Ever wondered what it’s like to narrate an audiobook?
Anyone who knows my audiobook-listening habits knows that I’m incredibly picky when it comes to narration styles. Maybe this comes from being a bookworm and hoping that the characters I picture in my head are voiced a particular way. Maybe it’s because I took theatre for six years and hope for a decent acting job no matter the outlet. I’m not entirely sure the reason, but I have always wondered what it actually takes to be a voice actor and audiobook narrator. It seems like such a unique and fun career!
A few months back, I tweeted about how I was listening to A Song of Wraiths and Ruin, and you can imagine my surprise when one of the narrators, A.J. Beckles, replied to my tweet (it turns out he narrated Early Departures as well). I was really excited because I loved how he narrated the book’s character. We got to chatting and I asked if he’d be willing to answer some of me and my fellow audiobook-listeners’ biggest questions about his profession. Now I get to share the inside scoop with all of you!
Here’s what I chatted about with voice actor, A.J. Beckles. It was so fun learning more about this career from his perspective.
Q: How did you get into voice acting?
A: The funny thing about voiceovers is everyone you ask this question will give you a different answer. So my brother one day (my junior year of high school) asked me if it was something I’d be interested in trying and I was going to say no because I had no clue what voiceover was but I was at a point in my life where college was coming up and I had nooo idea what I wanted to do with my life after I figured out I wasn’t going to be 6ft and in the NBA. I agreed to try after he explained that I could earn easy money and all I have to do is talk (I wish it was that easy lol). I then proceeded to fall in love. It was the first thing I ever tried where I started off feeling like I was really good, and to be honest it felt natural. I started researching like crazy and since I had no acting experience, YouTube was how I learned. From there I started auditioning on “behindthevoiceactors.com” and got cast a couple of times early on. I haven’t stopped and don’t plan on it any time soon
Q: How does audiobook narration differ from other styles of voice acting?
A: Cold reading is super important in general. Since voice actors usually get scripts only a bit ahead of time, it’s hard to make strong acting decisions like our live-action/theatre counterparts (not impossible of course but it’s harder for sure and you can only use your voice to convey emotion). More so with audiobooks actually. Luckily with audiobooks, you tend to get the scripts a month or so in advance of the actual recording so you can still prep it so you know what’s happening in the most important parts but audiobooks tend to be a big challenge in their own right. It is the same as most voice-overs in that you can prep slightly, BUT there’s a lot more text to go through. For a video game or anime, you have 60 lines MAYBE in a 4-hour session. In order to finish an audiobook in time, you have to read 25k words in the same time frame while making minimal mistakes. SO your cold reading skills have to be great, while also making sure your acting doesn’t dip in quality towards the last hour or so when you’re exhausted, your eyes are tired, and your focus begins to falter. It’s really tough work but great training for all other kinds of voice acting.
Q: Do you typically read the book before you dive into narration?
A: I don’t always have time to read the book completely but I do skim through important parts and write notes so I’m not completely lost while I’m reading because if I don’t that just makes a breeding ground for mistakes during recording sessions and people don’t really have the time to deal with that.
Q: What has been your favorite voice acting experience so far?
A: I did my first anime audition ever recently and it was for my favorite anime of all time so I was elated. Anime is my dream so I hope next year I get to audition more for that sort of thing.
Q: How long does it take for your voice to get tired? And along with that question, is there anything you do to prevent vocal exhaustion?
A: If I’m not screaming, it really does take a lot. For audiobooks usually around the 3-hour mark but it’s more-so me losing focus than losing my voice. I did, however, scream a couple of weeks ago because I got really excited about what I was doing and I still haven’t gotten it back fully -lesson absolutely learned. I’d say a tip for preventing vocal exhaustion is just to listen to your body. I knew my voice was spent but I just kept pushing it. DON’T DO THAT. Give yourself a break, drink plenty of fluids, sleep, and always tell someone if you can’t continue. You don’t want to risk your career to impress someone.
Q: Is there any advice you’d offer to someone wanting to pursue voice acting as a career?
A: This is my first time being asked this question. Surreal thinking that when I started I was asking the same question to the people I admired:
1) BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF. Is this something you want to do as a hobby or for fun? That’s completely fine, we all need outlets. But if you decide you want it to be your career then you have to have a professional mindset. The rejection ratios are very high for this kind of work/for acting in general. Steve Blum has said once that a good year for him is him booking 30% of his auditions and that’s auditioning only for things that are good for his voice. If you have the tenacity and the drive to succeed in this career then you WILL succeed, and the community will help you do it. Just don’t give up.
2) If you’re not booking ANYTHING, not just big stuff but fan projects or indie stuff, there’s probably something you could do better. Whether that be acting-wise or auditioning-wise, take classes if you have reached your limit learning by yourself. Think of it as an investment. That being said, do everything in your power to learn by yourself, because you won’t always have the money or the friends, in the beginning, to be able to help you. Record your voice and try to find out why your acting is more off than Tom Kenny’s, go and learn everything you can about voiceover from sources like VO Buzz Weekly, Voice Acting Mastery Podcast, and iwanttobeavoiceactor.com. Look up how to breathe from your diaphragm, the difference between emphasis and intonation. Literally, do everything in your power to improve, and THEN find a teacher/coach that you can trust. Also, join the Voice Acting Club Discord, it is THE BEST source on voiceover on the internet. Pros and new people alike are a part of the community.
Q: If you could narrate any character from any book, who would it be?
A: Brian Robeson from “Hatchet”! It was my first audiobook that I can remember from 5th grade and it’s my favorite book of all time! I love Hatchet.
Q: Anything you’re working on right now that you wanna hype up? (That you’re allowed to talk about)
A: Nothing that I can talk about right now! But I have 2 more audiobooks that will be coming out in the coming months that I’ll be announcing at some point on my Twitter: @ajbecklesvo
Q: And just for fun: favorite snack to get at the movies?
A: I LOVE CHEESE FRIES and the blue slushies are always wicked good.
related posts
October Reading Wrap-Up // Book Review: Early Departures // 15 Audiobooks I Love
Massive thanks to A.J. Beckles for providing this insight on how to narrate an audiobook and what it takes to be a voice actor!
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That is SO awesome! I’ve done live theater and dramatic readings and such. I’ve always wanted to do voice acting, but I think an audiobook would be so hard. And take forever, lol. I love this glimpse into it. So fun that he responded to your tweet!! <3
That’s so cool that he responded to your tweet and that you could do this Q & A with him! Voice overs sound harder than it seems and I bet can be tiring but so fun!
Xo, Steph
I loved reading this! It’s so interesting to hear the perspective of a narrator and how they got into that role xx
http://www.dellalovesnutella.co.uk/
Wow what an amazing read and interview! I loved reading about what it takes to be a voice over and what happens when you narrate an audiobook! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Wow, how amazing. I’ve never know anyone that does voice narration. I bet the anime was so fun. Thanks for sharing this.
Wow, how incredible that he answered your tweet and so kind of him to donate his time to talk to you!! That definitely says something about his character. Also, I learned so much about voice acting that I never would have thought!
http://www.rdsobsessions.com
This is so interesting! I’ve always wondered about voice acting – Im going to send this post to someone who i think would make a great voice actor and see if i can convince them to start learning!
This is such a cool post! I’ve always been curious about how audiobooks are made. Thanks for sharing!
this was such a fun read! John’s godfather is an actor and does a ton of audiobooks and when I found out I had so many of the same questions you asked here! Thanks for sharing, as always.
xx rebecca // thecrystalpress.com
This was such an interesting article to read! I would love to be a voice actor! How much fun would that be?!
This is so interesting! I love audiobooks and I find it so fascinating the people who narrate them.
Wow this is so cool!! So nice of him to do an interview. Very interesting to hear about the experience. Sounds so neat !
Lizzie
http://Www.lizzieinlace.com
What a great Q&A. I found it reallt interesting to find out a bit more about behind the scenes and how you get started in that kind of career. I agree the voice on an audio book can really decide if you love a book or not.
I’ve never stopped to think about audio book readings as opposed to, say, radio acting. This was such an interesting read – and so brilliant that he reached out to you. Great post, thank you!
What an interesting interview! I must admit, it’s not something I’ve thought about before but as soon as I saw the title I was curious. And I had no idea cold reading was a thing but it makes so much sense! Great post.
Anika | chaptersofmay.com
How interesting! Especially since I am more likely to listen to an audiobook than picking up a read these days, lol.
This is such an interesting post! I’ve never thought about this honestly, but my boyfriend used to do acting and I always thought it was so cool. Loved reading this! Xx.
Omg. This was SO interesting! I never though about the people behind an audiobook. It sounds like a super competitive industry but so fun at the same time!
This was such an insightful and interesting interview! I love being able to see it from the voice actor’s perspective. Some of this never even occurred to me while listening to my favorite audiobooks. It seems like such a cool profession to have and if I were a voice actor, anime would be my dream job too! Lol!
This was really interesting, because I would love to be a voice actress. I have a friend that records for auidobooks and he loves it! I think it would be a great career for sure.
This was such an interesting interview to read! I’ve always wondered about the voice actors behind my favorite books! I am definitely one of those people who have favorite voice actors too (like Bahni Turpin is one of my favorites!) I’ll have to check out AJ’s work – I am on the waitlist for the audiobook version of Early Departure so I am sure I’ll be hearing him soon!
This is so cool! Thanks for sharing. We never considered what it’s like to be an audiobook narrator.
Wow this is all so interesting! So cool hearing things from the narrator’s perspective.
I always wondered who the people behind some of these audio books were. Such a fun blog post!
xoxo,
Kim
Oh my gosh, this is the coolest interview I’ve ever read! I just think audiobook or anime voice acting would be a dream job! What an incredible experience! Thank you so much for sharing this interview with us!
I like how you got to this blog with him on a random response. It was a great read. Thank you for sharing his perspective on things that we may not think about in terms of work. Voice narrating definitely sounds harder than it sounds. (funny pun here) thank you for sharing this with all of us!
What a cool interview!! I have always been curious about voice acting and it’s definitely a lot harder than we think it is! I also love his movie theater snack LOL!
This is such a cool blog post! I’ve always wanted to try out audio books!
Such a fun read. I need to listen to more audiobooks!