This Mom Took a Career Switch and Is Now Making Six Figures as a Book Narrator

Natalie Naudus’ voice actor journey began when she realized that narrating audiobooks could be a promising career option. She found that audiobooks were one of the fastest-growing areas of content creation and that most of them were recorded by voice actors in high-quality at-home studios. 

The mother of two decided to pursue it as a new career because she believed that many aspects of the genre she cherished as a classical singer could be incorporated into this new line of work. She now earns six figures annually.

Natalie’s husband helped her set up a home studio. A platform called ACX, which connects narrators with authors, agents, and publishers, gave her her first book job. To make her name and voice more well-known within the community, she started going to events related to book narration. 

During the 2020 pandemic, she decided to share snippets of her book narrator life on Tiktok and Instagram. She wishes others could appreciate this profession as much as she does. This exposure increased her popularity and fan base. Book gigs from publishers who wanted to hire her to publish her works also began to flood in. With this strong online presence, she acknowledged it as one of the most important decisions she has ever made for her professional advancement.

Currently, she still manages to put in a productive 40 hours a week between recording, administrative duties and reading up on material for her next book. Major publishers typically offer her a starting rate of $225 per finished audio hour. 

After three years as a voice actor, she finally reached the six-figure mark in earnings and enabled her to purchase the land for their mountaintop home, as well as upgrade her recording booth.

Natalie had recorded almost 400 books over five years. She is also an award-winning audiobook narrator of more than 250 titles.  Her story shows that taking a chance on a new career path can pay off in ways one never expects.– “It was a difficult decision to give up my opera dreams. But I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t left it behind and taken this chance.” she tells CNBC’s Make It.