CNBC has an online magazine called “make it.” One of the things they write about, is all the amazing, lucrative jobs you can do on the side.
You’ll see stories about a couple making $13.000 in passive income in five weeks: ‘We only work 1 hour per week.’ An RV repairman making $115.000 a year – ‘just by answering the internet’s questions.’ Or a 29-year-old making $55.000 a week selling purses.
Apparently, I’m in the wrong business!
Or maybe not…
The number one trending story is about Alice Everdeen (31), who quit her job and supposedly makes $15.000 a month recording voice overs on platforms like Fiverr. She says: “I only work 3 to 5 hours per day.”
Flipping through the many stories you can read on “make it,” I find the following headline:
This is a story written by my colleague Natalie Naudus about her journey from being a church music director making 30K a year, to becoming a successful audio book narrator.
She writes: “I purchased about $300 of equipment and, in just a few weeks, we set up my first home studio in the hallway closet.”
A few things contributed to her success, says Natalie (who has recorded nearly 400 books in five years):
“My classical singing background trained me to use my voice for long stretches without strain, while still delivering emotion and nuance.”
and
“I put my energy into building my Tiktok and Instagram accounts, giving audiobook fans glimpses into my life as a narrator. I had this vision of showing people how sexy and silly this job can be — and they loved it. As my content went viral, my audience grew. Book gigs from publishers started pouring in like never before.”
Mind you, Natalie has over 71K followers on Instagram, and over 120K on TikTok. And did I mention that Natalie has won several Earphone awards?
I don’t know Alice or Natalie personally, but if everything that’s written about them checks out, I am impressed and happy for them. You don’t get this many followers on social media overnight, and narrating almost 400 books in five years is awe-inspiring.
YET, part of me is uncomfortable when I read these success stories, and I’ll tell you why. These are GENERAL remarks, by the way, and not comments on Natalie or Alice in particular.
Number One: Many of the headlines you find on the “make it” website, are nothing but cheap and sensational clickbait. You and I cannot verify how much all these side-hustle people really make, and how long it takes them to make it.
Number Two: In business it’s never about how much you make, but about how much you get to keep. You can make $100.000 in sales, but only have a profit of $2000. Lots of businesses operate at a loss, especially in the first couple of years.
Number Three: Most success stories focus on EXCEPTIONS, and give people a false sense of “anyone can do this,” and “it only takes a few hours a day to make a voice over fortune.”
Unfortunately, impressionable people believe what they want to believe, and there will always be folks who want to take advantage of that.
According to the most recent voice over survey, 48% of those questioned made less than 8 thousand dollars from VO in 2020. Only 5.6% reported earning more than 150 thousand dollars that year.
Now, that’s not something online magazines ever write about, is it?
I mean, who would want to read that?
Having said that, warmest congratulations to Natalie on doing so well in a very competitive and tough business. Her article painted a realistic picture of what it takes to be successful as an audio book narrator. She writes:
“Today, I work about 40 hours a week, divided between recording, office work, and pre-reading and researching upcoming books. But that isn’t all at once, or necessarily in a 9-to-5 schedule. I will often record and answer emails during the day, then prep-read a book in bed at night.
The flexibility is helpful, because the physical rigors of recording an audiobook can be intense. Usually, for five hours a day or more, I’m sitting sitting completely still in a tiny room, dividing my attention between reading accurately, performing passionately and listening for noises, from outside or inside the booth.”
Natalie is also a perfect example of someone who made the switch from chasing jobs to attracting work through her positive use of social media and smart content marketing. It’s something I have been advocating for years, and she is living proof that this approach pays off.
But if -for some unforeseen reason- her narration work should suddenly dry up, Natalie could always try selling handbags.
I’ve heard you could easily make $55.000 a week.
PS Did you know that all the bold blue lines in my articles are hyperlinks you can click on for additional content?
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Great story Paul. I belong to one of the 48%. Glad to hear I’m certainly not the only one. Every Tom, Dick & Harry plus Mary seems to have a home recording setup nowadays.
Anyone who wishes to have a career in voice overs, has to have a home studio and a website. Otherwise you have no business. It’s easy to join the race, but coming out a winner is a lot harder!
I follow this blog because one of the things I want to do with my fiction is narrate the audiobooks myself, and I have a lot to learn.
I have no intention of narrating other people’s books – I only want to produce the ‘as read by author’ version.
But there are a lot of relevant overlaps in such areas as quality of equipment, quality of narration, and feasability (I’m a singer, with some minor acting training, but nothing professional). It is just one more step on the road to producing the best version of my novels.
We exist, the do-it-yourselfers. And I have years of work ahead of me, so I have to have faith in the ultimate product, which I do.
Thanks for all the tips.
P.S. The movie script MAY be beyond my capabilities. Right now. And beginners are notoriously lacking. We’ll see.
Thanks for being a loyal and engaged follower, Alicia. Audio book narration is one of the most challenging genres in voice over, even for authors who read their own work. But when done well, it gives the spoken books a level of authenticity no outside narrator will ever be able to approach.
Aah, yes, the internet, where all information is scientific fact and no one every makes up unbelievable stories for clicks. 😂
I look forward to earning eleventy-million dollars from forty-two minutes of work per day. Any minute now….
If it sounds too good to be true…
Great write up as usual, Paul. And again, I am using your blog to procrastinate from my chores. So thank you again for that.
For the people attracted to VO through these clickbait titles, the reality is many won’t last long when they realize this (blessed) job is not just hitting the record button. You have to invest substantially into a recording space setup, coaching, equipment, website, and so much more. And even when you’ve made the investments, you have to market yourself. And starting out, it’s not easy. BUT, when you start to gain traction, damn is it fun and rewarding!
I wish anyone and everyone success entering into this industry, but I just want to share that those clickbait articles aren’t telling you that VO is a constant grind. When you stop, your business stops.
I find that I’m having too much fun to stop, and I hope everyone else can experience the same as they enter this industry of incredible talent and colleagues.
I’m so happy I could help you procrastinate, Reid. I wanted to do that for a long time, but I put it off…
Great piece, Paul. I saw this story myself and it rankled me.
And btw, it’s $35,000 a week, and I never said it was easy, or even likely. 😊
Fantastic work as always, sir.
Thanks, PS! You need to sow a lot of seeds to harvest 35K worth of fruit. Keep on sharing your valuable insights, Paul. Every time I check in with you, I learn something good.
Paul, like Paul (huh?) I saw the Alice Everdeen story as well and was equally rankled. The only thing that saved it for me was that her last name was Everdeen. *mockingjay salute* But honestly, all of that comes from Fiverr, and if you read the article she talks about the ungodly amount of little projects she does on average just to even get to that figure. It’s kind of sad. In any event, I love your Numbers One, Two and Three and agree with them. Thanks for speaking truth as always. And now if you’ll excuse me, I must go start my handbag business.
The uncomfortable truth is that success stories like the one from Alice, get way more exposure than this niche blog. But I do what I can to educate aspiring VO’s about the joys and the pitfalls of the business they hope to be a part of.
Alice (not her real name, obviously) is a perfectly lovely person, but that article and all the others like it have always rubbed me wrong too. You’ve articulated why far better than I ever could have.
Several years, and well over her average monthly fiverr income in expenses later and I’m still working hard to be an overnight success. Thankfully I have a well paying, very flexible, work-from-home day job to help me accelerate the process of training, demo work, etc – if I didn’t I can’t imagine how long it might have taken just to really become competent.
Great post as always, Paul!
I think you speak for many readers, Will. I always tell people not to give up their day job while training to become a full-time VO.