Friendship Camp

Here is a short nonfiction story. This was originally published in Midwestern Gothic, and is an excerpt from my (unpublished) memoir. I thought instead of posting it in the usual written way, I'd post my little narration of it. As always, thanks for reading...and for listening. https://soundcloud.com/tanyaeby-narrator/friendship-camp

Big Giveaway

I have to say that being a narrator is a pretty kick ass job. Sometimes literally. Or at least literally kick-ass in the stories I get to read. Sometimes I’m catching criminals, sometimes I’m falling in love, and I get lucky over and over and over again in various degrees of detail. Oh, how I love my job.

June is audiobook month AND it’s also the month where I have a birthday. My birthday is June 30^th . This day is important because, in days of old, most coupons expire on June 30^th. I don’t know why, but it’s true. AND this June 30^th is a big birthday for me. The big FORTY. Which means any time I leave the house wearing tight pants and sequins, people will look at me and think “Huh. There goes a cougar”.

In honor of all that, I’m giving away some of my promo copies for some of the favorite things I’ve narrated. These are MP3 discs so you get the whole book (5-14 hours usually) all on one disc, which you can then put in your computer and transfer to your iPod or phone or whatever.

That’s right. IT’S A GIVEAWAY. All you have to do is comment below. On this blog only. No Facebook or Twitter comments, so we all know it’s fair. Also, when you comment, you type in your email so I’ll have a way to get in contact with you. Your email isn't visible to anyone and I won't share it. After the contest, it all gets deleted. You won’t be put on any mailing list or anything. I’m too lazy for that. If you have a preference for a book or if you like mystery better than romance or vice versa, let me know.

On my birthday, I’ll choose winners of the books.

1. Last To Die A Rizzoli and Isles novel by Tess Gerritsen. How lucky am I that I took over this series around book 7? I love these women, and the men they work with and love. This series is a mystery and has great depth of character and emotion. Fingers crossed I’ll get to narrate more of these. I’m really proud of my work with them. [soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/97284042" params="color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true" width=" 100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
2. A Perfect Evil by Alex Kava. I took over this series in the later books, but then recorded some backlist titles. Here we meet the troubled Maggie O’Dell and her partner Tully. Hard-edged murder mystery with dark killers. Again, love love love this series.[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/97284040" params="" width=" 100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
3. Married by Monday by Catherine Bybee. Fun romance series, perfect for the summer. Lots of fun characters.[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/97284043" params="color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true" width=" 100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
4. Summer Nights by Susan Mallery. A Fool’s Gold romance. I was lucky to get cast with this series from book one and have been able to grow (along with the stories and the characters). Each book stands alone, but together you get a sense of the town. This book has two of my favorite female characters: Annabelle Weiss and Charlie.[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/97284047" params="" width=" 100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
5. Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas. Romance but with a hint of magic. Her work reminds me a lot of Alice Hoffman and I LOVE Alice Hoffman.[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/97284045" params="" width=" 100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

Runners up will get copies to one of my own quirky rom-coms.

Good luck and happy listening, and happy me, almost officially a cougar. Prrrrr.

What You Might Not Know About Narrators And Audiobooks

This morning I went to Audible.com to refill my iPod so I could listen to another audiobook. I’ve always loved audiobooks, even before I started narrating. I love being told a story. My favorites are mysteries…because I think the heavy plot and action lends itself well to a good listen.

I made a little mistake though….I clicked on some of my own books to see what people thought. I’m constantly trying to get better as a narrator, and I’ve certainly improved over the years. In the beginning, I tried to sound like a man with the male characters, but eventually dropped that for more subtle reads. When I listen to an audiobook, for me, I don’t expect the narrator to sound like the opposite sex. For me, it’s about characterization. How does a character speak? Are they fast, slow, do they upspeak, are they breathy, are they kind? And if you listen to people, really listen to them, there’s a whole range of voices. Women don’t always speak high. Men don’t always speak low. Anyway, for one reviewer in particular, this was the worst choice ever.

Most of the books I’ve narrated are rated around 4 out of 5 stars. It’s hard to know what they’re rating. Are they rating strictly the storyline or the narrator’s performance, and how do you separate the two?

Anyway. This one reviewer listened to a series I recorded and book after book said I was horrible, paused in weird places, and my male characters were too feminine sounding. She was venomous in her review. And, you know, it did hurt my feelings a bit. I also felt terrible for the writer. Had I failed her? Did she wish I hadn’t narrated her book? It also made me question my choices as a narrator. I’ve certainly made some missteps…but am I the worst narrator out there? I’m not the best, I know that. I know that my voice is well-suited for fiction with strong women characters. I do well with romances and mysteries.

I’m not going to defend myself. I’ll just keep trying to improve. But the comments did hit a sore spot. All of this got me thinking about the industry, and some of the reviews criticized things that are beyond a narrator’s control. So…here are some things you might not know about narrating. This is my experience, and might not be true for everyone, but here it is.

1) Narrators are not allowed to contact the author. I wish this weren’t so. I’d love to talk to the author and ask them what they want. I’d even try some voices for them for characterization, but I’m strictly forbidden to contact them. The most I can do is send them a tweet or reply on their website…and even that could get me in trouble. Directors can sometimes talk to the author, but rarely.

2) Some reviewers hate women who try to sound like men. Others hate it when women don’t sound enough like men. What’s a narrator to do?

3) Narrating is incredibly difficult. I have people coming up to me all the time saying “I should be a narrator. I read to my kids all the time.” I smile. I nod. Maybe they would be great…but…you have to read, interpret, perform, do characterizations, accents, differentiate between sexes, sometimes read foreign phrases, and read every single word as written all while making as few mistakes as possible. It all comes down to time and money. Read this paragraph aloud. Cold. Try to not take breaths between commas or periods. Try not to make a single mistake.

4) I get usually three days to record a book. There isn’t time to practice and finesse. You read and hope it’s good. If you make too many mistakes and they have to add a day to record, you probably won’t be hired again.

5) I prep all the books I record, but sometimes I’m only given a script a few days in advance. Most of the times, this is because of issues from the publisher. Everyone’s got a deadline and when one person is late, it affects everyone in line.

6) The director decides if a word is pronounced correctly. I’ve had many discussions and debates over words and names with directors. You’d be surprised how different a word sounds with a different accent on just a syllable. I have to defer to the director. Sometimes they want me to say foreign phrases with the right accent. I feel ridiculous doing it, but they want it right. Authentic. I’ve been slammed for narrating a book in an accent. I didn’t want to do it. The director insisted I do it. I did it. The fans of the book and the author hated that it was read in an accent. The blame fell on me. I was never hired for that author again, and lost three years of work because of it.

7) People rarely review products they love. They might give it stars, but they don’t write a review. If people hate a book, they’ll send venomous reviews. Reviews matter. Bad reviews matter more. I guess this is good because as a listener you have a lot of power. But a series of bad reviews can get a narrator fired. For real.

8 ) I put my heart and soul into every recording I do whether I personally love the book or not. I love the sound of words aloud. I love getting lost in characters. I love telling stories. It’s why I’m also a writer.

I guess this has turned into a little bit of a defense on my behalf. Maybe it’s because it plays on that whole “I’m not good enough” thing I have sometimes. So, I am taking these reviews to heart…but just in the sense that I’m trying to get better. The more reviews I read, the more it seems like the pendulum is swinging back to people preferring big differences between male and female characters. I’ll try it. We’ll see what happens.

If you’ve actually read this really long blog (sorry about that) I hope, if anything, it makes you think a little more about the business of producing an audiobook and what goes into it. By all means, post reviews and be critical. There’s a difference though between critical and hurtful.

I’m going to go post some positive, supportive reviews of books I’ve read and listened too. Got to cleanse the palate.

How To Get Into Voice Work

I’ve had a lot of questions lately from friends and even people I don’t know asking about voice-overs. I think I’ve written about this before, but figure it’s worth revisiting. I’ve been doing voice work for fifteen years. (I started in college to make extra money.) I’d always wanted to record things, and I had a college boyfriend who was recording commercials. He took me to Sound Post Studios in Grand Rapids. I wrote and recorded a demo…showing off different kinds of reads. At the time, my voice was pretty green. Basically, I could play a young kid, a depressed teenager, and a college student. After I recorded the demo, I was lucky to get hired.

The first commercial I ever recorded was for a restaurant. I think Finley’s. I totally bombed on the take. I couldn’t do it. I was sweating, nervous, and so bad that the art director said he was very sorry but couldn’t use me. I went home crying. After I got it together, I called the studio and begged for a second chance. I drove back, recorded the commercial, and they used it. And the client kept calling me back.

Fifteen years later, I’m still recording and have moved on to audio books. My voice is different now. Some of it is age, and some of it is developing my lower register. My speaking voice is naturally high, sort of Soprano-like (as in singing, not as in mobster). My recording voice dips into the alto range. I’ve practiced all kinds of reads. Sounding sexy, sounding smart, sounding bored, intelligent, excited, young, old, married with kids, single and looking. And I’ve had to develop accents and try to sound like a man, or at least suggest a man when reading a novel. You’d be surprised what you can suggest with just the tone of voice. And now I do character work with audio books.

But how do you bust into the business? How do you get into audio-books?

I’ll be honest. It’s not easy, especially now. When I started, the Internet was just taking off. Now everything is digital and you can have voices from all over the nation competing for a local coffee commercial.

If you want to get started, you’ll need to do a few things:

1) Practice reading out loud.

Seriously. You’ll need to be good at dry reads. That means you don’t get rehearsals with commercials. You get the copy and you perform. So start by practicing. Read aloud. Anything. Everything. From magazines to books. Try to give the words emotion and feeling. And try not to stumble.

2) Record a demo.

You won’t get work without one. Yes. You can record one on your own, but you’ll get a better product if you record one in a studio. Your demo should highlight your voice. Start with commercial voices, then move on to industrial narration. You can also do a demo of character voices, but these don’t get as much work as a commercial demo. Each demo should be about 1-2 minutes long, with voice samples in 10 second clips.

01 Tanya Eby Narration Voice Demo

3) If you want to do audio books, you’ll need a demo of that.

Pick several different types of books to read: mystery, romance, classic, young adult. Read it well and with emotion. Choose a scene that is mostly dialogue between a man and a woman. Whatever you do, do not read “Harry Potter”! You’ll be instantly compared to Jim Dale and there’s no way you can compete. Seriously. I can’t compete either. Jim Dale’s narration is brilliant.

1 Minute Audio Book Demo

4) Send your demo to local recording studios.

You can also post online at Voice 123 or other audio places. Research audio book distributers and find out how to contact them.

01 Tanya Eby Character Voice Demoe V01

5) Make a wish, but don’t hold your breath.

People think that voice over work is easy. It isn’t. It is fun, but there’s a lot of work behind the scenes. You need to be really bright and in tune with written copy. You need confidence and acting ability. You need to be able to read aloud while your eye skims a little ahead looking for hints to inflection. You need to get good at reading without stumbling.

It’s also physically exhausting. When I read an audio book, I narrate from 8:30 until about 4:30. I have to be perfectly still. Keep your body still for almost eight hours. Control your breathing, your stomach gurgles. Do it for three days or five for a longer book. It’s tough. Your body will hurt.

There’s no magic code for busting into the industry. It takes talent and a good helping of luck. But like any entertainment industry, you can’t bust in without a sample of your work. So start there.

And good luck! Really! If you can get hired, you’ll find the work is fun, creative, and quirky.

Let me know if you have questions. I’ll try to answer them for you here.

The Conclusion to Easy Does It (podcast)

Here it is. The final installment of "Easy Does It". If you've listened to the whole book, thank you. Let me know what you think. I did this all for free for people to enjoy...simply because I want to share my work. If you do like it and enjoyed listening, please pass this website and my work on to a friend. The whole book is available through iTunes as podcasts. So. All I ask is for comments and/or tell a friend. I'll keep writing. Hopefully, you'll keep reading and listening. Thanks. Really. Thanks for listening.

Best,

Tanya

CLICK BELOW

The Conclusion to Easy Does It

Easy Does It Podcast 66 and 67

Only three more episodes of "Easy Does It" and then it's done!! Wow. A whole novel through podcast. Listening? Like it? Let me know.

And now...click below for the latest installment:

Easy Does It CH 66 and 67

EDI podcast 60 through 62

CLICK HERE For \"Easy Does It\" CH 60 through 62

EDI 57 - 59 Podcast

Hi there. Sorry for the delay in posting this. I was a little distracted. Here's the next episode of "Easy Does It". Now, for my shameless plea. If you're listening to this and enjoying it....don't you think there's someone in your life who might apreciate the book as a holiday gift? Hmmm? There's still time to order it from Amazon for the holiday season. What better present than laughter? (Shameless plea ends).

CLICK HERE for \"Easy Does It\" CH 57 through 59

The Ada Witch (radio play/ghost story)

And now...the fully produced story of The Ada Witch. Written by Tanya Eby, produced by Sound Post, starring: Amy McFadden, Ralph Lister, Greg Rogers and Laural Merlington. Let us know what you think and leave a comment.

The Ada Witch by Tanya Eby

Podcast East Does It 53 through 56

The saga continues. Click on the title below.

AND if you really like listening to this, maybe a FRIEND of your would like the REAL BOOK for a CHRISTMAS PRESENT. I'm just saying. (You can get it on Amazon.com by searching for Tanya Eby.)

Easy Does It CH 53 through 56

Pierced Hearts Radio Play

And now...the full recording of PIERCED HEARTS written by Keeley Geary and Tanya Eby, recorded and mixed (with original music) at Sound Post in Grand Rapids, Michigan and starring:

Tanya Eby as Trixie, Keeley Geary as Nurse Darla, Todd Lewis as Dr. Pierce, Laural Merlington as Mrs. Hathaway, Noddea Moore as the Woman in the Cafeteria, Greg Rogers as Mr. Corn and Calin Skidmore as the Narrator and Little Timmy.

Click on the title below to listen to the full recording:

Pierced Hearts: On Life, Love and Kidneys

Podcast Easy Does It 47 through 50

Entering PART TWO of "Easy Does It". What is Julie thinking? Why is Eve dressed as Catwoman? What's going to happen to poor Dan the Man? Listen:

EDI Chapters 47 through 50

Podcast EDI CH 46

The last chapter of Part One. Hey...subtle hint...if you're listening to this and you like it, consider buying a copy for a friend or a sister or a mom. Seriously. It's a good gift, and it shows that you support my work. Just look for it on Amazon. And "Blunder Woman" is waiting for you in the summer. Thanks for listening!

Easy Does It CH 46

Full Radio Play

Now that I know how to do longer podcasts, I can post FULL recordings. Here's "Hot Summer Cool Breeze". I'll repost here so it will also be available on iTunes.

Hot Summer Cool Breeze Full Recording

Podcast EDI 42-45

In this segment, everybody thinks about everybody else...and we meet Ronny the Rocker...again.

EDI Chapters 42 through 45

Podcast EDI 38-41

Oh, man...so much happens here I can't even tell you. I really can't, because I don't remember and I don't have the book with me to check, but clearly SOMETHING happens because I have twelve minutes here of recorded material. There ya go.

EDI Chapters 38 through 41

Podcast EDI CH 34-37

Easy Does It CH 34 through 37

Podcast EDI 32 & 33

Did I do it? Did I? If you are able to play this, then miracle of miracles, (with TM's help) I've figured out how to post longer podcasts. Let me know. Yay!!!

EDI Ch 32 & 33

Podcast EDI CH 31

Easy Does It CH 31

Rex Alter Episode 2

In episode one, we met Rex Alter, son of the Prime Minister who's an upstart in a star fleet. When The Aura is attacked by The Shadow Master, a nefarious soul-sucker, Rex and a crew of misfits escape. Along with him is Julie Tittle, a woman he has a past with, and his alien cohorts: Drippy, Piku, and the amazing Simmy Pippins. In this episode, Rex and Drippy must save their ship from certain destruction while the Shadow Master continues to plot.

CLICK BELOW:

Rex Alter Episode 2: Drippy & The Great Escape