience is what every presenter attempts to achieve. It’s also what every actor must do to build trust with the audience. Think about it. If you’re a presenter giving a speech written by someone else to an audience who you hope will believe what you’re saying, you’re acting! So take some lessons from an experienced voice actor. You can take your presentation to the next level. Find the truth in the script, make it dramatic. You have it within you.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

# # #

About Jeffrey Kafer Voice Overs: Jeffrey Kafer (http://jeffreykafer.com) is a voiceover artist, actor, and audio producer based in the Seattle suburb of Monroe, WA. He has been heard on numerous TV and radio commercials, and also performs voiceovers for animation, corporate narration, documentaries, audio books, podcasts and messaging on-hold (MOH).

Companies like Noggin Labs, AnswersTV.com and Bright House Networks have chosen Jeffrey Kafer Voice overs to be the voice of their projects.