Page Three with Samantha Norbury, Audiobook Narrator/Actor

Welcome to Write to Read podcast, a page in the life of an author. I'm Liv Macy, and these are my pages. Page three. I always adore having people come onto the show. and have conversations with me. for several reasons. one of which is. I am meeting people. That I've either interacted with. Or engaged with or followed for a long time. on social media. And the best part is. literally being able to sit down and chat with these people. In person, well, not in person. via video. Um, but in real life, in real time, And be able to just have a, have a conversation. Instead of a prerecorded, you know, 32nd, or one minute, two minute clip. that you're watching. I do feel like I know people, like they're my friends, my colleagues, my acquaintances, that I've become close with. It is a strange phenomenon for me because. I'm of the era. that. really didn't have these kinds of, uh, technological capabilities when I was a younger. But with time. Which we're not discussing. And with COVID. These capabilities have become. Um, no more normalized, but I guess more common. And it's amazing to be able to do that, when. You're talking to someone across the world or, um, you know, On the other side of the country. I am particularly looking forward to this conversation. with Samantha Norbury, who is an audio book narrator. She lives in the UK. She's a fun. Amazing incredible person. I could not wait to record the conversation and it was everything I thought it would be. Go check it out. in my conversations around the laptop. Today's bit of randomness. Um, One of my favorite things to do. Which of course often happens more often during the holidays. Is. A lot of cooking and baking. Almost a ridiculous amount of cooking and baking that goes on in my kitchen. And my kids. Always help out. They helped me with prepping the food or chopping the food. But. The best part of that portion of it. Is the dance parties that we have. So. It's almost Christmas and we're cooking in the kitchen, my kids and I, and. Yeah, we turned up the music and we turn it up about. And we're dancing and grooving and jamming to all sorts of music. And it just makes it so fun. And it's one of my favorite. Parts of the holidays. Is just hanging out. With the added pressure of cooking the food before people come over. Um, But also just. Kind of hanging out with my kids and having a great time. It's one of those experiences that I wish. Everyone could experience at least once in their lifetime. We have reached the beyond the blurb segment of the podcast, which is one of my favorite parts of the show. Here I can have the best of both worlds to give my listeners the opportunity to hear about books that may otherwise not have crossed their path and also to give authors a space to share their book on a wide platform for zero cost. But unfortunately it comes with a caveat. There's just no way that I can read every single book that has been highlighted. Or ensure that the authors or the works aren't problematic or offensive. I simply don't have the time. And as such, I must say that I do not endorse any of the books within this show. However, I do hope that you find something amazing. Happy reading. Hi, I'm Bec Erickson. I write rom com, chick lit um, speculative women's fiction with a humorous tone. My books focus on found family and on positive female relationships. My book, Feeling Ballsy, um, is part of the Love is Awkward series. The book is about two people who just can't seem to get away from each other because they're just kind of destined to be with one another. They are childhood friends to lovers and The theme of the book is balls and ballsy and any way you think can think of being ballsy on the soccer field or just kind of exploring on how to break out of who you thought you were and really go for what you want and allow yourself to go after it and what the main character wants is to be happy with her best friend but first she's got to figure that out and figure out that her best friend has been pining for her forever. And understand that cues, social cues, not always the easiest thing to figure out. And so for me, it's just a super relatable book. It's light. It's fun. It's a quick read. It's a read for when you just want to relax. And while there may be a couple of small, heavier themes in it, it is just a book to go through and remind yourself that there is good things that can happen and that friendship is at the core of everything. And it's good to be ballsy. Cheers! Hi, I'm Carly Pike, and I'm here to talk about my book, To Potement. It's a romance suspense book. It is about a massage therapist who owns her own massage parlor, and she's having a surveillance system installed because she has a little bit of a difficult Passed with an X. So if he does it for her protection, and when the owner of the surveillance company comes in, they kind of hit it off and immediately they're pretty much inseparable. And as she gets to know the guy, she realizes that he. doesn't just work in surveillance. There's a lot more to him that he doesn't tell her about. And so secrets start to unfold and she kind of has to roll with the punches as well as the drama with her ex. And it's, it's a wild ride. Hi, I'm Liv Macy. And I'm the author of the infinite universe. The first book in my series is becoming justice. Which is Cassie's story. Each book is a standalone adult fantasy romance, a paranormal romance, urban fantasy with romantic elements. Depending on who you're talking to. This book has everything you could want. A bad-ass woman who may or may not be morally gray. A protective man, who's determined to keep her safe for. Um, reasons of his own. You've got enemies to lovers, a hot boss and a magic cabin. Not to mention a list of suspects and they secret society. When Cassie goes undercover for purely vengeance reasons. She finds all sorts of things. She had no idea existed. She's tough. I mean, you've got to be when your family is taken from you and you're determined to make someone pay. But maybe finding a soulmate, isn't something she can handle. You got to read it to find out. Check out becoming justice. I kind of feel like I shouldn't even have this segment in this show, this episode. This week. Because, you know, It's a couple of days before Christmas. I have not done. Hardly any? No, I D I did do some writing, um, not enough for it to actually be worth an update. I've done a lot of holiday stuff. I've done a lot of. Um, sending out PR boxes, uh, Um, Mailing out Christmas cards, wrapping presents, buying presents. Buying food. Uh, for our, our Christmas Eve meal. And. Yeah, my author type of stuff has kind of taken a back seat. This week and. Yeah. That's it. That's all I have. Next week we'll hopefully be better. It has to be better. I have a book due. I have a deadline. So. Check back next week. See how far I've gotten. Keep me accountable. Make me write these words faster. Well, unfortunately, nobody can do that, but. Keep me accountable. Make these sit down and write these stories. So I don't feel bad when I update next week. This episode is sponsored by. Me myself and I. Because I still do not have any pain customers who would like to. Have ad space in my episode. And that's okay. I do not expect to have. Anybody who wants to pay for a spot? On a show that is only three weeks in. And probably a handful of listeners. One day. And one day soon. People will be. Flooding my email. My inbox wanting ad space on this episode. And I will be thrilled to pieces to no longer have to sponsor it myself. Like everything else in the author world. It takes time. It takes consistency and dedication. And a lot of humor because nobody wants to cry about things that they cannot control. So, if you would like to have ad space right here in the middle of my podcast. Have links. On my website on my link tree on social media For Google forms For you to fill out if you would like to. Pay for ad space there are also Google forms. If you want to be part of beyond the blurb segment. If you want to interview. For conversations around the laptop. Reach out, email me, go on my website, which is live macy.com. I am live Macy author on all social medias. Come on onto the show. It's fun here. I cannot promise you cookies because it's virtual. But. I can promise my smiling face and my. Wonderful company. I'm humble. Very humble. And now please join me for a conversation around the laptop. Hi, thank you so much for joining me. It is my pleasure to be here. No, no, it's my pleasure. You know why? Because I have been looking forward to this conversation all week long. So for those who have not, um, heard of you, this is Samantha Norbury, of course, who is the wonderful narrator. Um, she had done a human voices only movement a couple of weeks ago that was quite a success. You want to talk about that? Yeah, that was, I'm still sort of in shock about that whole movement. That was really great. It was, it started out as like a, an idea that sort of stemmed from, it's very similar to like the Femme audio takeover for those who are familiar with that. Um, but, I wanted to show what humans are capable of emotionally, what we can bring to the table that AI can't. And I just thought, I'll just ask some authors to send me a line, you know, because everybody has that line in their book that they're like, oh, I wrote that and it was good. It was so good. And I was like, you know, it's just like, ah, that, that feeling. And I was like, send me that line and I'll record it and I'll bring that feeling that I get from it. And then I was like, oh, wouldn't it be great though, if some narrators, if we could all just do this. So I put out this video just like, a call to arms sort of. Um, and I honestly, I didn't expect more than maybe 10 narrators, maybe a dozen authors to reach out. Um, but as we stand now, we've had over half a million views on that hashtag, hundreds of authors. Dozens of narrators and just the passion that came through from both authors and narrators. It was just, the merger was beautiful. I made loads of new friends and my TBR. quadrupled because there's just so many good books out there and that's another thing. It was like seeing all the indie authors, like authors you don't, you know, their books aren't promoted as readily. Um, and we got to see those and it was, yeah, it was, it was extraordinary and I'm still doing them. I know other narrators are still doing human voices only. Lines here and there. Cause it was, it was hard. I got hundreds of authors in my inbox and I couldn't do them all in this like one week. So I was like, well, we'll just keep doing them. We'll just stagger them out because I don't like to say no to anybody when it comes to their writing. Um, so yeah, we're just, we're still going. And it's, it's just, yeah, it was unexpected and beautiful. And I'm thankful that so many people did it. It was across. All my feeds on every social media platform, just about, um, and of course I was lucky enough that you did a line of mine, which I, it was wonderful. It was, that one was a favorite for a lot of people too. Well, I kind of picked it too because, um, I feel like everyone does like. Everybody wants to have like that sappy, like, Oh, kind of moment. And I'm all like, no. No, I loved it. It was such a good change of pace too. Like when I was putting all the videos together, I would always like, they would usually start with quite a sad one. And I was like, I've got to put lives up front because it is like, it kicks some butt and I want that to like capture people's attention. And yeah, it was, that one was a favorite for sure. Mine too. Shockingly. No, but I mean, you're a proponent of practicing anyway. Um, I know you do like the five. I'm not even going to attempt it. You five ways Friday. I love Friday. I always imagine that nobody watches those, but me, because I just, I pretty much sit in my little room. And I say this one sentence five different ways, depending on the book genre and emotion, and I just, it cracks me up. Like, each time I say something, I then laugh hysterically and move on to the next one. And I hope nobody sees it. Um, but people do, obviously. But it's great because more narrators are hopping on that too and doing it, which is great. Because it is, it's good practice. Um, but Mostly it's just fun. It's just like, it's a chance to sort of not take your job too seriously, unwind, and yeah, I don't know. I love it. Well, and I mean, I think I kind of feel like practice in general would be good for your profession because I imagine you have a lot of Not maybe the same thing, but kind of in the same lane, maybe, uh, I mean, do you have like a wide variety or is it like, I, I always feel like it's people kind of get, it's almost like actors get stuck in that same kind of cast. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've probably not been doing it long enough. Um, but also, you know, you have to know what you're good at. And for me, I tend to sound quite young. In audio form. So I know that I'm not great for. nonfiction or like, you don't want me reading you out a textbook or anything overly serious. Cause it just, you're like, I don't believe this girl. Cause she sounds like she's 17. Like that's not going to work. I wouldn't say that sound reliable. Um, so I do, but I tend to audition mostly for fantasy books because that's what I love. I like YA, fantasy, romance, like I tend to audition for the types of books that I like to read. Um, cause I feel like you can just get, I feel like you're better at your job if you're passionate about it. Right. So it's a lot easier for me to get passionate about something. that I like. Um, so I pretty much only audition. I'm choosy about what I auditioned for, for that reason. Um, and people might, yeah, get typecast in that way, but the cool thing about audio books is you get to play every single character in the book. So you get to play the damsel and the villain and the hero. All in one go. So even if you get typecast with, say, a genre, you still get to play all the characters. So, you know, it's never, it's never dull. That's for sure. Did you have a hard time switching between, like, like the villain and the heroine when you first started? Or did that come naturally to you? Um, no, I think that does come, that came pretty naturally to me. What I do find is when you have a bad guy who is very bad when, especially when it comes to like assaults or something like that. And usually these I've voiced this a couple of times and usually it's pretty brief in a story where you have a guy who's trying to do something bad. And I. I'm not comfy with that. Um, so that, like getting into that headspace, I don't particularly like. Um, but that's probably the extent of finding it hard to switch between characters, is when you have to get into the head of someone who you really find vile. Then you're like, you know, that can be a bit. I don't really like that. Um, but you know, it is part of the job. So, you know, you can step in and then just step right out. Um, so that's kind of similar to like method acting, which a lot of people are familiar with. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And I think that's for me. And I think for most narrators, when you're reading the book, you really, You're searching for how these characters think and how they feel. And I think because each voice has to be unique, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to change your voice, but the tone has to be unique. You really have to know who they are. So your posture changes and your attitude changes and therefore your voice and tone changes. And I think you have to get to know characters even. Deeper in voice than you do, say in film, when you're just doing one person, because you can rely on your face and your movements a lot more. Whereas an audio, it's just, it's so subtle. So you really have to get to know each and every one of them so deeply in order to pull that off. Because otherwise they'd all sort of sound. It's funny. I actually watching you, uh, on like your Tik Toks and your Instagram and stuff, I, I didn't realize. that you guys actually do like bodily move. Like I'd heard before, and I, I, I noticed obviously when I started doing this podcast that when you smile, for example, you, it changes your tone. Like I just didn't realize how much you guys need that movement and how much you guys actually move to make your voice like do the things that you want it to do. I didn't know that either. I really didn't. I remember the. first time I like plucked up the courage to film myself doing it for one of those and I was like, What am I doing with my eyebrows? Because I do it all tends to be like right here. But yeah, you do you get like you do it is a lot of movement. And I know with With audiobooks, we tend to sit down, right? Because we're recording for so many hours. With, um, commercial voiceover or something like that, you actually stand because you, like, they want it so big, especially radio commercials where you have to, like, and the movements that they're telling you to do are just, they're flailing all around like crazy. Yeah, it is. It is nuts. The amount of, you know, yeah, you do it and you don't even know you're doing it. It's just, you know, you're getting, you're lost in it. I'm doing it right now. Giving new definition to talking with your hands, right? So expressive. Um, but back to the, uh, human voices only. I mean, we've had. So many changes coming up and starting and it feels like it's been a domino effect. It was like, uh, the last one that's come out now is Spotify, which is such low because they were find a way voices. I mean, most people who are familiar with. Making an audiobook, you've got ACX and Findaway Voices were like the two really easy go to places. Um, and Findaway closed down the narrator profile section recently and they really tried to sell it like, no, this is a great thing. We're going to be doing Kickstarters for authors and it's just going to make it so much easier for everybody. And we're all like, no. And then a week, two weeks later. Oh yeah, we're doing, I forget what they called it. They don't, they try not to call it AI. The digital, yeah. Digital, that was it. Yes. Yeah, that's right. So Kindle was calling it virtual voices. They're calling it digital voices. It's all AI. It's all, um, pretty frustrating because Not only, you know, does it hurt potentially our jobs in the future, but the voices that have been used to train these AI were not given necessarily with the voice actors consent. The amount of voice cloning that goes on is. insane. And it's, yeah, it's maddening. Even programs, we use these things called DAWs to record our audio and Adobe, who's like a really big one, right? And Adobe Audition is something that a lot of voice actors use. And you actually had to, they started using your voice that you were using to record for machine learning. And you actually had to go in and turn it off. And it's like, that is just. It's so sneaky. There's so many of these sneaky little things. You're stealing people's voices and then using it to put them out of business. And it's just frustrating. Um, yeah. I mean, honestly, though, I can't, I, on one hand I keep thinking myself. There's no way, there's no way that it's going to stay with digital narration. Like I cannot stand my word document. And I mean, and I have used programs. So like I was, I was, um, subscribed to natural readers. com because I needed. Like as an author, um, in order to catch like spelling errors and grammatical errors, I need it read aloud to me because you know, you just skim over and you're, you're just naturally, you just replace what you know is supposed to be there. And so I have to listen to it. And even I pay for the premium, which is still, it's nowhere near, they're not using human voices, I don't think yet, or maybe they are, I don't know what their thing was, but this was, you know, for my own use. And even the premium, I'm like, there's. You can tell it's a machine, like it's never going to be, you know, huge. I know. And you know, I want to say also, like, when it comes to AI and voice that using it for accessibility or as a tool is more than okay. It's fantastic. And I don't think anybody should ever feel bad about that because it's useful and should be used. And so I have no issues with that whatsoever. Um, the. The thing about it is the AI is not great yet. They sound so much more human than I was expecting. Like the first time I heard it, I was like, Oh, that sounds good. But then the more you listen, the more you're like, Oh, but actually no. Cause they're not emphasizing the right words. Their pacing's weird, whatever. But I think I keep hoping that if we can agree as like a community of creatives, that even if it does, Transcripts, sound, good. We choose not to because we support each other. Right. And, but I don't, it's hard to imagine it will ever sound as good because how can you really express feeling when you can't feel like what we draw from is our past experiences and our feelings. And that's why we're able to make you feel is because I feel, and obviously AI can't do that. So I keep, you know, I, I hope for that, but I also know. Technology advances and it advances quickly and I could see five years from now it being able to do something that sounds very similar to what we do and without the missed deadlines and mistakes that happen, you know, cause we are human and mistakes do happen and it terrifies me that people would want to do a cheaper option that way, but ultimately I think it will come down to the listeners and I think listeners will not connect. so much. The same to AI as they will to humans. And I think the sales of audio books in general would plummet if humans were no longer in the picture, but I don't think that will happen. I'm really, really hopeful that we've got good unions in place and we can continue just to band together and not. not allow AI to take over the creative space because, you know, we just can't. Well, I know. I mean, there's lots of jobs. That's, I mean, that's your guys livelihood. And, and as a reader, I mean, I definitely don't connect to the AI and the digital versions at all. I. I keep thinking it's going to happen because there are people who don't care. Um, yeah, they do consume books that way. Um, you know, and I, I definitely think it's going to go that way. I kind of wonder if it's going to be along the lines of like, You know, back in the 1800s and stuff like that, where you had like the cheap little pamphlets, but then the people who were like rich had like these nice bound, you know, guilted. And I just kind of feel like that's what it's going to be is that the people who can afford to consume. More than a book a year at that price are going to are going to go that route, but you're going to have this cheaper version. That's the quality is what you pay for. Right? I mean, it could. And the other thing about AI generated content is it can't be copyrighted. So if you were an author and you did have your audio book done by AI, you can't copyright it. So literally anybody could just do it again and again and again, your book with AI. So it just, it doesn't even, I don't know, it doesn't make sense to me why you would. Why you would do it at this point in time. But yeah, I imagine they're gonna have, there's gonna be so many rules and regulations that have to be in place too before I think it's acceptable. Hopefully. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I dunno, it's so, yeah, it feels like AI is such a big thing and it's weird to me that like there's no sort of public voting or no anything because I feel like it's so powerful and it's so easy to misuse and when people's careers are being threatened. You would think at some point. I think it's one of those things where, you know, first of all, a lot of people are like, well, it doesn't affect me. So they're not worried about it yet. And I think, yeah. Yeah. And I think also that it's, AI is like you said, so huge. It's on so many different fronts. So there are people that are over here focused on, you know, art and people are over here focused on, on the audio and here they're, the authors are like, you know, there's a Everyone is so divided and split up as far as what they're concerned with. And even like, not in the creative space, but like in medical or, you know, chat GPT, like portion, like there's just so much division that nobody is focusing overall. That if you allow this here, it's going to affect here, here, here, and here. And like, Yeah, and that's absolutely right. And again, I think AI as a tool is fine. And I think it has its uses, uses and a purpose. In our society. I do. I think AI could be a good thing in certain areas. I'm not like anti AI entirely. Um, but it's just, I don't know. It's really weird to me. You know, there's that old quote. I can't remember who it's from now, but it was, um, I was a warrior. So my son, do you know what I'm talking about? Right? Yes. Shop owners and his son could be a poet that like, because the ultimate dream I think for people is to be able To do what they're passionate about, not what they have to do, but what they're passionate about. And I feel like when you're somebody who's making their living in the creative space, it is because you're passionate about it, right? Cause you don't get, you, you don't usually make a ton of money at it. So you have to be pretty passionate about it to do it. And so these passion jobs, which make life life for people. For that to be taken away by AI is such a problem to me. Like, I want AI to do my house cleaning, that would be great, but please don't take my dream job. That's not how this was supposed to go. Yeah. Why? Um. I mean, I know why and it always comes down to money, but yeah, I don't know. I'm just trying to remain hopeful. Maybe if we keep mentioning Terminator over and over, people will start to take notice. I know. I'm trying. I'm not trying to make light of the situation, but like, you know, it's. I mean, you know, you can only do what you can do. And it's, it's kind of depressing when you think about like all the ramifications of AI and in all the spaces, like it's just, I mean, you know, you already see people before who were all, you know, Oh, Hey, the self checkout is great. And then people started losing their jobs and they're like, wait a second. Yeah. What happened? Yeah. I mean, it's just the same thing people are just not until they realize it's unfortunately might be too late already for them, but hopefully, like you said, we can band together and stick together and authors can support narrators and narrators can support authors. And, you know, we can support cover designers who aren't using AI and things like that. Like, if we just keep making it an effort, I think we can really. At least for a little bit longer, hold on to that until there's some regulation. That's right, and I think the banning together has been, you know, at least, I don't know, it's given me a lot of hope, I would say. Yeah. I know. I, I just, I loved that whole human voices only was wonderful. Uh, besides the fact that, you know, a lot of authors can't afford anything right now as far as like audio books go. So for us even, it's like, it's like a little gift, you know, to hear our words narrated. I love that. You know, when I narrate a book always, I, I'm always reading it to the author. Always. Like I don't, I think in my head if I thought people were listening to it I probably wouldn't be able to do it to be honest with you. Um, so for me I'm always focused on reading it to the author because I know how Special, that is, when an author hears their characters come to life. It's hands down my favorite part about this job is like the messages I get of authors just in tears because they're, their characters are alive and it's just, it's great. So when I'm reading it, I'm always like, I'm doing this for you. I'm reading this right to you because this is for you. And it's just, it's a really special. thing. And then, you know, then listeners get to hear it. And I think they can feel that, you know, and it's that connection from author to narrator, to listener that I think is super special. It is. It's incredible. And you're very gifted. Of course, I listened to a lot of your, your, um, post show. Um, and you're incredibly talented, so you definitely have a, a knack for doing that. Thank you. Me, on the other hand, I can barely pull out a, you know, British accent or something. British accents are tricky. I live in Yorkshire. And I can't do a Yorkshire accent to save my life. Like, there's no way I would not be able to do it. It's so hard. But I can do, like, uh, an RP. Like, I can do a posh English accent. And I can do a Cockney English accent. But I could not do, like, a Liverpudlian. Accent or Yorkshire, not, no, no way. Yeah, I can't like, yeah, for like the U. S. I can't do a Boston accent. I can maybe pull off like a New York, but I can't, I maybe Southern a little bit, but I, yeah, it's so hard. I don't know how you guys do it. Like, we generalize, we generalize all the time and that's. It's something that I think probably most people know, like the amount of Southern accents there are, right? There's tons, like Texas alone has so many. Right. If I'm going to do a Southern accent, I'm just going to do the one that everybody's expecting that I do. And I don't even know, like I couldn't pinpoint it on a map, but this is what they're expecting. So it's like, you know, that's just the broad general. Southern. And it's the same for New York. Like when they do the New York accent, it's just a caricature. It's not like, you know, it's just very broad and that it irritates people who are local to the area you're trying to sound like, but to the rest of the world, they're like. It's the Hollywood version that they're expecting, so they're fine with it. Yeah, they're like, oh yeah, okay, that's New York, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, they don't really walk around saying, I want a Twolk wafi. Like, that's just like, that's way too over the top. But at the same time, if you're watching a cartoon or something, that's, you're like, oh yeah, okay, that fits. That's so great. You're just like in and out of accents. It's fine. Not very well, but that's all right. No, no, it's great. I'm amused over here, believe me, and impressed because I just, yeah, I couldn't slip in and out like that. So how did you get into it? Into audiobook? Well, um, so I always wanted to be an actor. Always. From the time I was about four, I think, is the time I did my first play. And I just always was like, I'm going to be an actor. That's just it. I'm going to be an actor. Uh, and I really believed that until I was probably in my mid twenties. Um, and then I no longer believed it anymore. Um, but I did a lot of theater and, um, yeah, I sort of slowly let that dream go. And I, you know, when I was I was doing theater and wanting to be an actor. I was a bartender and a barista and like anything I could do while saving room for auditions. And then I got an office job. I went into accounting, um, which sucked my soul dry. I was just going to say, I don't see you doing accounting. Yeah, no, I did accounts receivable, even worse. I did like collections. I mean, it was just like, and it would be amazing because I'd call people. Hi, yeah, you owe us 20, 000. And they're like, you sound like you're 13. I'm a grown up. I swear. It was so awkward. I was not great at it. Um, but that's what I did. And then I had kids and I was a stay at home mom. And then it was time to get back into work. Um, And you're like, please, no, I knew I did not want to go back to that. Um, but I desperately wanted to go back to work and I was listening to tons of audio books. Just, I was consuming them with every free minute I had, which wasn't a lot. But if I had a free minute, I was like, I'm listening to my book. I'll be like knitting and listening to my book. I'm like, I'd wake up at 5 a. m. before my kids. would wake up just to listen to my, it was like my special time. And the more I was listening to these audio books and realizing that the performances were so good. And I was like, they're, they're actors. They're not, they're not just reading. These people are actors. I was like, I wonder if I, I wonder if I could do that. And I didn't even want to let myself believe that maybe, maybe I could, maybe I could get back into acting. Maybe this could be my thing. Um. So I had a friend who was, uh, who's a voice actor. He does, um, like trailers and things and he put me in touch with a coach and at that point I wasn't fully ready yet. And then this thing called COVID happened. I don't know if you've heard of it, but the whole world shut down. Um. And that gave me time to sort of research stuff. So I spent, from that minute on, I spent a year and a half studying. I took like every online class I could get my fingers on. I just Lurked in like the narrator Facebook groups, watching everybody's questions and then watching all the answers come in and just like absorbing all this information. And then I finally, um, plucked up the courage to buy the equipment. So I did that and then I practiced a lot. I would sit in here and I would just read books on Kindle out loud to myself and I'd practice with like the different DAWs and software. And then I hired a vocal coach and I worked with her over a few weeks, um. And then I hired an engineer and learned the tech more thoroughly. And then I was like, okay, I'm finally ready. I'm going to audition for a book. I'm just going to audition and it's fine. I'm sure I won't get it. And I auditioned and like an hour later, she offered me the book. I was like, Oh, well, I'm in it. Okay, let's go. And then, yeah. And then from there. It all just sort of happened. Um, and then it took me like a few months before I wanted to, I took the step into social media, um, which I wasn't a fan of in my personal life. I don't, I was always sort of anti social media, but I hadn't discovered BookTok or Bookstagram. And that was a game changer because it was, yes, it's social media, but it's like this nice little corner of like minded people. Like, they all like books. Like, I didn't know. I didn't know that existed. Right. Um, and it was just this kind of happy, supportive space. And I met all these other narrators and I couldn't believe how uplifting. Everybody was and so supportive of one another. and yeah, it's just from there, it's been just growth. And it's been, it's been amazing. Yeah, I, when I first stepped into the author spaces, uh, I too was really impressed with how, um, I was shocked, honestly. I, I kind of felt like I was not a good, um, I didn't have a good idea of humanity and I, I did, like, I just kind of was very jaded and cynical and I, and I stepped into these spaces and I was, I was, I was shocked about how welcoming and supportive and they're willing to answer questions. And you're just like. Wow. What have I stepped into? What planet have I landed on? Because I wasn't used to that. I wasn't used to people just offering to help for free. Like, we'll give you advice. Like, yeah, it's normal. Um, so I'm glad you guys also have that kind of like that narrators have that community and it's amazing. Books in general kind of bring us all together, you know, you know, I feel like book people. are good people. I feel like, I mean, for me, and I feel like a lot of people have a very similar story where it's like when books were a way to escape and enter into this world that was maybe happier than what you were experiencing in your daily life. And, So I feel like book people have some things in common that make us want to be, and a lot of books have all these morals and ethics, right? And I think that bleeds into who you are outside of that and that's part of maybe why the book community is so great. Um, it's really funny to me every time I see like all these I'm like, is it though? But, oh, it's just cause I'm on book talk. I don't know what's going on. Cause my space is quite nice over here. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Cause there is some drama on book talk, but I feel like those are the people that are kind of. They get involved in drama regardless. Yes, yeah, I know. That, that, that is true, isn't it? That you're kind of just like, whoops, swipe, nope. Exactly. And training that algorithm is really hard. Oh my gosh, every time TikTok logs me out. I have to log back in, but they're just showing me these things before I'm like, no, that's not me, that's not me. I don't want to see that. You're afraid to do anything but hurry up and swipe. Like if I linger too long, it'll think I like it. Exactly. You get sucked into something and then you realize what it is and you're like, no. I don't know if it's just my age, but like half the time it's like cleaning products. Wow. Okay. That, that might be a you thing. I don't know. Why? But I still have, yeah, I still have the weirdest things sometimes I come across and I don't know how it got there. It's kind of like the search history of an author. You don't want to go in there either. I don't know. I would love to see the search history. We do some weird, weird things. I think my first book, one of the first weirdest things that I had, it wasn't even that it was weird. It was just, I was, I just kept thinking to myself, if somebody searched through here, they'd really seriously be wondering what am I doing? Because I have in my first book, I, or not my first book, my second book, I have a character who gets shot and has a bullet and tears lung and they're trying to see, and they're not taking him to a hospital. They can't. And so I'm Googling ways on how to save a lung from collapsing without taking someone to the hospital. That's not, that's not, the police just show up on your door. Why are you not taking them to the hospital? What are you hiding? And I just, you know, I don't, ah, yeah, I probably should have put a trigger warning on that before I saved that on the podcast. I'll put that in the front. But yeah, I just, some of the search history is pretty, pretty interesting. Well I like it. This is what we do to get these beautiful words to you that you then turn around and make so viable. So I love it. But, um, I know it's really late for you and I don't want to keep you on so long. You and I could just talk to you for hours. I feel like this is so nice. It's so nice to finally like just talk with you after. I feel like we're friends already just from social media, but yeah, this is great for kindred spirits. We're going to open up our library with our cafe. Yes. Yes. And for my listeners that we both have that dream. So Sam and I are definitely going to open a joint and if not a joint we'll have, we'll have separate, uh, We'll have sister. Oh, yeah. They'll have to have like a cute twins name somehow. Well, I'm going to say thank you for joining me and, um, real quick, where can people find you if they are looking for a narrator or if they just want to follow you or? Oh, well, um, yeah, okay, you can find me, I've got a website, which is just samanthanorberyvo. com, and that's pretty much my handle across all social media, um, I'm on ACX, of course, um, Or, but I'm also with like other publishers who probably cost a bit more, but are well worth it. Um, so I'm with places like Audiobook Empire, Pink Flamingo, Audio Factory, um, Dreamscape, places like that, which produce really epic audiobooks. So yeah, you can find me there, but thank you so much for having me. This has been a delight. Of course. Thank you so much. You make this rather snappy, won't you? I have some heavy thinking to do before 10 o'clock. Industry information, or maybe the anti gatekeeping section. Either way, this is a segment of the show where I talk about the things that I've done in this industry, the paths that I've taken, things I've learned as a new author. Basically, my opinions, my choices, my knowledge passed on to you. And remember, every author and every story is different. This week's tip is. About leaving enough time. We're giving yourself a buffer. For when you are launching a book. No matter how. Much time you need. Always give yourself an extra week or two or three. Or maybe even four here and there. You could ask me how I know. Or I could just tell you. Every book that I have launched, I have progressively gotten. Um, better at. Kind of figuring out what my timeline is. But no matter how much time I have given myself, it is never enough. I always shortchange myself and I am bound and determined. Two. Sometime very soon. Actually have a accurate timeline. So that some of the pressure at least is eased off of my shoulders. Don't forget that if you want to hear about something specific. In this section or you have a question. You can fill out the Google form linked in the show notes and I will get back to you. I give you my opinion, answer it. Whichever it may be. Thank you for listening. If you'd like to follow me, my handle on all social media platforms is Liv Macy Author. You can also sign up for my newsletter at livmacy. com to stay up to date on things like new releases of the Write to Read podcast. This is the end of a page in my author life.