In the month since our ACX Master Class for audiobook narrators ended, at least 13 students have landed their first paid audiobook gigs.
The Above Statement Requires Fine Print.
One student was offered an audiobook during her first week and another when the class was 3/4 completed. (So those didn’t happen in the month since our class ended.)
A least 4 of those 13+ people accepted 2 gigs. At least one has been awarded 3.
It seems that almost every day, someone in our private Mastermind Group announces having gotten a new audiobook job.
I can’t keep up, but eventually I will post a more detailed tally (complete with “how I did it” narratives from those narrators).
One of the students began the class bemoaning how much he hates hearing his own voice; he was self-conscious about how he sounded. His was a minority opinion, however; he has booked 2 (or is it 3?) jobs so far…
…one of them being a “Stipend” book. (That’s the kind that pays Per Finished Hour and pays royalties.)
Several people were offered books to narrate before the class ended.
But This Is Not About That.
I am not writing about our students (now our esteemed graduates).
Nor am I writing about our ACX Master Class.
I’m writing about you.
You were intrigued by the idea of becoming a professional audiobook narrator. But you were held back by doubt:
“No matter how good the class is, I’ll bet I won’t be able to do it. Other people can do it, but not me.”
“It’s probably a scam. There are no real opportunities left in this world. Especially not for someone like me.”
I Say Unto You This:
Knock it off.
At other times in your life, you learned new things and excelled at them.
You learned how to do radio production? Multi-track audio editing? Voice overs? Copywriting? Entertaining, enlightening or otherwise engaging audiences?
Heck, maybe you excelled at (shudder) Radio Sales.
You haven’t lost your ability to learn. What’s happened is somewhere along the way, you acquired…
…fear.
“I’d love to do (X), but I’m afraid I’ll be overwhelmed. I’m scared I won’t be able to do it.“
Here Is The Big Secret.
It’s okay to feel fear.
If you’re not happy with your current situation and there’s something new you want to try “but I’m scared,” you just need to fix your dialogue.
Replace “I’m scared, so I can’t do that”
with
“I’m scared, and I’m going to do that.”
Waiting until the fear magically “goes away” is a bad plan.
Guess what? Usually the fear goes away after you’ve taken action.
You’ve Already Heard About This, Right?
You know that next week (Tuesday) I’m doing a webinar with a friend who will teach you how to write & publish your own Kindle books.
And to publish them profitably, if that part appeals to you.
(Probably you’ve been wanting to write that book inside you for purely humanitarian reasons. But you could make some money with it, too. Just a thought.)
The webinar is free.
But if you haven’t registered for it yet, it’s because of the stinkin’, lousy fear.
“Yes, I already know what books I’d want to write. No, I don’t think it’s really possible.”
“Maybe Dan’s friend is hugely successful publishing Kindle books. But I’ll bet she has so many advantages over poor me.” (At the webinar, I’ll make sure she shows you what her life was like as a Walmart cashier…before she decided to take charge of her own destiny.)
“Sure, Dan managed to publish a successful Kindle book all by himself. But he’s a genius!“ (Okay, you got me there. When you’re right, you’re right.)
Look, if you like the idea of writing books and actually getting them published and purchased by people you don’t even know, you don’t yet have to believe you can do it.
If you’d love to be a published author, attend the free webinar. I absolutely guarantee you will learn stuff you can start using immediately.
Whether you choose to use the stuff you’ll learn is up to you. At minimum, however, you’ll discover that you can learn new tricks no matter how old a dog you think you are.
Don’t be kicking yourself afterward, when you hear about the people who weren’t too scared to show up and whose books now are being sold on Kindle. Register for the free Kindle webinar here.
But I Don’t WANT To Be A Best-Selling Author!
Maybe you don’t want to have Amazon publish your books at no expense to you. Maybe you have no interest in this whole “reading” fad.
If that’s the case, don’t waste your time attending the webinar.
Instead, think about what you do want to achieve at this stage in your life. And take the first steps toward making it happen.
