Aaron W. Miller has been narrating audiobooks for over 3 years. He is an acting coach who works with adolescents and adults to help the polish their acting craft, connect with scene partners, and confront that demon of stage fright. His website is dramedyacting.com. He is also the co-author of the Tennessee State Standards for Theatre Arts. But above all he is a father and husband and a small homestead entrepreneur who loves his family dearly.
How did you first get interested in the idea of doing audiobook narration?
Before becoming a full time high school teacher, I worked in radio for several years as a creative services director. I wrote, produced, and voiced numerous commercials, played a few characters on some of the morning shows, and really enjoyed being a voice actor. About four years ago, my wife was researching ‘moonlighting gigs’ for teachers and came across audiobook narrating. She encouraged me to try it, so we gutted a little used closet, converted it into a studio, and I was off and narrating.
How did you get started in this field, and what were your earliest experiences like?
The first year was a learning curve, but I had some experience with audio production, so I wasn’t averse to editing my own material. I am also a private acting coach and have always been a storyteller so those aspects of the business were quite familiar to me. What I didn’t know enough about was the stamina required to be an audiobook narrator. You learn quite quickly that two hours standing at a mic reading a story, performing as various characters can be extremely taxing. I had to find a way to merge what I knew about commercial radio production with audiobook narrating — that meant researching the proper equipment, troubleshooting my audio chain — in radio we had our staff engineers who knew their stuff far better than I did.
I don’t like to listen to my first few titles because my audio quality, pacing, narrative voice have all significantly improved since then. But that’s part of the process, making those mistakes, learning from them, and applying that knowledge to future projects.
You have published 2 books on Kindle and plan to do some more. Do you have any plans to record your books as audiobooks?
In a perfect world — that is one where I’m not teaching full time, producing stage plays, and narrating 6 different titles — I would have already narrated my books. The Sad Man, my novella, is a first person female character, so I’m not totally sold on the idea of my voicing her yet. The other book is a collection of horror shorts, and perhaps I’ll get around to narrating that some day.
Besides working as an audiobook narrator, you also serve as an acting coach for film and stage actors. What is the biggest challenge for new actors to accomplish?
The single most difficult thing for any human to do is to get out of their own way. We become very adept at trying to be right, not letting people really see or hear us. We limit our imagination by selectively omitting the first thing we think of, choosing the fourth or twelfth thing because that is more “right” or, truthfully, more pleasing to those whom we fear being judged by. I think anyone interested in acting needs to spend time watching people be real people (airports are great places to see real life happening, for example) and then work with an acting coach who has training in Meisner, Adler, Hagen or to the great William Esper. As my own private coaching practice grows, I hope to be able to help actors open up, rekindle their imagination, and find comfort being their real self.
Do you think an audiobook narrator needs to enjoy the book she or he is performing? Could you make a book you truly hated seem likeable to an audience?
A performer of any story, be that stage, film, TV, webisodes, or audiobooks ought to give their best to that performance regardless of their personal opinion of the story. Certainly, if you’re really in love with the character, with the story, then yes that harmony will translate far more deeply into the DNA of the audience.
You have narrated a variety of genres, including a middle grade superhero story, a lawyer thriller, several nonfiction books about such things as gardening or living in an RV, paranormal adventure, sci-fi, and historical fiction. Does your approach to each genre vary as you prepare to perform the different ones?
Every story is its own universe, and it is my duty to give it the life it needs to thrive. If I read every western the same way, then I’d be doing a terrible disservice to the author’s efforts to create a unique world and populate that world with living, breathing people, events, history, etc. So yes, I approach each book as its own entity. While I think you can rely on some tropes of a genre — things listeners anticipate — I don’t think you can blanket read sci-fi, paranormal romance, or any other genre. My job as the narrator is to work with the author and breathe life into characters who previously only existed in a two dimensional space on the page or the unique imagination of each of their readers.
Of the various books you have performed during your narration career, which ones stand out in particular to you?
There are one novel and two series I’ve narrated which have great meaning to me. The second book I ever narrated,, The Memory Keeper, written by Larry & Lorna Collins, remains with me. Because it is a well-written, emotional novel and because it’s written in the first person, I really resonated with Tomas, the main character. The first series is by Keith Baker entitled Longshot; there are three books in this series which detail the events surrounding Rob Finn’s employment with the Pinkleton agency. Longshot is historical fiction, something I’ve come to really enjoy narrating and reading for pleasure; the characters were wonderfully sculpted by Keith and he was very generous with the amount of liberty I had voicing them. Finally, there’s a new series I’m working on with Rosemary Johns, the first book of which is called Blood Dragons. I love this book because the main character, Light, is so far from my own demeanor — he’s British, from Yorkshire actually, so I’ve been learning the subtle variations in English dialects.
What advice did you find especially helpful as you started out performing audiobooks that you like to share with new narrators now?
There are a lot of people out there who are more than happy to take your money in order to tell you that you need acting training, an acoustically treated space, and a decent microphone. There are also quite a few websites out there more interested in your monthly $49.95 than they are in helping you land any voice gigs. Finally, be kind to your authors — work with them, let them know up front how you approach a novel. In my case, I’ve been very blessed working with authors who understand that my day job is my teaching career.
What characteristics are necessary for a person to have in order to make that person an effective audiobook narrator?
Stamina, storytelling sense, and an understanding of the pacing, pauses, breaths, and delivery required to really sell the scenes which comprise a story. You don’t have to be able to do 1,000 voices, but you should be able to enunciate, captivate, and keep your listeners. A deep voice isn’t enough, and in fact, many of my authors have told me they would rather have a narrator with a storytelller’s voice rather than, say, a James Earl Jones deep voice.
What is your favorite part about performing audiobooks?
The freedom to perform as an armada of characters and knowing that someone somewhere is listening to me tell them a story.
