Best Practice for Audiobook Auditioning

With all the changes in the industry, how do you compete?

OVERVIEW

I’ve been chatting with a lot of narrators about the changes we’re experiencing to scheduling. Many of us now are facing empty slots in our calendars. It’s scary.

Panicking is easy, but it’s not practical.

So. Okay. Things are shifting, maybe, and those scary holes in the schedule are looming. When an audition comes your way, what do you do to make sure you get the gig?

I’ve been thinking about this A LOT and I will be honest with you: I have not ‘won’ an audition in a while. I’ve had a lot of chances, and nothing has clicked.

I’ve tried all the things:

I’ve tried the Conversational Read—pulling back on emotion and playing it as real as possible.

I’ve tried the Emotive Read—leaning into the drama, slowing down, and letting the piece evolve.

I’ve tried the Give The Author What They Want Read—analyzing any notes I receive from casting and trying to channel the Hollywood actor the author envisions, incorporate the conversational/witty/sardonic/real/butSexy tone the author wants.

I have even tried Sacrificing Chicken to the Gods of Casting to HIRE ME FOR FUCK’S SAKE. (To be fair, it was a chicken sandwich from a fastfood place, and I don’t like those anyway.)

Nothing is working.

I’m not getting cast.

WHY?

Here’s what I realized this morning: I have been trying on audition costumes, and I’m not getting the gigs. You know what I’ve forgotten? What I haven’t been doing? I haven’t been wearing my own clothes.

I haven’t been following the Best Practice for Audiobook Auditioning.

WHAT IS THE BEST PRACTICE FOR AUDIOBOOK AUDITIONING

The best practice is…drum roll…

Be yourself. Be who you are. Be the performer you are.

Read the piece like you $&#@ing want to read it.

That’s what I’ve forgotten. I’ve forgotten to be me.

No one, not even an AI cloned version on my voice, can be me.

So the golden rule is: Audition like Tanya would!

Just kidding.

The golden rule is: Be your authentic self.

Set aside all the thoughts from your inner micromanager-with-the-bad-haircut of what you should and shouldn’t do and just read the piece, perform the piece, in a way that feels right to you. Just perform the damn piece.

I’m getting mad here. Not at you. You are lovely. I’m mad at myself.

The truth is, an author doesn’t really know exactly what they want until they hear it. (I speak from experience.) They can tell you what they think they want, but they won’t really know until they know. You can’t control what they want. You can only give them what you have. You can only give them who you are as a performer.

Casting can guide you, but they’re limited by what the publisher or the author wants, and they don’t fully know either.

I want to give everyone the golden key to unlocking unlimited gigs if you do ‘just this one thing’, but the ‘just this one thing’ doesn’t exist. It’s always shifting. That’s the infuriating part of this, and also, sorta the wonderful thing.

I’m trying not to get discouraged. I know I’m a good performer. Some people will like me and some people will think I’m the worst narrator on the planet (and then comment on Audible just so everyone knows.) I can’t control any of that.

What I can control is my state of mind when I enter the booth. My breathing. My pronunciation. My character voices. My choices. My tone. My pace. My heart.

I can control that.

SUMMARY

Remember, only you can be you.

So, be that. Do that. Be YOU.

And keep auditioning. Audition openly and warmly, gratefully and hopefully. Ride the storm out.

Even if you only get 10% of the gigs you audition for, that’s still 10% more than you have now.

Now. If anyone in casting would like to send me 1,000 auditions so I can put 100 books on my calendar, I would be most grateful. (I think that math is right.) I will try, next time, to stop doing fancy footwork, and just read the piece as I want to. I will be authentic. I’ll give the piece my all in my own unique way.

May you, also, approach the mic authentically. May you get the auditions you need and the gigs you deserve.

Keep at it.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TANYA EBY is a bold narrator and writer. She loves narrating across genres from nonfiction, to classics, to romance and erotica, to thrillers and true crime, to…whatever. Some people dig her work. Others feel nauseous when they listen to her. She ignores those people. Right now, she is sitting in her kitchen typing this while drinking ice water and dreaming of fall. She is not a summer person. That is an authentic truth about her.