What Exactly IS a Full Time Narrator

And what does booked mean?

INTRODUCTION

Recently I asked a group of narrators to talk about the industry as it is now, and how they’re doing with it. I wanted to get a deeper understanding of who has work, who needs work, and who is leaving the business.

There have been a lot of shifts in the industry, and I’ll talk more about that in an upcoming post.

One thing that became clear in our conversation is that it’s hard to understand where people really are at because there are so many ways to interpret the statement “I’m a full- time narrator and I’m booked.”

Why is that hard to understand?

Because…

Everyone has a different idea of what full-time is, and what is meant when you say booked.

For someone, full-time might mean that audiobooks are their only source of income. But maybe they don’t need much income because they have a partner or retirement. So maybe full-time for them is 10 finished hours a month. Maybe full-time for another narrator is 50 finished hours.

So, what exactly IS full-time?

The same confusion happens with the word ‘booked’. Are you booked and there’s no room in your schedule? Does booked mean one book a month for you or eight?

It's important to understand when we’re looking at the industry as a whole and how much people are working. There’s a wide range here, so I suggest the following language to help us understand these terms.

NARRATION WORK LEVELS

I suggest the following language when talking about narration work for a month of work. The hour ranges listed are for finished hours of recording, punch & roll.

1-9 hours SIDE HUSTLE.

If you’re recording one book a month, that’s not enough to live on. So, you probably do it for fun or extra money. You have less pressure of booking things because you only need a book a month. You may be ‘booked’ for several months or even a year.

10-20 hours PART TIME.

Narration is your part-time gig. Maybe you have a day job, or other side jobs. You narrate at night or early in the morning, or when your kids are at school. The income is needed. You may be scheduled out for several months and need to make choices with which books you record.

21-29 hours ¾ TIME.

You are more than a part time narrator. It’s a significant portion of your income. Some months, you might be closer to part time work, some months, you might be full-time. Usually, you are somewhere in between. Sometimes you’re overbooked; sometimes under-booked.

30-40 hours FULL TIME.

You are a full-time narrator. You spend a significant portion of your time in the booth, prepping, researching, and then back in the booth. Your calendar, when full, is tightly organized. While years ago, you might have had an ease in hitting 40 hours a month, you are perhaps struggling to make that monthly goal of 30-40 hours. You might be considering a side hustle to help offset some of the pressure, but it’s hard to have additional time for it right now.

41 hours and above OVERTIME.

You are in the booth as much as possible. You are working overtime hours, without the benefit of overtime pay. You may be recording a lot of erotica and romance titles. You can record up to 50 to 60 hours a month, but you don’t have weekends, you work long hours, and you’re likely tired. With romance and erotica titles—likely dark romance or dubious content pieces—your schedule is frequently full.

WHAT DOES BOOKED MEAN?

To help with understanding this term, I suggest a slight tweak.

BOOKED means you have at least a book scheduled in that month.

If you say “I’m booked in July,” it means you have a book in July, but you might still have plenty of availability in your schedule.

If you say, “I’m booked until December,” it means you have at least a book every month until December, but again, you probably have availability for more work.

FULLY BOOKED means your schedule is full.

If you are fully booked in August, it means you cannot add any more titles to August, but are open other months.

HOW THIS WORKS

How this works in understanding the industry. If I say I’m a full-time narrator and I am fully booked until September, this means I have 30-40 hours of narration and no room to add more to my schedule.

If I say I’m a part-time narrator and booked until September, this means I have a book in September but can still add another book (or more depending on length) to my schedule.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Knowing how much a narrator is booking a month and what booked actually means matters for a number of reasons.

• It clarifies how much people are or aren’t working.

• It stops needless feelings of “I’m less than”. When you see narrators posting that they’re booked until 2026 you now understand that if they’re a hobbyist who is booked until 2026, they likely have a book a month. This does not necessarily mean they have 5 books a month and no availability. There’s a lot of nuance here. Someone’s ‘booked’ may be your ‘nearly empty calendar’.

• It helps with expectations.

• Understanding the terms and the variance in people’s workloads normalizes the idea that everyone is different.

• It puts the career into sharper focus and gives perspective.

Do I think everyone will use these terms and ranges? Nope. But maybe this is a place to start. Even without using the terms and telling someone you’re part-time ¾ time, or full-time, maybe…

…It helps us all understand that there are all different kinds of narrators with all different kinds of workloads and availability, and we shouldn’t compare our workloads to others. Everyone is different.

THE SUMMARY:

I suggest the following levels for understanding a narrator’s workload:

SIDE HUSTLE: 1-9 Finished hours

PART-TIME: 10-20 finished hours

¾ TIME: 21-30 finished hours

FULL TIME: 31-40 finished hours

OVER TIME: 41 finished hours and above

And the following language for understanding scheduling:

AVAILABLE: I have room in my schedule and can accommodate most requests.

BOOKED: I have a book in that month but still have room in my schedule to add more.

FULLY BOOKED: I have reached my recording limit for that month. I am scheduling in subsequent months but not taking any more work in months that are ‘fully booked’.

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Have a comment? A passionate disagreement? A question you want to ask? Please leave a comment on the blog, or reach out to Tanya directly at tanya at tanyaeby dot com.

Coming next week: a letter from the lake, and discussion of the New Audiobook Frontier (or whatever).

And here’s an older, popular article you may have missed if you want something extra to read:

WHAT NARRATORS CAN DO BETTER

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TANYA EBY is a writer. Check out her writing HERE. Tanya is also a narrator. Check out her website for narration HERE. This weekend she is staying inside in the air conditioning. She’s not really into summer. She likes those cold and rainy days where you can wear sweaters and corduroys and snuggle into your twelve blankets while watching horror movies on TV. Summer scares her, but not in the fun way that 28 Years Later scared her. (Also, that was a really good movie. Go see it. Visually stunning, funny, weird, scary, and disturbing all at once.)