As you work on growing your audiobook narration business, you may be tempted to try to narrate every possible genre and sub-genre. And for some audiobook narrators that works well. They enjoy switching between non-fiction and fiction, from romances to history to self-help to science fiction and so on.
What I’ve found works best for me is exactly the opposite approach. While I like (for my own personal enjoyment) reading well written books in just about every genre, I have specifically chosen to limit my narration work to just non-fiction titles. (Of course that still allows for lots of variety. Biography. History. Self-help. Inspiration. Medical. Science. And loads more sub-genres.)
Now you might think this is a poor decision on my part. After all, there are far more fiction titles published as audiobooks every year than non-fiction. So, why do intentionally I limit my options to 20 percent or less of all the audiobooks published?
For me at least, by limiting my narration focus to a smaller target, I have been able to steadily book work for multiple publishers. Because I’m only willing and available to narrate a limited sub-set of the titles being published, I can occupy a unique spot in the minds of the casting directors of those publishing companies. When a non-fiction title comes along that needs a male narrator with a US English voice and a bass-baritone range, quite a bit of the time I’m going to come to mind, because that’s the only spot I occupy.
Honestly, missing out on all of the other work doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I have chosen to sharpen my focus on exactly what I love to narrate, so I know that pretty much every title that I’m offered is going to be something I will love working on. And I know from experience that I don’t enjoy working on fiction near as much as I do non-fiction.
This plan may or may work equally well (or even better?) for you; because some of how well things will go depends on being able to deliver the performance the publisher is looking for. You also need to do some basic things like meet deadlines, deliver clean unprocessed audio and follow directions. Stuff that you need to do for any publisher in any genre.
I hope you find the path you’re taking in the audiobook world is one you enjoy as much as I enjoy the one I’m on!
Interesting thoughts Bob. Fiction had always come to mind whenever I thought of narrating books but I find that the first five I have done are all non-fiction. I wrote a children’s book a long time ago which I need to narrate sometime so we’ll see how I go with that. 🤔
Bob, narrowing your focus sounds like a good strategy. I am wondering since print publishing is down, what effect that has had on your business. Have some audio genre sales grown? Do you have the flexibility to switch focus as needed? Helpful piece.
Thank you for the kind comments, Jim. My work hasn’t changed much during this pandemic. I was all ready working from home and most of my contact with the publishers is through is via email or phone calls. I focus only on non-fiction titles, so I don’t shift around much except within that broad category. Sales of audiobooks are growing rapidly and that has not slowed down during this time.