About This Site

Georgia-StoneGreetings! I’m Karen Commins. You may know me from my work as an audiobook narrator, producer, publisher, blogger, and leading curator of information about the audiobook industry.

I’ve written many articles on my blog to help narrators and many other sites, and I’m a frequent contributor to several Facebook narrator groups. As the Audiobook Share-rator™️, I wanted to expand my level of assistance to the narrator community by creating this site devoted to the needs of audiobook narrators at all levels.

Busy narrators have told me that they are relieved to have the comprehensive set of resources about becoming a narrator on the home page. Rather than spending their time to craft a helpful answer, they love the speed and ease of referring newcomers to this site.

You’ll find another long list of helpful links in the section below! 

I’m a firm believer in not re-inventing the wheel, yet so many of us were doing that very thing when it came to searching for training and networking events, finding reviewers for our latest release, and even learning software features.

NarratorsRoadmap.com is a site for all of us!

Click here to see the Roadmap of NarratorsRoadmap.

The following features will interest experienced narrators:

  • Audiobook Village contains directories of other people who can help with your audiobook production.
  • Casting Directory of production companies and publishers who hire narrators to record for them. In addition to social media  channels, contact names and related links, I include other information about the company such as interviews with the people to help you learn about them and their preferences.
  • Events Calendar of 8 types of color-coded events, including audiobook training classes, author
    and audiobook conferences, and book festivals
  • Knowledge Base with answers to frequent questions that occur during prep, narration and post
  • Video Courses on iAnnotate (click here to sample the first video), Creating Your Own Path, and other topics. Video courses have their own set of associated resource links!

As you can see in the chart below, some avenues are free to everyone, while access to others requires a paid Members Express Pass.

We have 3 payment options:

  • $7 a month
  • $35 for 6 months
  • $70 per year

Click here if you want to register.

Non-Member Member Express Pass
Audiobook Village ✔ ✔
Knowledge Base ✔ ✔
Videos (part of KB) ✔ ✔
Welcome Center ✔ ✔
Events Calendar ✔
Video Courses ✔
Casting Directory ✔ Restricted to 6-Month and Yearly plans only

Just for fun, I’ve hidden an Easter Egg on the site. A web site Easter Egg can be described as an object that has something significant to it, may be hiding in plain site, and usually is unexpectedly clickable. Only 1 person found it during the Grand Opening contest. I’ll give you a hint: it’s NOT the Twitter bird siting atop the home page billboard! If you find the Easter egg, send me an email and tell me what it is to claim a free 1-month subscription!

Welcome Center

What would a Welcome Center be without an array of exciting offers from vendors who are eager to expand your view of the world?

Bro Shore
I trust the sites listed below because one or more of these conditions is true:

  • I know the owner.
  • I have used the service or product.
  • I have reviewed unsolicited testimonials from other narrators.

I would not refer you to a service or product created by someone who has narrated a few books and now considers themselves an expert! I also am not receiving compensation from any of these businesses with the exception of any affiliate links as noted in the Terms of Service.

If you contact one of the people below, please let them know you found them listed on NarratorsRoadmap.com!

Accents and Dialects

  • Accents & Dialects Masterclass — Voice actor and dialect coach Eliza Jane Schneider offers a video package with samples, a call with her, and membership in her Facebook group.
  • AccentHelp.com — A number of specialized dialect kits containing numerous recordings, written materials, and links to reference voices are available for purchase for a nominal charge.
  • DrDialect.com — Narrator and coach PJ Ochlan provides paid personal coaching in accents and dialects.
  • Narrator and coach Pat Fraley has a home-study course that you can get with or without his guidance.
  • The Talk Shop — Speech, dialect, and breath coach Amanda Quaid offers personal coaching and group classes, including a specialized class called Gender + Speech for Narrators.

Author Resources

My Audiobook Resources for Authors is a categorized list of helpful articles from a variety of sites to help educate authors about all phases of the audiobook production process, from writing with audio in mind to marketing the finished audiobook.

You can find narrators in one of the Narrator Databases linked in that section below.

If you join this site even as a monthly member ($7), you’ll be able to view my comprehensive Audiobook Distributor Comparison Chart. I compared 6 popular distributors across 22 individual criteria to help you make better-informed decisions about your audiobook distributor(s).

Book Covers

  • If you publish your own audiobook, you’re responsible for supplying the book cover. I have been very pleased with Emma Lysy Design.

Books 

Books specifically about becoming a narrator and improving your performance are shown on the Home page.

Coaching

A vetted directory of audiobook coaches and consultants for both audiobook performance and business issues can be found in Audiobook Village.

Contract Templates

If you need a template contract between a narrator and rights holder or with engineering staff, you can use one of these templates. You may need to modify them for your situation.

Discord Servers

Some narrators record while live on camera on a Discord server. You can watch and listen to them work and possibly interact with them. Narrator Aven Shore wrote this illustrated guide which explains how to connect to and navigate in one of these systems. She also wrote this guide for using Open Broadcaster Software to narrate on Discord. If you decide to narrate on this service or any other medium, be aware that you must first obtain the RH’s permission to avoid copyright infringement.

Join a narrator’s Discord session using one of the following links:

Downloadable Training

Editors and Proofers

Need an editor or proofer for your project? Contact one of the people in Audiobook Village.

Marketing

  • My Audiobook Marketing Cheat Sheet — This free page offers a treasure trove of tips and tactics to market your audiobook. The RH should be doing the heavy lifting for audiobook marketing. Marketing yourself as a narrator, which is a better use of your time, requires different strategies. The best marketing book to help you increase your general client list is Get Clients Now! by CJ Hayden.
  • These services and more are listed in the cheat sheet above:
    • AudiobooksUnleashed.com — Developed by narrator Sarah Sampino, this site gives you several options for listings that automatically provide your audiobook promo codes to requesting listeners. A nice value-add is a field for your newsletter sign-up link.
    • AudioFreebies.com — Developed by narrator Amy Soakes, this site helps you give out codes either manually or automatically, plus it works for Audible and Author’s Direct codes.
    • FreeAudiobookCodes.com — Created by narrator Jeffrey Kafer, this site replaces his previous AudiobookBoom newsletter and allows you to post your Audible download codes from ACX.
    • Many people have asked how to create an audiogram, which is the short video where the WAV file is visible over the book cover similar to this example. I mentioned 2 sites on my Cheat Sheet above but am including them here for ease of reference: Headliner, a free site, and Wavve.co, a paid one.

Narrator Databases

If you need to find a narrator for your project, you can search these databases. Narrators, you can add your profile to sites that don’t indicate “Narrator Roster”. For those sites (Bee and Deyan), you’ll need to contact producers to be added to their roster. Details are in the Casting Directory.

Narrators Turned Authors

An increasing number of narrators are becoming authors.

News

Podcasts

You’ll find more shows in my Twitter list of Audiobook Podcasts. Skip down to the Twitter List section below for more info about my lists.

Pronunciation

This Knowledge Base article discusses a number of sites, tips, and tactics for pronunciation research. These sites may be particularly helpful in your research:

  • AudioEloquence.com — Created and maintained by narrators Judith West and Heather Anne Henderson, this free site contains the motherlode of vetted pronunciation sites to aid in research, many with sound clips.
  • Pronounceology.com — Developed by narrator Adam Verner, this paid site automates your pronunciation research. A free referral list of vetted researchers is also available on the site.
  • Subject Matter Experts may be able to assist you.

Speech Therapy

Studio Treatment and DAW Training

  • This article lists 7 places to learn audio editing for audiobooks.
  • Don Baarns provides personal coaching on StudioOne and more. He also has started an audio review service that’s free at the moment.
  • Jennifer Blom teaches people to use Reaper.
  • Jack DeGolia trains people to use Twisted Wave.
  • Jim Edgar offers a free audio review, as well as classes and coaching on recording software.
  • Dan Lenard can help create or troubleshoot your studio and assist you with your demo.
  • James Romick teaches people to use Reaper.
  • George Whittam has a variety of studio services and tutorial videos.
  • Roy Yokelson offers studio treatment and coaching in software among many other services.

Time-saving Services

  • AudiobookScout.com — Created by narrator/author Craig Tollifson, this paid site notifies you about ACX listings that fit your criteria and includes links to the ancillary research needed to evaluate them.
  • Narratic.com — Another offering from CraigTollifson, this paid site tracks and emails you about your ratings and reviews for your audiobooks on Audible.
  • Pozotron.com — Co-founder Jake Poznanski loves audiobooks and has developed a paid tool that narrators can use to aid in their proofing. The tool is also useful for finding every occurrence of a word in a recording.

Twitter Lists

I maintain what are arguably the largest Twitter lists of audiobook publishers, narrators, bloggers, and podcasters. This article explains how to subscribe to and use them.

Utilities

  • Audible Sample Finder — Enter your audiobook’s Audible page on narrator Steven Jay Cohen’s site, and his code will extract your sample for you at no charge.
  • 2nd Opinion — Steven Jay Cohen created another nifty utility that’s free to download and use. This one checks the technical aspects of your recorded files.

Voiceover

Web Sites

  • I highly recommend the talented team at Voice Actor Websites. They created this site and KarenCommins.com and exceeded my vision for functionality and form in both cases.
  • Andrea Emmes can create web sites, graphics, business cards and other branding materials for audiobook narrators.
  • James Anderson Foster offers a user interface heuristic evaluation of your audiobook narrator website.

YouTube Playlists

Rather than adding each individual video to the Videos page, the creators of these playlists consistently produce excellent, useful material for narrators: