Advice to Contestants FAQ

Hi, everyone, Scott here. I wanted to share a couple things with you, whether you entered my contest or you’re stopping by because you’re interested in a career in the audiobook field.

For you contestants, because the number of judges has doubled during the contest, your work has been exposed to twice as many casting people. That’ll come in very handy when you start sending out your demo. You should include an introductory letter, saying something like, “Hi, you might remember me as an entrant in the SHARE THE EXPERIENCE contest, hope you enjoyed what you heard, please take a listen to these new tracks” or something along those lines.

I’ve always pointed people to my blog of January 2009 on how to craft an audiobook demo to help them along on their next step toward breaking into narration. But I’ve decided this isn’t enough.

The blog has a bunch of basic information on how to achieve your goal, but I’ve augmented that information below with a lot more specifics about how you can proceed. It’s essentially a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list, compiled from actual questions sent to me by participants and others looking to break into the industry. They all address how to continue your efforts to get into audiobook narration. I hope it helps.

Best of luck with all your efforts at breaking into audiobook narration in the future. Narrating books is a great experience, and I hope that at some point each and every one of you will be able to share in it.

Thanks for listening,

Scott

Frequently Asked Questions

I didn’t make the finals of your Share the Experience contest, so should I give up on trying to get into narration?

By no means. There are always opportunities to break in, and if this is a passion of yours, you should pursue it. Just make sure that you’re being as proactive as possible: creating the best demo you can, sending out copies of your demo to receptive publishers, and practicing your craft in your downtime.

If I didn’t make the finals, how am I supposed to break in?

I’ll refer you to the blog I wrote in January of ’09. It contains information on how to make a demo, where to send it, and what you can do in the meantime. And if you’re thinking of taking classes to help you get closer to becoming a narrator, there are also instructional courses listed at the bottom of this email.

Should I use the track I submitted to your Share the Experience contest on my demo?

If you think it best represents you and your abilities, by all means. Except if you used music or sound effects on your submission, in which case I’ll refer you to the next question.

Should I add music or sound effects to any of my demo tracks?

Under no circumstances. There are a few publishers out there who still use music in audiobooks, but not that many, and when they do use it, it’s for intro/outro purposes only: at the beginning and end of a disc, never throughout. Unfortunately, many of our contest entries had music over their entire reading, several minutes’ worth, and all that did was obscure their ability to tell a story. I can’t suggest this strongly enough: do not use music or sound effects on your demo. Ever.

But what if I really like music and sound effects…? The audiobooks I really enjoy listening to are the ones with music and sound, so shouldn’t I have them, then, to show that I’m good at making that particular kind of book?

Sigh…It’s up to you, in the final analysis. But trust me, it’ll alienate whoever listens to your demo.

Can those of us who didn’t make the finals in the Share the Experience contest get any feedback on our contest entries? Learning what we did right or wrong will help us make a better demo.

The answer is yes, you can get feedback — but not from anyone associated with the contest, sorry. If you thought it took a long time to get all the demos listened to, imagine how long it would take if the judges had to write down their impressions of each one — you’d still be waiting years from now.

There are, however, places you can go to have your demo professionally assessed for a fee. It’s a service I provide, but I’ll recuse myself here; I didn’t do this contest to make money, and wouldn’t feel right about charging for anything associated with it. But Pat Fraley does professional assessments (you can click here to go to his website) and I trust his take on things implicitly.