Happy 20th anniversary to me!

I launched my voiceover business 20 years ago.

Since my last post was about using my journal, it’s only appropriate that this one goes back to where it all began, my first entry in my first book.

Saturday 8/28/1999 9:25pm

I’m spending my evening copying the CD of my first voice-over demo with the plan to mail a few to agents on Monday. How I got to this point and where I go from here will be the subject of this journal.

Friday 9/3/99 10:15pm

On Wednesday, September 1, 1999, I mailed 3 CDs to [3 Atlanta VO agents]. It was such a huge step, and I felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment and excitement to have pushed the dream out to people who could do something about it!

The past 20 years have been a remarkable evolutionary journey, to say the least! As I was reflecting on all that I’ve seen, read, written, voiced, and otherwise done in that time, I decided a blog post of 20 things I’ve learned would be a great way to celebrate this milestone!

So here’s the list, in no particular order. By the way, you’ll find more private journal entries sprinkled throughout these articles!

1) As I wrote in my journal on 8/30/99 (the part highlighted in green is from that journal entry), all of your family or friends won’t necessarily support you in your efforts to follow your dreams. That’s okay. People are in your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.

2) Like so many people, I mailed my first demo to VO agents without first establishing I was a marketable commodity who could offer them something they didn’t already have among the people they represent.

3) My library has a smorgasbord of material that will help me move forward in this career.

4) Every freelance voice talent/audiobook narrator needs a web site so people can find you. You wouldn’t believe how many times I see people asking on Facebook for contact info for a certain audiobook narrator. For what it’s worth, I’m on version 4 of my web site, and it probably won’t be my last.

5) Being a creative person in the public eye means that bad reviews go with the territory. If the reviews reveal a trend, it’s time to work with a coach to improve. Otherwise, shrug off the criticism.

6) I learned 6 valuable lessons from my first voiceover job.

7) If you don’t have work, create your own, and then do it again.

8) When the idea fairy hands you an inspired idea, act quickly because ideas love speed.

9) People who are price shoppers will cause you to spend the most time on their project, aren’t easily satisfied, brag to their friends about beating you down on price, and are often the slowest to pay. I don’t compete on price but instead market my strengths to prospective clients.

10) I’ve read a lot about the Law of Attraction. I constantly must remind myself to not complain and instead think/speak/write what I want into existence.

11) I’m naturally an organized person, but creating and using a central repository for ideas was a game changer.

12) Every passion shouldn’t necessarily lead to a career choice, but the ones that do can fill you with boundless joy and an incredible sense of accomplishment!

13) As a strong introvert, I have a lot of natural resistance to meeting new people. However, I’ve found some ways to feel more at ease in —and even enjoy — those situations.

14) Stop the comparisons! It is the most self-defeating, self-negating behavior many of us have. I strive to be like Mel Fisher and maintain NOW thinking.

15) Every moment has meaning, so I decided to not only be grateful for the day job, but look for ways to actually find happiness when I hated that job.

16) One of the most exciting days in my life yielded 10 observations about marketing in a crowded marketplace.

17) I always look to see how other situations can apply to me and my business. I’ve drawn parallels and discovered secrets to success from my hair stylist, a tree service, our surfing instructor in Hawaii, movies like this one and this one, a TV show, and even during my time in swimming laps at the gym pool.

18) Acceptance of my life was the key to being in the flow. I don’t have to force things to happen. They will occur when the time is right.

19) The majority of audiobooks posted on ACX.com have royalty share contracts. I look for certain criteria before accepting one.

20) Helping other people achieve their dream has greatly helped me get even closer to fulfilling my own. I’m so very grateful for and humbled by all your kind comments here, on social media, and in person about how my articles and Facebook responses have helped you.

I feel like I’m barely scratching the surface with this list! Check out my blog archives for even more lessons learned!

Now that I’m heading into my 21st year of my business, it’s fitting that I’m stepping into an exciting new level of my destiny! My new site NarratorsRoadmap.com will be unveiled this month. Whether you dream of becoming an audiobook narrator or already are one, this site will be THE designation for narrators of all levels! Sign up for email updates or follow me and/or NarratorsRoadmap on Twitter to be alerted about the grand opening!

The post 20 Things Learned in Last 20 Years appeared first on Karen Commins.

Basically, you divide a landscape sheet of paper into 4 boxes by drawing 2 perpendicular lines in the center of the sheet. You fill in each section with your assessment of how well you do the tasks involved with your business.

As you can see in this video, she explains that your goal is to focus your time and energy in those areas that make money for your business and delegate the rest.

Here are some of my notes about doing this analysis:

• If you sharpen the saw and strengthen the strengths, you become untouchable.
• Stop trying to strengthen your weaknesses. Focus only on your unique brilliance.
• The uniquely brilliant stuff comes naturally, and you could do it all day for free.
• The “really good at” quadrant are things that if you had to do them 2 days in a row, you’d be resentful. You get tired by the end of the day, even though people recognize you for being good at these tasks. You just don’t have that much passion for them.
• You can only be great at 4-5 things in your business, and 80% of your revenue comes from your quadrant of unique brilliance.
• If you do the things in your 2 bottom quadrants, you’re not making any money. Delegating them creates more time for you to do the things where you have unique brilliance.

I encourage you to do this exercise to determine — and capitalize on — your areas of unique brilliance.

I was thinking about this activity and its tremendous positive effect on my business after reading several of Karen Souer’s excellent articles in her series about the 5Ws of Outsourcing. Karen and I met in 2011 at the Faffcon 2 conference here in Atlanta. She was starting a new business as a virtual assistant to voice talents. We had a wonderful conversation, and I was impressed with her sharp mind, deep listening skills, and solution-driven nature. It’s no surprise to me that she is in demand as an audiobook editor.

After doing the Quadrants of Brilliance exercise, I made some major changes in my business plan. One of the biggest changes was outsourcing tasks whenever possible. I suggested to Karen that it might help other narrators if we each wrote about how a narrator can use outsourcing to strengthen one’s business. Karen’s articles includes the perspective from the contract freelancer.

Possible Tasks

I rankled at using Fabienne’s labels of “just okay” and “really bad” to describe my lower 2 quadrants. In fact, I wrote beside one of my tasks that I listed in the “really bad” quadrant: I’m good at it but have no desire to do it.

That sentence is the key! Even if you are good at doing something, is it the best use of your time to actually DO it? Will it make money for you? Or — and this scenario happens all too frequently — will it waste time that you could have spent in an income-producing endeavor?

I didn’t immediately outsource anything. Instead, I started keeping notes in Evernote about things I do, as well as things I wanted to do but never seemed to get to. Since I’m notorious for planning too many projects in the time allowed, I also documented how long it took me to do each activity.

Audiobook Editing and Proof Listening

It was immediately evident to me that audiobook editing was the first and most necessary task to delegate.

I realized that in the time it took me to edit an audiobook, I could’ve narrated another one.

No one pays me to edit. They pay me to NARRATE.

One of my pet peeves as an audiobook listener is mouth noise, particularly clicks. Since I am meticulous about removing those clicks, it was important for me to find an editor who also made it their mission to eliminate them.

I contacted several people and asked them to edit a 5-minute selection. In addition to the click removal, I listened for how they adjusted the pacing. If all of the spaces between sentences are the same length, it sounds robotic and loses any dramatic pauses I had intended in the read. I also paid attention to how they mastered it to assure that the finished product sounded really good to me.

I advise you to only hire audio editors who are experienced with audiobooks, which have their own sonic demands. I’ve found that editors who are only experienced with music may do too much or too little processing on your voice.

Even if my book is under a royalty share contract, I still hand off the editing and proofing to someone else. Yes, doing so puts me temporarily in the red, but the value is in the time I free up and the improved quality in my finished product. If you’re unsure how you could afford a freelancer for any outsourced assignment, this article will help you figure it out.

When I edited my audiobooks, I also proof-listened to assure word-for-word accuracy with the text. It’s really better if another person than the narrator performs that task. If you made a mistake in narrating, you have a good chance of missing the same mistake when you edit your own work.

If you’re looking for an experienced audiobook editor and/or proofer, you’ll find plenty of qualified candidates in the directories in Audiobook Village.

Members of the Audio Publishers Association (APA) who are considering outsourcing their post-production can login to the APA site and view the April 2017webinar linked in the Resources section.

Administrative and Promotional Duties

Once I established a routine with an editor, the next big group of items prime for delegation centered around administrative and promotional duties. I wanted help in publicizing my audiobooks, starting and maintaining a newsletter, finding and fixing bad links and formatting on my blog caused by 2 conversions, etc.

I wrote this Virtual Assistant Statement of Work and posted a note in my neighborhood email list with the hope of attracting a college student or stay-at-home mom to work with me for $15/hour. I thought it would be helpful for my assistant to be local so I could show them my processes in person rather than explaining everything on Skype. I received several responses from great candidates. I held interviews using these questions:

1. Have you done any research about my business? Do you listen to audiobooks?
2. Tell me about your current job, school, and other commitments.
3. How do you rate your proficiency level with Word and Excel?
4. What other software do you know well?
5. How do you prioritize and schedule your work?
6. Why do you want this job?
7. What kind of turn-around time could I expect?
8. Are you willing to sign a non-disclosure/non-competition agreement?
9. What payment forms do you accept? (PayPal, check)
10. How often do you expect to be paid?
11. What questions do you have for me?

Although I was thrilled with the person I hired, our association was short-lived due to a change in her schedule. However, her departure turned out to be a blessing for me because my husband Drew volunteered to fulfill my audiobook giveaways and do all of the maintenance required on my web site! Sometimes a family member may be willing, able, and available to help you if you ask them.

With him taking over those items, I turned my attention to some one-of activities. For instance, I wanted to transcribe my webinar on audio rights and some interviews I’ve done so that I could re-purpose content into another form. I used to be a much faster typist and even worked as a transcriptionist in my younger years. However, I soon found that it would take me HOURS to transcribe the 90-minute webinar.

Typing is definitely in my bottom right quadrant, so it was an easy decision to hire someone else to do that job! I posted an job listing on Upwork.com and was very pleased with the ease of use of the site and quality of applicants. Upwork has certification tests in various categories, including spelling and grammar. The freelancers on the site take the tests, and the scores become part of their profile, which aids in the selection process.

As you can tell from these examples, I enlist aid as much as possible in order to spend more time in my quadrant of brilliance! Do you outsource any parts of your business? Please leave your comments and questions on the blog.

The post Outsourcing From a Narrator’s Perspective appeared first on Karen Commins.

I spent the morning searching for a special item to add to one of my collections.

This prize doesn’t cost much and can be purchased for the same low price any day of the year.

I’m talking about a library card — not just any library card, mind you, but a non-resident library card.

Of course, you should start your collection of cards with one from your city or county library. Most libraries offer local residents a free card since the library is funded through tax dollars. Learn what your local library has to offer and use it.

However, you’ll discover that getting a non-resident card to a second library system may be very useful since libraries offer different digital services. You’ll want to shop around for 1 or more non-resident library cards that fit your needs.

In addition to the cost of the card, you’ll need to determine whether the library accepts on-line registrations. I viewed at least 2 dozen library sites across the country, and most libraries require you to apply in person.

The cost for a non-resident library card is usually minimal, although some places like Kalamazoo, MI charge a 3-digit figure equating to a resident’s property tax.

Once you acquire the library cards you need, their benefit to your career as an audiobook narrator can be immeasurable in at least 4 ways:

Performance

I listen to audiobooks every day. I’m not only listening to the story, but I’m critically listening to the narrator and production quality. Each one is a mini-masterclass in performance technique that aids my own interpretations.

Overdrive, Hoopla, and Recorded Books are the largest services that supply digital audiobooks to libraries. Two libraries with Overdrive accounts choose different audiobooks for their patrons to download. With multiple library cards, you’re sure to find an audiobook you want to hear.

Periodicals

I went shopping for my 2nd non-resident card this morning because I want to read Publishers Weekly (PW) magazine. Sure, I could pay the $180 subscription fee on Zinio.com to get a digital subscription or the $249.99 to Publishers Weekly for them to cut more trees and deliver the magazine to my house.

I’d rather pay much less and support a library at the same time!

I had noticed that my 2 libraries both offer magazines through their Recorded Books portal (formerly Zinio). As an aside, my libraries also have other fabulous options from Recorded Books, such as ArtistWorks for art and music instruction! Neither had Publishers Weekly in their account, so I searched Google for a library that does. I’m planning to head over to a neighboring county tomorrow and pay $30 for a year’s access on their non-resident card.

TIP: Some libraries listed PW in a PDF as an available title, but I had to look at their actual magazine page to determine whether it really was included. If they have it, be sure they are showing the current issue as I saw several sites that indicated it was limited to archives. Also, some libraries have Flipster accounts for their magazines. I don’t know whether Publishers Weekly is available from Flipster.

Polylinguist

My library cards can help me achieve my long-held goal of becoming polylingual. (Most people would say “multi-lingual”, but that word wouldn’t fit with my alliteration.) Both of my cards give me on-line access to Mángo Languages. Even if I don’t take an entire course, it’s helpful to listen to these conversations when working on accents for an audiobook.

Proficiency

I got my first non-resident card from the nearby city of Smyrna a few months ago after learning that some libraries give card holders access to the fantastic on-line training site Lynda.com.

While they aren’t audiobook-specific, the Lynda video courses are professionally created and come with a transcript and materials. You can preview the Pro Tools 12 Essential Training at this link, but classes on every popular DAW are available. In addition to courses on DAWs, Lynda offers loads of classes in marketing, social media, web site design, and other topics useful to your audiobook business.

Like the magazines, Lynda is a subscription site. You pay either monthly or yearly. They charge more for the plan that includes the exercise files. When I started with Lynda in mid-2015, I paid $34.99 per month for the courses and exercise files. Last December, I paid a discounted price of $242.89 for a year.

In contrast, my Smyrna Library card cost $50, and I get to take advantage of all the other services from the Smyrna Library as well.

As you can see, the cost savings of the library cards over the regular price of these subscriptions is a DEAL!

Do you have a library card? Please leave a comment and let me know how you use it!

Updated 6/6/19 to change Recorded Books and Zinio references

The post A DEAL You Can Get Any Day And Is Good All Year appeared first on Karen Commins.

I haven’t done so because I don’t know how to acquire the audio rights needed to produce these audiobooks. I’ve extensively researched the topic on-line, and I even bought a book titled How Authors Sell Publishing Rights. Unfortunately, everything I found was vague and didn’t answer my questions.

I decided to consult an attorney who specializes in intellectual property and publishing.

Even better, why not talk to an attorney who’s also a Grammy-winning audiobook producer!

Best idea of all, why not host a webinar so other narrators can learn with me!

I’m thrilled to announce that Jessica Kaye will be my guest speaker on the webinar titled How to Acquire Audiobook Rights!

We’re meeting on Tuesday 9 August at 8pm ET/5pm PT, and the cost is $49 per person.

Jessica has over 25 years experience in audiobook creation and publishing. She’s the founder of Big Happy Family Audio, an audiobook distribution company, as well as an attorney in the firm Kaye & Mills. 

If you’re interested in learning how to acquire audiobook rights, click here to get more information and to purchase the recording and materials.

The post Upcoming Webinar on Acquiring Audio Rights appeared first on Karen Commins.

I had such fun in creating this 2:01 video, which premiered today on the Audiobook Community Facebook page. I hope you enjoy it! If you also love audiobooks, please tell me your favorite audiobook in the comments. I’m always searching for my next good listen!

The post I #LoveAudiobooks! appeared first on Karen Commins.

It’s a great question in an area where many of us — and I include myself — struggle.

The very next day, I read a wonderful story from Joanne McFadden in the June issue of the Science Of Mind magazine that illustrates a perfect way to approach networking events!

McFadden was going to a dance. Rather than thinking of the type of man she wanted to attract as her date, she decided instead to dwell on who she could be and what she had to offer. She thought, “I could be a great girlfriend to someone because I’m smart, funny, beautiful, and caring!”

She met a man at the dance, became his girlfriend, and later married him.

McFadden wrote:

Powerful things happen when we focus on being —

being peaceful, being happy, being loving, being kind, etc.

Here are 3 ways you can think about BEING at a networking event:

1. Being Prepared

If I were attending a convention in another industry, I would study the list of exhibitors and research their web sites. This way, I would learn about those companies so that I could speak intelligently with the people at the booths about their products and services. If the floor plan is available ahead of time, I would plot my route so that I could ensure I spoke with everyone I wanted to see.

I may be wrong about this next part, but I would be direct in asking exhibitors for an introduction to the marketing manager or other person with whom I’d like to meet. I also would ask them about their ideal customer so that I could refer others to them.

2. Being Creative

When attending events in other industries, those people may not know what we do. Consider devising a creative introduction, as described in this article.

One reason introverts dread conventions is because many of us hate small talk that is generated in typical interview-style questions. However, we would regret the untold missed opportunities of not speaking with other attendees between sessions, at lunch, etc.

The key to an interesting and meaningful discussion is to ask creative questions!

I have a book titled 4,000 Questions For Getting To Know Anyone and Everyone. Before attending the event, I would look in this book and find a handful of fun questions that I might want to ask as icebreakers, like these examples:

• What would your occupation have been in the Old West?
• How will you earn your 15 minutes of fame?
• What superhero powers would you like to have?

3. Being Organized

Realize that the odds are against your returning from the event with a job in hand. In fact, you probably shouldn’t expect any outcome other than meeting new people. A more likely scenario is that you will come home with a collection of business cards.

You’ll want to follow up with your new acquaintances, and you may need to contact them numerous times before a job will materialize. I highly recommend you read C. J. Hayden’s excellent article Anatomy of a Sale.

Before you can follow up with your prospects, though, you’ll want to start capturing things you discussed.  As soon as you are able following the conversation, enter your conversation details in your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software of choice.

I keep a contacts folder in Evernote. (If you sign up using my link, I get credit for the referral.) Evernote lets you take a picture of the business card with the camera on your phone. If you have a LinkedIn account, Evernote will synch the info from LinkedIn with the note containing the business card. Make notes about your discussion, especially their answers to your creative questions. You’ll use that information to follow-up with that person later.

Schedule dates and reasons to follow up with your prospects. C. J. Hayden’s handy list of 44 Ways to Follow Up With Your Prospects will help with this process.

When you concentrate on how you want to BE and not what you want to GET when networking, you can relax and enjoy a much more productive event!

Do you have favorite networking tips? Please share them in the comments!
 

The post 3 More Networking Tips for Introverts appeared first on Karen Commins.

In 1889, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland were female reporters in New York. Each went on a daring solo trip around the world at the same time. Nellie wanted to beat the time of Phileas Fogg, Jules Verne’s fictional character in Around The World in 80 Days. Rival reporter Elizabeth Bisland left on a solo race around the world hoping to beat Nellie’s time!

Nellie sailed east to England in the morning. That night, and unbeknownst to Nellie, Elizabeth took a train west to San Francisco. In Bly vs Bisland: Beating Phileas Fogg In A Race Around The World, I combined the narratives from both women into a single book with 1 timeline! Who will win the race?!

My journal entries tell Part 1 of the story behind the story between idea and implementation.

Sunday 16 November 2014 1:10pm

With no book in progress, I am officially on vacation.

Monday 17 November 2014 9:55pm

When a divine, inspired idea comes to you at bedtime, you can’t swat it away and say, “I’m on vacation!” Well, I guess you could do that, but only if you don’t value the Creator handing you an inspired idea!

I was lying in bed last night when an idea just magically appeared in my mind. It was raining outside, but this idea didn’t come accompanied by a thunderbolt, either real or imagined. It just quietly showed up for no reason I can recall. I don’t even remember exactly how it was worded at the time it arrived, but it was something like this:

Do an audiobook mash-up of Nellie Bly’s and Elizabeth Bisland’s books about their race around the world.

I had planned to do Elizabeth Bisland’s book earlier this year but then decided to do Fanny Herself first. Bisland’s book is not in audio anywhere. I thought Nellie Bly’s book was done…

On the 14th, Drew told me that he saw an article on that it was the 125th anniversary of the start of that race. He showed me that someone had done a board game…. I guess it was a bit of a delayed reaction because 48 hours later, the Divine made sure I knew that….Nellie Bly’s travel story isn’t on Audible! I had wanted to do it originally, but I thought it had been done.

However, this mash-up idea is completely original! I haven’t seen anyone create an audiobook out of 2 different books to make 1 cohesive story!…

I sent a long email to Melissa Frank to see if she would [narrate] with me… She responded quickly and favorably… she’s in!

Nellie left by ship going east. Elizabeth left by train going west…. I’ve spend part of the evening dividing the text into chapters. Nellie included a timetable at the end of her book, which certainly helps….

So far, the story is dove-tailing sooo well! The chapters alternate for the most part. I’m working to keep their timelines consistent. It’s also interesting to see how they were writing about similar things at the same time, like how other travelers treated them as women traveling alone.

Not only could I not ignore the divine, inspired idea, but it’s hard to disconnect when audiobooks are my passion, my vocation, and such a large part of my life!

Tuesday 18 November 2014 10:10pm

I sure am working a lot for a person who says she’s on vacation.

…I spent all afternoon working on my text mash-up of Bly vs Bisland….

In addition to matching their timelines, I’m starting and ending chapters at places that highlight contrast. [For example,] Bisland says how every plank in her ship creaked and groaned such that she couldn’t sleep. I start the next chapter with Bly saying she slept great on the train.

Wednesday 19 November 2014 10:45pm

I have spent at least 7 hours of this “vacation” day sequencing Bly vs Bisland. My shoulder hurts from being extended on the desk for my mouse all day. I got tired, cold, and hungry, yet I pressed on. I feel like an explorer myself as I read their accounts and try to figure out which day something happened and align the timelines.

I’m an explorer as I look at the maps to see where they’ve been, but I’m also a detective. I’ve Googled distances between 2 places like Singapore and Penang, and I’ve also called up calendars for Dec. 1889 and Jan. 1890 so I could plot the timeline based on references to “Sunday”, “the next day”, “on the fifth day”, etc.

Bly gave her timeline in the back of her book, but it had an error. She expected to arrive in Hong Kong on 25 Dec. but instead got there on 23 Dec. Bisland wrote less overall. While she was overly detailed in her descriptions of the people and their clothes, she was very sketchy about dates.

I’m excited about the project and increasingly proud of my editing to create chapters that make sense and often compare/contrast the journeys of both women. I hope to finish the text mash-up tomorrow.

Thursday 20 November 2014 11:40pm

I spent about 5 hours (I think) in finishing my text mash-up of Bly vs Bisland. I feel it is a monumental accomplishment! I might actually have something resembling a vacation day tomorrow!

Friday 21 November 2014 10:32pm

I went through every chapter with Drew for 2.5 hours or so. I found and fixed some chapter numbering problems.

Coming up in Part 2, I’ll share the stories about recording the text and choosing the cover art and music for the credits.

In the meantime, I invite you to listen to the retail sample of this audiobook and leave me any questions or comments about this audiobook on the blog. If you’d like a FREE copy of this fantastic audiobook, just click this link to start a trial membership at Audible.com.

The post Bly vs Bisland: The Story Behind the Story (Part 1) appeared first on Karen Commins.

When I have the privilege of talking to my readers, the most common questions they ask me are about self-promotion. How do I get my stuff out there? How do I get noticed? How do I find an audience? How did you do it? I hate talking about self-promotion. Comedian Steve Martin famously dodges these questions with the advice, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” If you just focus on getting really good, Martin says, people will come to you. I happen to agree: You don’t really find an audience for your work; they find you. But it’s not enough to be good. In order to be found, you have to be findable. I think there’s an easy way of putting your work out there and making it discoverable while you’re focused on getting really good at what you do….

Become a documentarian of what you do. Start a work journal: Write your thoughts down in a notebook, or speak them into an audio recorder. Keep a scrapbook. Take a lot of photographs of your work at different stages in your process. Shoot video of you working. This isn’t about making art, it’s about simply keeping track of what’s going on around you. Take advantage of all the cheap, easy tools at your disposal—these days, most of us carry a fully functional multimedia studio around in our smartphones. Whether you share it or not, documenting and recording your process as you go along has its own rewards: You’ll start to see the work you’re doing more clearly and feel like you’re making progress. And when you’re ready to share, you’ll have a surplus of material to choose from.

While the book is short and easily consumed in an hour or so, its wisdom takes longer to digest.

I decided to do an experiment of showing my work with a Daily Dispatch on Twitter. Before you see all of the Daily Dispatches, let me first tell you 4 few things I learned in the experiment.

1.  I became more creative.

Each day, I would ask myself what the Daily Dispatch would be. Is something I did today worth sharing, and how can I discuss it in 140 characters? I even planned some days around being able to document something about my work and processes.

2.  I tried new software and learned a lot of things.

• I used my iPhone Voice Memo app and Evernote to create a voice recording that I could share on Twitter on 21 May.
• I downloaded Evernote’s Skitch app on my iPad (also available on Android) to quickly annotate the graphics I used on 15 and 16 June.
• I downloaded TechSmith’s Jing app to do a screen capture on 19 June. This app can also do screen casting.
• I signed up for a membership on Lynda.com on 24 June and have already taken some extremely helpful coursework in Adobe Premiere and Pro Tools. I could (and might do so in the future) write a post about the quality training courses available on this site. I’m excited to learn even more and cannot recommend this site too highly! If you want to sign up for a free 10-day trial, please use this link as I would get a referral fee.

3.  I created graphics of some points to encourage discussions with other people.

Graphics in a Twitter feed are very eye-catching. I was gratified to receive several comments on my dispatches with graphics. The one that sparked the most discussion was posted on 26 June, followed closely by the one I posted on 3 June.

A side benefit of graphics is that I also posted them on Pinterest, which can cause more discoverability, discussion, and dissemination.

4.  I felt a sense of pressure to honor my commitment to the dispatches.

I don’t work the same amount of time or do the same tasks each day. Like most people, I also like some time completely away from work. Since I had decided to send out a dispatch every day, I created some work for myself to decide on and deliver something useful each day.

I plan to continue to show my work on Twitter without the pressure of submitting something every day. Please join me in this journey and follow me on Twitter!

You can see all of the daily dispatches in this experiment at this link.

I’d love to hear any questions or comments you have about the Daily Dispatches, so please leave a note for me on the blog.

The post 6 Weeks of Showing My Work appeared first on Karen Commins.

In this roundup, I’ll link to my new magazine column and responses posted on other sites about my thoughts on setting boundaries in your voiceover business, how audiobooks allow you to read more books, which audiobooks about technology are best, and whether to read fiction or non-fiction. I’ll also unveil my latest video, which shows how to use the iAnnotate app during the audiobook corrections process.

Big news!  

I am thrilled to announce that my friend and fellow audiobook narrator Ann M. Richardson and I are now writing a monthly column about audiobooks for InD’tale Magazine! InD’tale is a gorgeous and well-established on-line magazine that, to borrow Ann’s perfect phrasing, offers great information for anyone interested in writing, reading, or now listening. We call ourselves Narrators Helping Authors. Our goal is to help indie authors and publishers learn about the industry and inspire them to create successful audio editions of their books!

Our column is called InD’ear, and we’ll alternate authorship each month. I wrote the first one, which appeared starting on page 30 in the June, 2015 issue of the magazine.

In Other News

If you run a voiceover business, chances are great that other people constantly ask you how they, too, can become a voiceover talent. I shared my thoughts about unpaid consultations in this update on LinkedIn titled Setting Boundaries in Your Voiceover Business.

I’ve answered a few questions about reading and audiobooks on Quora.com:

Here’s my answer to the question How can some people read so many books, do they actually read and understand or just briefly browse? You’ll note in the comments that a previous respondent took issue with my interpretation of the question.

As a former IT professional, I was happy to reply to What are the best audiobooks for computer science and programming?

I also responded to the question Are there any benefits to reading fiction over nonfiction?

Finally, audiobook narrators, this video is for you! I show you how my editor and I use Branchfire’s iAnnotate PDF app on our iPads instead of a spreadsheet during the corrections phase of the project.

Please leave me a comment if you found useful info in this article or have ideas about other topics you’d like me to address. My work is my passion, and it’s a joy to sit a spell and share it with you!
 

The post Stray Post Roundup appeared first on Karen Commins.

On 26 May 2015, the day before the annual Audio Publishers Association Conference, veteran narrator Johnny Heller hosted a Narrator Workshop in NYC. In addition to Johnny, the All Star presenters were Scott Brick, Simon Vance, Karen White, Jeffrey Kafer, Robert Fass, PJ Ochlan, Carol Monda, and Peter Berkrot. The NY Mets and Yankees could only dream about fielding 9 such talented people at the same time!

Each presenter first shared some thoughts about their work in audiobooks. We then heard terrific discussions on these topics:

• Web sites and social media (panel with Scott Brick, Jeffrey Kafer, and Karen White)
• ACX (Mike Stover from ACX and Jeffrey Kafer)
• Accents and dialects (PJ Ochlan)
• Romance (perfectly planned topic following lunch! panel with Karen White, Carol Monda, and Jeffrey Kafer)
• Non-ficion (panel with Robert Fass, Simon Vance, Scott Brick, and Peter Berkrot)
• Young adult (Carol Monda and Peter Berkrot)

The day ended with a number of personal coaching sessions observed by the entire audience.

I couldn’t possibly do justice to the entire event in this post. Also, in all honesty, I felt that the presenters shared some things that were intended only for the people who were in the room. In fact, Jeffrey Kafer said one particular thing that made the cost of my trip worthwhile. It wouldn’t be fair or right to repeat everything I heard that day. Instead, I will offer 10 of my takeaways from the workshop.

1)  From Scott Brick: “In every line of text that I read, I’m looking for the teachable moment. The teachable moment is when you can reach the one who is disconnected, the one who isn’t paying attention. There’s going to be somebody in the audience who doesn’t care about audiobooks. They’ve never heard one, and they think it’s weird that someone is reading them a story. There will come a moment, somewhere in the text, where you’re going to be able to reach them. For somebody, it’s going to be their very first listen. Unless you do the very best job you possibly can…they may not come back for a second listen. ” Scott doesn’t pay attention to the genre as it tells him nothing. He approaches fiction and non-fiction the same way.

2)  From Robert Fass:  “You’re there to serve the text. Being aware of the difference between serving yourself or something in your spirit other than the text is something that needs to be cultivated. Cultivate your intelligence because you don’t know what kind of book you’re going to get. Every character in even the worst book has to have a full life. Go to museums. Read outside of your assigned book. Do something totally different to expose yourself to different facets [of life]. When you get in there, you’ll say you know what this is about.”

3)  From Carol Monda:  “I’ve been taught that good is the enemy of great. I could spend 15 hours doing an hour of recorded time! I’ve learned you can’t; you have to let it go. If you are mindful, if you are in the moment, if you are connected — that’s the most you can do. [You can make characters more interesting sounding and other technical improvements.] Ultimately, is your gut in it? Your heart in it? Are you earnest about it? That’s the work.”

4)  From Scott Brick:  Every successful actor creates work for themselves. Have something that you can sell through your web site, and use affiliate links.

5)  From PJ Ochlan:  When doing accents and dialects, phonetics only make up 50% of the language. Placement is everything. Practice mimicry and notice how your vocal placement moves.

6)  From Peter Berkrot:  “The inexplicable moment of truth and beauty comes from spontaneity…Sometimes the material isn’t good and you have to find a way to enter that imaginary world and bring it to life….There’s a legacy. The gifts that you receive come through the gifts you give.”

7)  From Karen White:  If you don’t take romance seriously, don’t do it. Let go of the judgment. To play the opposite gender, some adjective can describe the character. Think of that adjective when that character speaks.

8)  From Simon Vance:  Check in with yourself before you start to see how you are feeling. Acknowledge how you’re feeling and let it go because you have to be with the book when you start recording.

9)  From Michael Stover:  ACX has published over 35,000 audiobooks, and around 1000 auditions are uploaded every week. Audible is showing 30% growth each year and now has about 700 employees.

10) From Johnny Heller:   You need to see who you’re talking to in order to pull out the emotion. We can’t speak through a horrible moment. We must live it.

The Johnny Heller All Star Narrator Workshop was a grand slam! I extend my deep gratitude to Johnny for organizing the event (complete with a wonderful catered lunch), the fabulous presenters who were simultaneously entertaining and informative, the narrators with me in the audience who asked such useful and interesting questions, and the narrators who courageously had a coaching session in front of their peers.

If Johnny or someone else organizes a similar event next year in Chicago, I hope to be there!

Do you have any questions or comments about my takeaways from the workshop? Please leave a response on my blog.

Photos: Sincere thanks go to Graeme Spicer, voice talent and managing director of Edge Studios, for graciously sharing his fantastic pictures taken throughout the workshop.
 

The post 10 Takeaways From Johnny Heller’s All Star Narrator Workshop appeared first on Karen Commins.