My Story Begins....

Well, if we're being honest this story started a while ago now, January of 2017 to be exact ;) At least, that's when I accepted my first contract through ACX. That's something interesting about this career. So many firsts. So many milestones. Started my ACX account in January, sold my first audiobook in March, landed my first big title in May. The list goes on. It seems like there is always another marker on the map to aim for, and I love that about what I do. The next goal? Becoming an "Audible Approved Producer." It means very little. For the most part it's a vanity title, but it's a goal. A small one that is just one more thing to check off on my list of "things to do to make you feel more like a big time professional narrator." Anyway, rambling aside, I've decided to take a unique approach to the world of narration and I think it might be interesting to share some of the successes, difficulties and general thoughts on the process here. One time disclaimer: I am an individual. My thoughts are my own and the opinions and viewpoints I share here are not meant to be taken as sage career advice. I am very much still learning and do NOT claim to have knowledge or experience enough to give guidance to anyone. This is simply a place for me to share my story and possibly offer some encouragement to the people who have chosen to walk a similar road :) General knowledge and practice holds that female main characters are voiced by women and males by men when it comes to audiobooks. When I first started narrating, I searched the listings on ACX for hours looking for a title that had potential, that wasn't romance, erotica, or a non-fiction parenting book that was also looking for a female narrator (Side note: all three of those genres are highly desirable and profitable, they just weren't my preference to work in exclusively). I searched and searched. I loosened my query filters, took away keywords and unchecked boxes until I was looking at basically every offering available. I was looking for something I would read. I wanted to to do fantasy, adventure, action, scifi, litrpg! I'm a gamer. Of course I wanted to narrate Gamelit and LitRPG. I wanted to narrate the kinds of books I listen to; books that - unrealized by me - have a much higher quantity of male main characters than females. So, I made a choice. After talking to my husband as well as my good friend William D. Arrand, I decided to just audition for the books I wanted to do, regardless of the main character's gender or the authors listed gender preference. The worst they could say was no, right? Right. So, that's what I have done and continue to do. I'm an actor, so I act :) Now, there are limits obviously. First person titles with a male main character can be dicey depending on how masculine the narrative voice of the story is, so I read a lot of things in advance to make sure it would work for me to voice it ;) But as a rule, I don't let the main character's gender dictate if I should audition/perform the title, I let the story dictate it instead. So, the point is (if I have one lol) that my path is a little different, not unheard of, but just different enough that it might be worth the occasional post on a blog that no one will ever see right? :D We shall see ;)