I’m a member of the Audio Publisher’s Association, which is the industry trade group for audiobook publishers, narrators, engineers and others in the business. Part of the dues covers a subscription to Audiofile Magazine, which is the premiere audiobook industry publication.

I picked up my copy yesterday at the Post Office and was very happy to find that a review of one of the books I narrated was in it! It was really odd and quite cool to see my name in print like that.

I recorded None Braver by Michael Hirsh for Tantor Audio earlier this year. It’s a deep dive into the world of the US Air Force Pararescuemen, or “PJs” as they are usually called. Their job is to be provide battlefield medical support in some of the harshest conditions imaginable. They are truly an incredible group. I was once a paratrooper myself, which is something I’ve always been proud of, but I always knew about the Rangers, the Green Berets, the SEALs, and so forth. Many people looked up to us, but we looked up to them.

I didn’t even know the PJs existed until I had the opportunity to read None Braver, and I was amazed at just how tough these guys are. They have a qualification course harder than just about any other special forces training in the world, lasts longer and graduates fewer. They truly are deserving of the title “None Braver”.

You can find the review on the Audiofile Magazine website here.

An excerpt: “Narrator Corey Snow does an admirable job navigating the listener through the technical details and military jargon. He captures the complexity of the PJs’ skills, equipment, training, and missions without overdramatizing the material.” 

Love it! Reviews are good for you, even when they’re not good reviews (because you learn what you’re doing wrong), but I’ll freely admit the positive ones feel better! 🙂

Get a copy of None Braver from Tantor Audio, or from Audible.com! You can also hear a sample of it in my audiobook demo reel on the homepage of my site.

It’s hard to put into words how cool this is. The Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) recently held auditions for Guy Kawasaki’s new book APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepeneur and I was one of those who auditioned.

As it turned out, I did not get the project; that went to Lloyd Sherr- the voice of Modern Marvels on the History Channel and several animated series. However, I was one of the six finalists, out of hundreds of auditions. That alone is an achievement, because I was in a very large pool with some absolutely stellar narrators. I personally know many of the people who auditioned, and have always been in awe of their talents. To make it to the finalists against that field is something I won’t lie about being proud of.

Go check out the article on ACX! I hope you enjoy reading it.

My latest audiobook project, Thunder Below! by Eugene B. Fluckey, is now available for sale via your favorite audiobook outlets.

This book tells the incredible story of the submarine USS Barb in World War II, and is not to be missed if you’re a fan of history, military, submarines or action.

You can order it from Tantor Audio or Audible. Go get your copy- it’s well worth it.

I received notice today that my new audiobook Poachers Were My Prey by R.T. Stewart has gone live on Audible.

The book is the autobiographical account of nearly two decades of undercover wildlife law enforcement work by Stewart as a wildlife officer in Ohio. It recounts many of his biggest undercover operations, and goes into deep detail about the people, situations and temptations he encountered. I had no idea before reading this book that undercover wildlife law enforcement was so dangerous!

This was a lot of fun to read, and I learned a lot. It’s a thrilling book and if you listen to it I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s a great story.

A few weeks ago, the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) put out a call for auditions for Guy Kawasaki’s book APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepeneur.

It was all over the media for a bit, even on sites like NASDAQ. Needless to say, it got a lot of attention and a ton of narrators threw their hat in the ring, including me.

A few hours ago I got an email saying that I was sadly not chosen to be the narrator for APE. I will admit I had high hopes for that one, but I knew it was a very unlikely prospect, given both the size of the talent pool and the caliber of the narrators I’d be going up against. There’s some SERIOUS talent out there and I know a lot of them went for this one.

A little while after the first email, I got a second one. This one was from Scott Jacobi at Audible, with incredible news: While I hadn’t been selected, I had been one of six finalists. Out of the entire pool of more than 350 auditions- and I’m not sure if that number is the total or just the ones decent enough to be given serious consideration- I was one of just six who made it to the final cut.

While it’s true that almost doesn’t pay bills, it’s also true that knowing I was good enough to be considered with the top-flight talent that must have been in that pool with me is pretty cool.

As if that weren’t enough good news, Scott went on to tell me that they want to feature me on the ACX Blog next week! I’ve got a bunch of questions to answer and some background to provide, and I’ll be showcased on the ACX site!

To say I’m excited would be an understatement. I’m very grateful to Audible and ACX for the extremely kind gesture.

Look for me to be featured on the ACX blog in detail sometime next week! I’ll be mentioning it here and on my Twitter feed (@vox_man), so watch for it!

This morning I got an email from the folks over at the Audiobook Creation Exchange, otherwise known as ACX, informing me that I had been granted the status of an Audible Approved Producer!

To be one means that my productions have adhered to a standard of technical and production quality that is not easy to meet. It says that Audible has recognized me as being a top-notch producer of audibooks.

On a more practical level, It also means I get a nifty badge on my ACX profile:  and can submit auditions for titles I had not been able to previously. Essentially it assures rights holders working via ACX that I am a known quantity and that they do not take a risk by hiring me as a producer. It’s a real honor to be recognized as an Audible Approved Producer, and I’m really pleased to be one!

Over the weekend I had an interesting experience. I recently completed narrating Thunder Below! by Eugene Fluckey, a Rear Admiral in the US Navy. A friend who knew I had narrated the book forwarded me an email he had received- one of those “FW:FW:FW” ones that we all get from friends and family members, you know the ones I mean…

This one was about the Barb! It described in great detail some of the exploits she undertook in WWII, focusing mostly on the fact that the Barb‘s crew “sank a train”, or more literally- blew one up by planting a scuttling charge from their own ship under the railbed and rigging a switch that would set it off when the train went over.

I’m sure glad to know that people are interested in the Barb, but it’s also just a sort of interesting thing- life and work kind of intersecting in strange ways. It also reminded me of how entertained I was when narrating Thunder Below! – the image of the Barb coming into port with her battle flag flying and the people on shore seeing a train on it- that must have been a head-check moment!

It’s just another reminder of why I’m so privileged to do this for a living. I get to give life to these amazing stories. It’s humbling.

Thunder Below is being released in audiobook format on August 12th from Tantor Audio. You can preorder it on Tantor.com or enter to win one of five free copies on GoodReads.

I’m super-pleased to announce that Tantor Audio has agreed to give away five MP3-CD editions of Thunder Below!, an audiobook I narrated recently. Thunder Below! is a riveting account of the exploits of the USS Barb, a submarine in WWII that had one of the most remarkable battle records in WWII, having sunk the most tonnage, conducting a land operation on the Japanese home islands (the only one!), and defining new doctrines of submarine warfare that are still in use today.

This book was a real pleasure to read, but also one of the most challenging I’ve done. You’ll hear everything from dry descriptions of inspections and loading of cargo to me shouting things like “DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!” and “LEFT FULL RUDDER! ALL AHEAD FLANK!” and even making dive klaxon noise (AA-OOO-GA!). The book is written in the first person and while technically a memoir often feels more like a thriller with its “you’re right there” dialog and writing.

Thunder Below! is scheduled to be published August 12, but we’re running a giveaway on GoodReads until then! So if you want your own copy, head over to GoodReads and sign up for the drawing!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Thunder Below!

by Eugene F. Fluckey

Giveaway ends August 12, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I had some interesting thoughts this morning that I wanted to share with you. I’m what you’d call a “professional voiceover talent”, meaning I make my living by recording myself speaking. I do audiobooks, commercials, narrations, even a podcast or two. But that sort of raises the question of how you define a “professional” in this business.

Who Is a Professional?

There’s a lot of navel-gazing in the industry about what it means to be a professional. Are you a professional if you have a “day job”, but do voice work on the side? Are you a professional if you’re working but living off your spouse’s income while you get your business going? I have met established pros that I wouldn’t trust to take out my garbage. I’ve also run into people who have done less than ten hours of voice work in their career that I would trust implicitly with any job I might send their way, knowing it’s going to be done right.

Allow me to explain what makes one a pro:

Behaving professionally. Take yourself seriously, take your customers seriously, and conduct your business like a professional.

Does a shot of me behind an expensive mic mean I’m a professional?

That’s it. No rules, no messy creams or gels. Taking yourself seriously and behaving as a professional makes you one. But it’s surprising to me how many don’t understand this simple precept. This isn’t a lemonade stand or a paper route you’re running here. This is a business, and if you want to be taken seriously, it starts with taking your customers seriously. They’re in business to make money just like you are and make no mistake, you are replaceable.

Think about your interactions with your clients and those who would consider you their client. When you work with someone to obtain a product or service, who do you go back to time and again? The ones you can trust and know will take care of you. Cost is not as much of a factor for most of us as is service and value. Give your customers good service, good value and remember that they’re paying you to do something for them. Do it right!

Now, am I suggesting that you “fake it until you make it”? Absolutely not. You should never misrepresent yourself- that in and of itself is unprofessional! But you don’t have to be a full-time voice talent working with a U87 in a $200,000 studio every day to be a professional.

Professionals honor their commitments, own their mistakes, take care of their customers, take their customer’s needs seriously, and operate their business like they expect to be taken seriously, no matter where they are in their career arc. Just starting out and auditioning on P2P sites, getting a couple of $50 jobs every few weeks? Recording IVR prompts for the local dentist? Maybe even doing pro bono work for Librivox? It does not matter what you’re doing, or whether it pays well (or even at all!). Take it seriously, respect your customers, set a goal and work toward it.

Professionals keep working and growing, amateurs quit when it gets hard.

Working With Professionals Is Its Own Reward

Part of what started this train of thought was an interaction I had this morning with a client I’ve had a relationship with for some time now. It was a simple thing, just sorting out some paperwork. It was routine, but what struck me was that it had been routine since the very first interaction I had with this client. There was never any confusion about what expectations were, deadlines were clearly communicated, they have always been responsive and helpful- in short, they’re professionals, in every sense of the word.

I realized that I enjoyed working with this client, not merely because they send me money- which, of course is necessary and good- but for its own sake, just because it’s nice to work with them. I like to hear from this client, because my day gets better every time I get an email from them- and that’s not a joke or an exaggeration. They are fun to work with because when I get something from them, it’s on point, concise and tells me exactly what they need from me.

There was a lesson to be learned for me in that- when I work with other people, I want them to look forward to hearing from me. I want them to be happy when they see my name in their inbox, and I work hard to make sure that when I work with my customers, they get what they need. I’m not trying to be their friend, I’m trying to be their professional service provider. Look at your customer interactions through that lens, and I believe it will serve you well.

I am super-excited about a new book I was just tapped to narrate by Tantor Audio. It’s called Thunder Below! by US Navy Rear Admiral Eugene B. Fluckey.

I’ve been privileged to find something of a niche in the audiobook world- military history. Over a quarter of my published books fall into that genre, starting with Valor in Vietnam, continuing through Black Hearts, The Guerrilla Factory and None Braver, I’ve really enjoyed reading and narrating these books, because they tell such incredible stories of the deeply human experience that is warfare- the heroism and the tragedy alike. I literally wept while reading Black Hearts at times, and had equally strong reactions to every one of the stories I’ve been asked to tell.

As a former soldier and a combat veteran myself, it’s both an honor and maybe even a bit of a duty to tell these stories, and to do them the justice they really deserve.

But when I got the email about this one- wow! To say I was stoked would be doing a disservice to the word. I have been fascinated with submarine warfare in WWII for many years. I blame my then girlfriend (now wife) Robin, who only a few weeks after I met her, figuratively dragged me to see “Das Boot” at the local cinema in 1995 (she had a bit of a thing for Jürgen Prochnow). It was the really long cut and had an actual intermission. I went, prepared to be bored out of my skull.

Boy, was I wrong. After seeing that film I began devouring everything I could about submarine warfare in that era. From the German U-Boats to the American Gato, Balao and Tench class subs, I was fascinated. I was lucky that Robin had a pretty sizable collection of books on the topic already.

Rear Admiral Eugene B. Fluckey

Thunder Below! is the story of the USS Barb (SS-220), a Gato-class submarine in WWII. It was commanded by Eugene B. Fluckey and has one of the most  amazing service records of any submarine that served in World War II. Among the things Barb accomplished while Fluckey was in command:

• Sank a large number of Japanese cargo ships and support vessels.
• Launched torpedoes into a group of 30+ enemy vessels at anchor in water nine meters (about 30 feet) deep, getting 8 direct hits on ammunition transports and doing massive secondary damage, then ran at 150% engines (setting a speed record of 44 km/h) for a full hour through uncharted, rock-strewn and mined waters to escape. Unharmed.
• Was the first submarine to use rockets successfully against enemy targets.
• Pioneered whole new doctrines of submarine warfare.
• Conducted the only land operation on the Japanese home islands during WWII, planting charges and destroying a railroad train after landing a shore party. These were sailors, trained to operate a submarine, not Marines trained for land combat.

Eugene Fluckey was awarded the Medal of Honor for Barb‘s actions during her 11th combat patrol. 

I knew a bit about Barb and Fluckey before being tapped for this book, but after doing a bit more research, I can tell I’m going to really enjoy reading this book. It brings together a number of my interests, and Fluckey has some of the most compelling stories there are to tell about WWII, and every review I’ve read says he wrote it in a very engaging and accessible style.

I will be starting narration on it in early July and I imagine it will be out by August. Once I have a publication date, I’ll update this post.