How to find an audiobook narrator

Where you can look for audiobook narrators and find who you want for your project

How to hire a specific audiobook narrator

Seeking your audiobook narrator

How to find an audiobook narrator?

Where to look for audiobook narrators and find who you want for your project.

So you are self publishing or you are a small press and you are seeking to get into the audiobook market.

Firstly you need to make several decisions about the kind of narrator you want for this particular project.

1. Would you prefer a female or male narrator?

2. What kind of accent would you like them to have?

3. Are there other accents in the story that they would need to be able to do?

4. What kind of voice are you looking for? Warm? Good comedic timing? Do they need to be able to convey emotion?

Choose a section of your text to use as an audition script. Something that will be about five minutes to read. This could include more than one scene if you are looking to see how someone handles dialogue of different characters or a how a particularly intense scene emotionally is handled.

You also need to think about your budget. Generally audiobook narrators will charge for their services in different ways. You will be able to pay them for production where this is a one off payment and you would then keep all the royalties from the audiobook sales. Or you may pay a lower price for a Royalty Share Plus deal where you pay your narrator an agreed amount and then share the royalties as well. Both options will be paid on a Per Finished Hour (PFH) basis. This is per finished hour of recording. As a general rule each finished hour will include 9,300 words. So for both of these options you pay once you have authorised all the recordings, before the audiobook goes live.

Although some sites may offer Royalty Share only deals where you pay nothing but share the royalties, be aware that you are likely to get an inexperienced narrator and they may not be able to complete on time or to ACX standards. ACX, or Audiobook Creation Exchange, is Audible's sister site. Standard rates are typically $100 to $400+ PFH depending on experience.

Where do I find a narrator for my audiobook?

You can use dedicated casting hubs such as acx.com. You will need to register with ACX and then you can see the different types of contracts available. You can post a project description and put up an audition or you can browse though the profiles using filters to find voices that will suit your project. Each profile has vocal samples for you to listen to.

Once you get auditions coming in, you may find someone immediately who sounds perfect, but check that the audio is free from background noises. Have a listen to other samples they have available to see if they have a consistent approach and the flexibility to cover the needs of your project. Reading reviews of their work will also help you to see if others like the voice and style as much as you do.

If you are looking to use a different platform to Audible you could use an independent directory like Narrator List. This also has profiles with audio samples, plus you can post auditions there, too.

Another way to find a narrator that you like is to listen to audiobooks. Once you find someone you want to work with you can usually find them through their own website.

Here is some more information from ACX

https://help.acx.com/s/article/find-your-acx-audiobook-narrator

What will you get for your money?

You should be able to work with your chosen narrator to create the characters that you want. One great tip for this is to think of a character from a tv series or a film that fits with the character in your mind, to tell your narrator what to aim for.

The narrator can send you short sections of those characters for you to check that you are happy with her interpretations.

The audiobook narrator these days is also the sound engineer and producer. She will be editing her own recordings and uploading them to ACX or delivering MP3s to you directly. The work that she does is often 5 to 6 times as long as the finished length of the completed audiobook, as I have written about in my previous article What does it involve to record and audiobook