Speaker 1: Hey, Kevin Clay here and I want to talk a little bit to the brand new audiobook narrators. You've either just started or you're just thinking about going into audiobook narration. Now there's a lot of advice out there for narrators. So what is the need for what I'm about to say to you? Well, here's what I've noticed. A lot of the advice that new narrators get is really not appropriate to their level or where they are or what their needs are. I mean, I'll give you an example. I went to a seminar and heard the guy say, you should never edit your own audio. You should always send it off and have a pro do it. He is exactly right, but there are a lot of times things that are the pinnacle, the ideal situation that in reality we're not going to be able to deal with. I mean, if you're starting out, you're trying to find out if you can make some extra money at this. You need some extra money to pay the rent or just get groceries or whatever. Well, paying, you know, 60, 70, 80, whatever dollars per finished hour to have your audiobook narrated that you're just trying to figure out, that's unrealistic. And so I want to try to take a very realistic approach at things you're going to know. We're going to talk about what you can realistically expect to earn starting out. How do you stay motivated or should you even stay motivated? And what I did, just my own little personal story of going from making $12 my first year in audiobooks to doing a little bit better than that later on. So I'm sitting about bragging about, look how great I am. There are a lot of people do much better than I do, but I think I've got a pretty good connection with people just starting out. First of all, if you are looking into audiobooks, yeah, maybe you're at that point that you're going, I've just, I've got to have some extra money. You know, next month I'm $200 short on the rent. I think this audiobook thing may be a way to do that. Most likely it's not. Let me just be straight with you. And I think most people will tell you that. Audiobooks tends to be a long-term thing. Yes, I know you'll see these people say, my first month I got six jobs and made $100,000 or whatever. That's the exception. And they probably had some really good training in acting or something else before they started. For most of us, as I mentioned, well, let's take a look at that, let's take a look at my 1099 for my first year. My first book went on sale in February of 2014 and you can see I made a whopping $12 and some odd cents. My first year. So and I got to tell you, about November or so, I found myself thinking, hmm, is this really what I want to do? So how did I stay motivated? Well, first of all, I'll tell you, I did get lucky. Early on, say about, you know, March or April or so, I did have an author contact me about doing some per finish hour work. And you will hear people say, you should never charge less than $200 per finished hour. Not true if you're starting out. You've got to figure out what you're worth. I put a worth on my work of $75 an hour. That was probably about $70 more than it was actually worth. And lucked out and had an author who hired me to do a series of three books. So that kind of kept me motivated. But when you get to those times where you're going, I just don't know, is this really what I want to do? You have to really stop and think about why you're doing it. If you're doing audiobooks just for the money, this is the great irony of a lot of things. If you're going at it just for the money, chances are that's not going to be enough motivation. You're going to get along and say, well, I'm not making anything at this. You have to find out, do you really love telling a story? That's what it boils down to. Do you just like chit-chatting? And I know sometimes when I would have a book and I think, oh, I don't know about getting on to this. You got to realize somebody is waiting to hear that story, whether they know it or not. And it may literally be somebody, one person. But usually your books can get at least one listen. And so somebody is out there waiting to listen and they can't hear it until you tell it. So you think about that. Okay, here's this story. I need to tell it. I've always done better being motivated for other people than I am for myself. And so that might work for you too. The other thing is when you look at these success stories and see these people, I've seen them post on the ACX Narrators Forum, you know, $10,000 in one month. That's pretty, pretty motivating. How do you get to that level? First of all, it's practice, practice, practice. But now I've seen people too, you know, questioning, oh, I'm just not sure if I should keep doing this and stay in this. And people, well-meaning, will say, well, just keep trying. Well, that's not exactly good advice. You know, there are a lot of things that I can try to be an Olympic skater and just go out and get me a pair of rollerblades and practice out in my driveway and just keep trying and keep trying and keep trying. But the reality is, well, for that I don't have the talent, the figure, the age, or the tools. You're going to have to invest in this. Oh, but I'm doing it to make money. Okay, well, initially, my approach, you know, learn how to do it. Get a few royalty share jobs where you're not making anything, or at least you're making a little bit maybe if you do the right royalty shares or PFH. Get that experience so you kind of get the basics down. Then, or perhaps even before then, find somebody you trust who's doing well and ask their advice. This does not mean putting the question out on the ACX Narrators Forum and asking people for advice. Why? What, are they all terrible? I'm actually paraphrasing here advice from one of the admins of the site, Jeffrey Kafer. Now, a lot of good advice from him who points out that anybody can put advice up there. Some of it's very good. Some of it's very bad. But it all has this equal weight as it shows up in your feed. Better yet, find someone who's successful. Find the person who's doing what you want to do and ask them, how did you do it? You might have to pay them some money. How did I? Now, let's talk about me now. How did I go from doing nothing that first year to, okay, here's my second year in ACX in producing audio books? With the royalties from books and the stipend jobs, you can see it came out to a little over $22,000. Now, I know if there's some experienced people watching, they're laughing on me. I make that in a month, loser. But if you're just doing it for a part-time job, something extra, would $22,000 come in handy for you? I'm not that good. Oh, but you have this voice. The voice, Paul Allen Rubens, who is a good coach, he's somebody that I would recommend. I've never taken from him, but I hear good things. He had an article I read pointing out that the voice is the least important factor in audiobook narration. It's can you tell a story? And can you tell it in a way that people can receive it and understand it? You see, that's the tricky part because we all think, well, you know, we can talk. I mean, I read to my kids growing up. I read in schools. I was on radio for 30 years, which, by the way, is a terrible background for audiobook narration because everything is so big on the radio. In fact, one of my first critiques said, I thought I was listening to an announcer at a monster truck pull. So you think you got bad reviews. You need to find some help. Oh, and while we're on that subject, pay attention to your negative reviews. I see people, you know, complaining and saying, oh, I've got this terrible review. And people, once again, well-meaning, well, don't pay attention, just go, no, pay attention to those negative ratings because if they're all saying the same thing, well, he talked too fast or he slurred his words or there was so much smacking and popping or he sounded like a monster truck pull announcer, then, you know, see if there's maybe something you can do to correct that. Keep those things in mind while realizing that the same thing somebody can't stand somebody else may love. That's why you look for an overall consensus. But even better, find you a coach. What I did, I went on YouTube, looked up audiobook narration tips. If a coach is any good at all, he or she won't mind putting out some tips for you online, you know, some free advice, if nothing else, just to kind of lure you in. And I saw a video by a guy named Pat Fraley, very successful audiobook narrator and voice actor. And the advice I got from that one video, that one free video, by the way, if you're having to watch your dollars, I applied it and ended up getting more jobs and getting my first stipend. And that was just from watching the free videos he had available. So I thought, maybe this guy is worth investing in. So I went. He has a whole online course, and that's at patfraley.com. And once again, there are other good ones too. So I don't think I'm saying these other guys, you know, Sean Allen Pratt, give a little shout out here. Good things about him. Of course, Scott Brick, Paul Allen Rubens, as I mentioned, Barbara Blatt, is that her name? Sorry if I'm getting those names wrong. But just do an online search, watch these videos and see who speaks to you and then be prepared to pay for that guidance. You say, well, why should I pay? I'm trying to make money. You know, that always amazes me when I hear people say that. People will go to college for four years, go in debt, you know, $100,000 or more to get a degree and get learning from people who've never actually done and been successful in a field and somehow think that that makes sense and yet won't pay $200 or $300 to somebody who can actually give the advice you need to succeed, someone who's done it. I mean, this is just crazy thinking. So realize that, yes, you will need to invest. Well, I don't have any money. Get a credit card because, look, I spent, say, $400 on training, bought a really nice course and went from that $12 up to over $22,000 the next year. Did I make my money back? You know, you don't have to be a math genius to figure that one out. And once again, it's not that I'm so great, it's I got good advice and then I applied it. You see, that's the other thing. When you get good advice from these people, don't sit there and argue with them then. Well, but I can't because don't start making excuses. If they say, here's the software you need to make this happen, get that software. Well, my software won't do that. Well, get some different software. Quit making excuses. Now we're getting to the tough love part of it here. But if you want to succeed, if you want to make money so that you can support yourself, your family or whatever, chances are you're going to have to change. And people hate changing. They would rather people just tell them, oh, keep doing what you're doing, it'll get better. That's a lie. It won't if what you're doing now isn't already getting you the results you want. So get that training. I know this sounds, I sound so mean, but I really mean this as a help. Get that training. And as I said, you know, I know some of you are saying, well, Kevin, you're contradicting yourself. First, you're getting onto people for saying, spend a bunch of money at the first. You know, allocate your resources wisely. Spending money on an editor for your very first book is not going to really teach you anything. Learning to edit your own and do the processing and all, that's actually good because then you can have a good idea of why narrators get paid so much for that finished product that they deliver. So there's a smart way to spend your money and then there's the not smart way. And then as far as making money, then, you know, I like the stipend jobs on ACX because you get that per finished hour and you get some royalty share. But you're just going to have to keep doing it and doing it and do what is necessary. I keep hammering this. Get that good advice and do what these folks say. And as far as equipment and all that, that's the easiest. You don't have to spend a lot of money on it and there's a lot of resources on that online. But get some good advice, follow it, and find out, as I mentioned earlier, you know, what do you do to stay motivated or should you stay motivated? You may find out that you just really hate sitting in a chair or standing at a mic or whatever and reading for hours on end. In that case, this probably isn't the thing for you. Plexus is hiring and I know some people who make some good money in that. Otherwise, good luck and if you have any questions, feel free to email me or better yet, talk to somebody who actually knows what they're talking about and see what they have to say about succeeding. Because I'm still down in the dirt and just trying to figure this out, most likely like you are. But email KevinClay at KevinClay.com and I'd love to chat with you. I hope this has been helpful. Good luck.