Audiobook Narration
As an author, I wanted to get into audiobooks in order to allow more people to be able to enjoy my imagination.
There are too many people out there who love to be immersed into new worlds, and reading a book is not an option for them. Whether it’s dyslexia, or visual impairment audiobooks really are the greatest thing to happen to stories. Bards have been telling stories this way since before things were written down.
Once I heard one of my stories come to life by a wonderful voice actress Tara Marie Kirk, her dedication, and professionalism really inspired me to join her world. I wanted to do what she did. I wanted to bring more stories to life, not just with my keyboard, but with my voice.
And that is when I decided to create this page to solidify this new venture, broadening my love of books, and making a commitment to myself and to authors to bring more books to audio.
You can find me with ACX.com (Amazon Audible) & FindawayVoices (acquired by Spotify)
- https://my.findawayvoices.com/narrator/steviemarieactress
- https://www.acx.com/narrator?p=A3C6UTUJP3C8BW
- Or Email me to request an audition for your book: steviemarieactress @gmail.com
Demo/Samples of published works
Studio Stats:
Special Equipment
CODN Recording Microphone Isolation Shield with Pop Filter, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2
Microphone
Neumann TLM 102 Condenser
Software
Adobe Audition
Studio
The room is double sheet rocked, insulated with sound deadening foam between, and completely covered in noise absorbing acoustic foam to provide a great space for getting the best sound quality!
Reviews:
“…the narration offers a lot of additional information about the characters and the feelings that they are living. Thanks to the involvement of the author with this audio production, S.M. McCoy, a.k.a. Stevie Marie, delivers a quiet, balanced, and entertaining performance. She reads softly, she infuses the events with emotion just at the right time, and she brings these characters to life in a natural and credible manner.” — Review: Kingdom of Acatalec by S.M. McCoy | the Audiobook Blog by Victor Dima from The Audiobook Blog.
“The narrator Stevie Marie is also the author of this book, and although this doesn’t always work in this instance it does as she was able to imbue just the right amount of humour or pathos into the story and brought it to life beautifully.” – Tricia Goodreads Review of Kingdom of Acatalec Audiobook
“Stevie Marie was a pretty solid, clearly spoken narrator. Fully enjoyed the audio narration as well!” – Athena Reviewer of The Witches of Crannock Dale by Thomas M. Kane.
Stay tuned.
Things to include in your 5-minute audition request:
*Around 600 words or less from your book (pick a scene that has a few characters, or a good feel for your book, think, ‘what would I use for a sample to intrigue people to read my book’)
*Have particular pronunciations for your character names or fantasy places? – include how you want those to sound phonetically —> example Kala (KAW-LAH) or (KAY-LAW) (Eh sound or Aw sound for the letter ‘A’, or long vowel or short vowel, AWW verses AH)
*Have a particular style you’re going for? You want your character to sound a certain way?
Booming, Breathy, Bright, high energy, soft spoken, defiant, snarky, deep, clear, gritty, tough, gravelly, cranky, flighty, authoritative, casual, or clipped, etc.
What age group? Young Adult- preteen, or teen, Adult
*Timeframe – Do you have a deadline?
Keep in mind producing an audiobook can take 4-8 hours to complete 1 finished audio hour. And an average of 8,500 thousand words per finished hour. (and around only a couple hours a day of viable recording time before the voice gets gravelly whether you intend it to or not) That being said the fastest an audiobook can usually be expected to be done is 1 month, though this time frame can be longer or shorter with other projects rolling, and the length of your book. Plan ahead (smiley face) and book your narrator sooner rather than later, even if it isn’t with me.
EXAMPLE: My 85k Sci-Fi Fantasy Adventure was 10 hours 20 minutes of finished audio hours. That’s 8,228 words per finished audio hour.
EXAMPLE: Thomas M. Kane’s Epic YA Fantasy around 97K was 11 hours 48 minutes which is around 8,220 words per finished audio hour.
*Pricing ranges from project to project: sometimes it involves royalty shares, or lump sum, or PFH (Per Finished Hour) Rates. Current rate is $200 PFH + $30 PFH for sound engineer mastering fees. (subject to change, and discounts available for booking for series/multiple books, or for referrals.) That’s around $25 an hour for my time, plus $15 an hour for the sound engineer, and $15 an hour for a proof listener.
A 50k book will run around 6 hours of finished audio
Looking forward to hearing from you.
To a beautiful new adventure!