My life as an audiobook narrator.

aka How I support my music-making addiction.

It’s kinda funny how long it’s taken me to do a post about my work as an audiobook narrator considering I’ve been sharing stories on a platform built for writers.

But life is pretty hilarious so I guess I’m right on track.

The time is now to share this particular chapter of my story.

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Flashback to February 12, 2020.

Welcome to winter in Canada.

It’s not that bad really.

Although, that is easy for me to say. At this time in history, it really didn’t matter to me whether it was snowing, freezing, dark outside, or all three because I was working from the cozy confines of my east end Toronto home daily as an upholsterer/sewing-lady for my own business, Uplift Upholstery.

As was typical, business had slowed down after Christmas and I was actively looking for additional income streams to supplement this temporary ebb of clients when my friend told me about acx.com, a website that connects authors with narrators for the purpose of producing audiobooks. He suggested I set up a profile and do some auditions, and just see what happens….

Plant some seeds and see what sprouts.

my closet vocal booth

Being an engineer of my own music, I already had the production gear I needed and knew how to record and process an audio file to meet the quality standards required for submission to Audible. Once I had flipped through the list of available books to audition for and choosing one that I thought sounded interesting, I taped my audio sample, uploaded it, and waited to see what would happen next.

I awoke in the morning to an email from ACX congratulating me for being chosen to narrate the book I had auditioned for. “Click here to view the contract”.

Wow. Tingles.

I was alight with that exciting feeling of knowing that something good was coming.

That thrilling sensation of a door being blown off of the edge of my mind, creating an opening wide enough for me to step through and leap….

I realized how ready I was for a change. A chance to reinvent myself yet again.

After seven years of going through the often gruelling process of teaching myself how to properly and professionally re-upholster chairs, sofas, you name it (did you know that EVERY piece of furniture is different?!); after marking up my hands with spiky stabs from broken staples, years of choking on the dust of dried up and disintegrating cushion foam, after measuring not only twice but 3,000 times, I was ready for a new way to earn a living. Could this be it?

I mean, I was that kid in class who raised her arm to read aloud from the book. I entered Kiwana’s story-telling competitions. I even did a reading from a book on the Canadian kid’s TV show, Today’s Special. I was that kid who strained her eyes to read at night in the dark long after she should have been asleep. I love reading.

And so for me this narration thing was starting to feel like a dreamy day-job for this day-dreamer.

Seriously…is reading books into a microphone something people will pay me to do?

It turns out, yes. Yes it is.

Let’s time travel again, shall we?

Present Day, 2024

Four years later, I am still working from home, albeit a different one, and making my bread & butter through audiobook narration. I’ve come a long way in my learning. After having narrated close to one hundred books, both fiction and non-fiction, I should hope so.

I’ve narrated several series in the “middle-aged women’s supernatural urban fantasy science fiction” genre. (yep-that’s a thing) I’ve narrated books published in Nunavut in an effort to preserve the Inuit culture through story-telling. I’ve narrated more guided meditation and kundlaini breathing books than I can count. TEaching myself how to breathe in the process.

My next plan is to write my own books to self-publish and narrate, while providing the ambient musical background. Baby stepping forward into my future by blending all that I love to do.

“Jacqueline Rendell, as always, gave a standout performance as she breathed life into the storyline and gave each character their own distinct voice….”

audio samples

To finish up this post, I thought it might be fun to include some of my earlier audio clips here for you to check out if you’re interested. All of my recent work is stored on an external hard-drive that I am admittedly too lazy to retrieve right now. Perhaps I’ll do a follow-up post one day to include some of those samples. For now, you can join me where I started…at the beginning.

Savior's Spell

Spellcaster Series, Book 1

A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel

This the actual audition sample I submitted back in June 2020 for Book One of the Savior’s series. The author messaged me after she listened to it asking where all my online samples/testomials/past work was. I told her I didn’t have any as I had only been narrating for a few months and that I had yet to work on my first fiction. She was so happy with my audition that she decided to take a chance and hire me. With a fun range of characters that are all creatures like fae and werewolves to voice coupled with her sassy smart writing, our first collboration she’s hired me for every book she’s written since. In fact, just this week she sent me over the contracts and manuscripts for her brand new series. I can’t wait to get started on it and dive back into the mystical magical worlds born of her imagination.

Impermanent Universe

Science Fiction

When I was looking through books to audition for, I noticed this author had named one of his characers Satoshi. At that time, I was studying Bitcoin and so the name of the supposed inventor of Bitcoin jumped out at me, and beckoned me to subimit an audition. Along with it, I sent the author a personalized message telling him how much the theme of the book was resonating with me, and that I would be very happy to work with him on this project. We soon established a great rapport and together we worked on creating voices for his characters. After playing around with various ideas, he eventually selected the one sampled below for the voice of Prajna, the world’s first very sentient computer.

Publisher's summary

Tess has designed the mind of the first sentient machine....

And it's waking.

But there's a problem.

It's networking...with another dimension

When a well-known visionary develops technology that could result in the first sentient machine, a sequence of events unfolds that will result in mankind’s inevitable intersection with the most important moment in history - technological singularity.

After computer scientist Tess Carrillo experiences a traumatic personal loss, as if guided by fate, she is recruited to assemble a team of eccentric experts in a secret complex deep within the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.

As they work to develop the code for the most powerful computer ever created, Tess finds herself pulled into a high-stakes world where two powerful technology titans battle over the future of reality itself. As the first sentient computer comes to life, Tess realizes they’ve unleashed something that could threaten the existence of mankind.

As the machine evolves, dimensional lines begin to fray and blend, causing Tess to question what is real. Equipped with clues scattered throughout her psyche, time, and space, she struggles to solve the ultimate mystery before time, literally, ends.

As pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place, Tess is forced to look within...and face a terrifying truth.

©2020 Vern Buzarde (P)2022 Vern Buzarde

Bedtime Stories for Adults

Guided meditation

Get your mind out of the gutter~ it’s not what you’re thinking.

This is a sample, one of a hundred, of sleepy, relaxing, breathing in and out scripts I have read. I may do more posts on them in the future while alsso providing the files for those of you who need assistance falling asleep or meditating.

The Exodus

Science Fiction Fantasy

The minute I read the script sample was the minute I knew I needed to narrate this book. The author David writes an epic tale of an exodus from censorship and oppression by a small group of misfits to an underground where they can survive until the coast is clear. It was such a well written and accurate mirror of our modern-day inverted world. It took me about a billion hours to narrate and edit it- so many so that I altered the condition of my editing shoulder, and needed sessions of physio to heal the pain and restore stasis. There are over 100 characters in this book and I took the time and care to make them each distinguishable. I am so proud of this work.

In fact, I heard from the author TODAY of all days, for the first time in about a year. He has offered me the project to narrate his next epic novel. I am so honoured and excited. It’s estimated finished length is about 20 hours long which means about 120 hours of work total. Editing can be tedious, yes. But I love that I can spend my time making art and contribute my voice to help bring someone’s book baby to life.

I am grateful for it.

Publisher's summary

A girl who feels nothing; a boy who sees shadows and hears what others cannot; a baby without license to be born; a deaf teenager and scientific savant; offensive people; a general who passed law to hunt, imprison, and kill them all.

Where do they hide when the sub-nations of the United States draw their own lines in the ground that dictate which people get to be oppressed and who gets to be offended?

The Salvo Cartel built the tunnels to help them escape, to aid those with mental ailments, those who question, those who refuse to conform, gays, Christians, artists, people with scruples, and other deviants.

Do they flee to Salvo's underground cities, with eyes set on a grander safe place?

Where do they go when Lady Liberty douses her light?

Perhaps the same place she's been pointing her torch towards ever since she stepped atop her pedestal and realized at once that one day she, too, would be told to shut up.

©2020 David Fairchild (P)2021 David Fairchild

Mia and the Monsters

Children’s Literature

A friend of mine runs a publishing company out of Nunavut, Canada. He is passionate about producing books and shows that help to preserve their unique culture and language.

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Thank you so much for popping by. Please leave a comment if you want. I love to read them.

be great,

love Jacqueline