This rate does not include studio rental time or editing. I’ve been an audiobook narrator for about three years now and the answer is.it depends.Ĭurrent ACTRA rates have artists at a minimum of $266 Per Finished Hour (PFH). We would love to hear from listeners, too! Even though I wrote it I got caught up in the story as if coming across it for the first time.” That kind of feedback is part of what keeps us going. I couldn't imagine it sounding any better. The voices were perfect and the chapters seemed to burst with life. My latest release is a paranormal fantasy by Best-Selling author Tim O’Rourke, “Doorways: A Book of Vampires, Werewolves, and Black Magic.” After listening to the audiobook, the author said, “You really brought the characters to life – it really was amazing. I currently have 18 titles available on and a few more in the works. While I have been in the performing arts most of my life, I have only been narrating books for less than a year. The feedback from listeners, and from our authors helps to feed our souls. But we also enjoy the process and the creative outlet. Yes, we need to eat and strive to get paid a decent amount for our work. Why then do we do it? Like some other narrators have responded, we have a passion for the work. And most do not do it as a full-time job. So except for some stars and a small percentage of the top working narrators, most narrators do not make a lot of money at this. AND, we also have to spend a lot of unpaid time looking for work - promoting our services, and auditioning for books. Besides meaning that work is irregular, it also means we have to pay our own taxes (including double the social security tax as compared to an employee), and receive no benefits (no sick pay, vacation pay, health insurance, workman’s comp, or any other benefits). Plus, narrators are generally freelance workers. So narrator/producers can spend anywhere from 6-12 hours of work for each finished hour of audio (depending on many details of the specific requirements for each book).Īs you can see, the “hourly” rates are very deceiving. In addition to requiring an investment in equipment and additional skills, this takes another 3-5 hours of work per finished hour. So, the payment per-finished-hour requires anywhere from 3-6 hours of actual work.Īlso, while some narrators are strictly performers, more and more narrators (like myself) are working as narrator/producer, where in addition to voicing the book, we also do the editing, mastering, and file conversions to create the finished audio files. This takes an additional 1-2 hours of work per finished hour of audio. Plus any good narrator first does their prep - reading the entire book, making notes on characters and voices, researching any accents, characters, concepts, or whatever else is needed. As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, it takes AT LEAST 2 hours (and sometimes up to 4 hours if there are a lot of voices, accents, or other challenges) of studio time to record 1 hour of finished audio. When narrators work on an hourly basis, it is PER FINISHED HOUR of audio, not per actual hours worked. Other times they work on a per-finished-hour basis, with the rate varying widely depending on the narrator, the publisher, and the book. Narrators sometimes work on a strictly royalty-share basis (with no money up front, and their income dependent on the sales). There is no standard rate for audiobook narrators.
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