Climax resident enjoying opportunity
to be voice over talent on audio books
to be voice over talent on audio books
By Bruce Rolfe
A Climax resident has extended her love of reading books into a revenue making opportunity as a voice over talent for audio book authors.
Chelsea Peña, of Charleston Township, recently completed voice over service for two audio book authors and is currently recording a third book.
A 2009 graduate of Climax-Scotts High School, Peña said she has always been an avid reader and enjoys audio books.
She often visits Book Tok, a book community social media site, and made a key contact. She decided to do a voice acting challenge on social media through Tik Tok for fun. Best selling
author Dan Alatorre, who writes fast-paced thrillers, murder mysteries, and family humor, liked what he heard.
“He (Alatorre) said, wait a second. That your voice? I said, yes, that’s me. I’m not lip syncing. He said I would hire you to do audio books. I said, you’re kidding. He said, no, I’m not kidding,” recalled Peña, the daughter of Greg and Tracie Richardson of Climax.
The Climax resident said Alatorre connected her to the first author she would wind up working with, H.M. Mast.
After additional communication with Mast, Peña said she was hired by the author for her first voice over job on Mast’s audio book, “Dear Mr. Boyd”, which was released about two months ago.
“That’s how it all started. A silly challenge I did on Tik Tok,” said Peña.
The Charleston Township resident just recently performed voice over for T.R. Jordan’s audio book, “Sanctuary in his Name.”
She said she connected with Jordan through a campaign done twice a year aimed at keeping artificial intelligence out of books and voice acting called Human Voices Only.
Peña said she published a social media post alerting authors of her ambition to do some campaign work, recording a section of an author’s book.
She said T.R. Jordan responded and said she would like Peña to record some audio clips for her audio book.
She recorded and edited the audio clips and then sent it out to the author. She also made a video with the recording and placed it on social media, which is another avenue to get the author’s books into the hands of more people to help the author grow and get more customers.
“A lot of social media connections and building a community is really how this all began,” explained Peña.
The C-S graduate said another way to get selected for voice over talent is by auditioning on a specific platform the author uses. She adds auditioning on other sites and word of mouth on social media are also popular ways of getting discovered and hired.
“It’s kind of one of two things. You know the author, they say I think your voice would be perfect for this. Or, you audition, they love it and they send you an offer to create audio for the book,” explained Peña.
Peña said once she is selected, the author sends the manuscript and she goes to work recording, one chapter at a time.
She said her husband, Josh, a police officer and firefighter for Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, built a sound booth in the couple’s home.
She purchased a microphone, an audio mixing system and downloaded some free software. She taught herself how to do the editing through research and Youtube channels produced by other people who have done voice over work.
“They teach you how to do it to get it up to the standard that needs to meet an audible level,” said Peña, referring to the Youtube channels.
She said the amount of time it takes to do an entire book is based on the book, but said typically one to two months is the standard length of time.
The Climax resident said there are many instances when she has to do multiple takes because she mispronounced a word, she took too long of a pause, or a back ground noise was present.
Peña said she uploads each chapter of the book to the author, who may make suggestions and request some sections be done over again.
The C-S graduate said there are times where she really needs to focus on the characters. She said there may be a conversation between three or four people, including a male and female in one segment of the book.
“Once I get it uploaded, it gets sent directly to the author. The author listens and they may say you mispronounced this word, fix that. Or, the pacing could be different. Or, this was supposed to be a male charactor saying this versus a female. Sometimes you do have to do multiple voices so that can be a bit of a challenge,” said Peña, who had to perform a voice over as a male charactor in both books.
Peña said there are different ranges for payment, but the standard rate is $50 per hour. The other option for payment is the voice over talent may get paid through a royalty share process where a person would not get the full $50 per hour but get paid a portion of the sales from the book.
A Climax resident has extended her love of reading books into a revenue making opportunity as a voice over talent for audio book authors.
Chelsea Peña, of Charleston Township, recently completed voice over service for two audio book authors and is currently recording a third book.
A 2009 graduate of Climax-Scotts High School, Peña said she has always been an avid reader and enjoys audio books.
She often visits Book Tok, a book community social media site, and made a key contact. She decided to do a voice acting challenge on social media through Tik Tok for fun. Best selling
author Dan Alatorre, who writes fast-paced thrillers, murder mysteries, and family humor, liked what he heard.
“He (Alatorre) said, wait a second. That your voice? I said, yes, that’s me. I’m not lip syncing. He said I would hire you to do audio books. I said, you’re kidding. He said, no, I’m not kidding,” recalled Peña, the daughter of Greg and Tracie Richardson of Climax.
The Climax resident said Alatorre connected her to the first author she would wind up working with, H.M. Mast.
After additional communication with Mast, Peña said she was hired by the author for her first voice over job on Mast’s audio book, “Dear Mr. Boyd”, which was released about two months ago.
“That’s how it all started. A silly challenge I did on Tik Tok,” said Peña.
The Charleston Township resident just recently performed voice over for T.R. Jordan’s audio book, “Sanctuary in his Name.”
She said she connected with Jordan through a campaign done twice a year aimed at keeping artificial intelligence out of books and voice acting called Human Voices Only.
Peña said she published a social media post alerting authors of her ambition to do some campaign work, recording a section of an author’s book.
She said T.R. Jordan responded and said she would like Peña to record some audio clips for her audio book.
She recorded and edited the audio clips and then sent it out to the author. She also made a video with the recording and placed it on social media, which is another avenue to get the author’s books into the hands of more people to help the author grow and get more customers.
“A lot of social media connections and building a community is really how this all began,” explained Peña.
The C-S graduate said another way to get selected for voice over talent is by auditioning on a specific platform the author uses. She adds auditioning on other sites and word of mouth on social media are also popular ways of getting discovered and hired.
“It’s kind of one of two things. You know the author, they say I think your voice would be perfect for this. Or, you audition, they love it and they send you an offer to create audio for the book,” explained Peña.
Peña said once she is selected, the author sends the manuscript and she goes to work recording, one chapter at a time.
She said her husband, Josh, a police officer and firefighter for Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, built a sound booth in the couple’s home.
She purchased a microphone, an audio mixing system and downloaded some free software. She taught herself how to do the editing through research and Youtube channels produced by other people who have done voice over work.
“They teach you how to do it to get it up to the standard that needs to meet an audible level,” said Peña, referring to the Youtube channels.
She said the amount of time it takes to do an entire book is based on the book, but said typically one to two months is the standard length of time.
The Climax resident said there are many instances when she has to do multiple takes because she mispronounced a word, she took too long of a pause, or a back ground noise was present.
Peña said she uploads each chapter of the book to the author, who may make suggestions and request some sections be done over again.
The C-S graduate said there are times where she really needs to focus on the characters. She said there may be a conversation between three or four people, including a male and female in one segment of the book.
“Once I get it uploaded, it gets sent directly to the author. The author listens and they may say you mispronounced this word, fix that. Or, the pacing could be different. Or, this was supposed to be a male charactor saying this versus a female. Sometimes you do have to do multiple voices so that can be a bit of a challenge,” said Peña, who had to perform a voice over as a male charactor in both books.
Peña said there are different ranges for payment, but the standard rate is $50 per hour. The other option for payment is the voice over talent may get paid through a royalty share process where a person would not get the full $50 per hour but get paid a portion of the sales from the book.
Pictured are the two audio books Chelsea Pena has performed voice over talent on.
The first two authors she worked with were independently published, meaning payment came from the royalty share option.
She said she has recently started recording short pieces of audio books, helping authors promote a book release.
Peña has started working on a third audio book, which is expected to be completed in October. She has been in discussions with another author about producing and narrating their book after she finishes the audio book she is currently working on.
Peña said her goal is to eventually do voice over work full time. She said doing audio books can lead to commercials and other voice over opportunities.
The C-S graduate adds doing something she enjoys and making some money all at home while raising her three daughters, is a real blessing.
“It’s fun. It’s a passion for me. I get to help authors who are independently published and grow their audience. And I get paid to read so it makes me happy,” said Peña.
She said she has recently started recording short pieces of audio books, helping authors promote a book release.
Peña has started working on a third audio book, which is expected to be completed in October. She has been in discussions with another author about producing and narrating their book after she finishes the audio book she is currently working on.
Peña said her goal is to eventually do voice over work full time. She said doing audio books can lead to commercials and other voice over opportunities.
The C-S graduate adds doing something she enjoys and making some money all at home while raising her three daughters, is a real blessing.
“It’s fun. It’s a passion for me. I get to help authors who are independently published and grow their audience. And I get paid to read so it makes me happy,” said Peña.
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