[Brice Lewis]

I was fortunate enough to get to review Pat Fraley’s “Billion $ Read: How to Make Money Reading & Recording Books”. Pat and his business partner and fellow teacher Hillary Huber give instruction and insight into the world of audio books. The two CDs and workbook cover the nuts and bolts of the business, including preparing demos, marketing, research and recording, as well as solid techniques to understand the nuances of reading audio books, which Fraley refers to as the “Shakespeare of voice over”, since it is arguably the most challenging type of voice work. Fraley and Huber demonstrate exercises to help with tempo, volume, energy and diction, as well as character separation and expressiveness.

Pat and Hillary also give solid advice on the business side of the audio book business with advice on networking, bidding on books, pitching audio books to the publisher, and resources to use in getting work as a reader.

While an introduction to the business of audio books, I found plenty of info in this that I’ll be going back to again and again. I’ve picked up techniques that have already made improvements in my voiceovers. I can’t recommend this enough. If you’re interested in reading audio books, don’t learn from your mistakes – learn from Pat’s and start out ahead of the game.