By Keith Brunson
Tanya Eby is an audiobook narrator all-star. She became an Audie-award-winning narrator and the recipient of USA Today's Bestselling Writer contestant on NAILED IT. So, Tanya is one to learn from if you're interested in an audiobook career. Last month, she narrated her 1000th book. "Not too many people achieve this milestone."
Her beginnings were rooted in writing and art. Voiceover was not in her sights as a future, but she worked on it passively because, "It was a struggle to make it a career," she says. But ten years ago, after spending a decade voicing, Tanya went all in and developed a niche in voiceover that would change everything.
Audiobook narrator Tanya Eby recently celebrated voicing 1,000 audiobooks.
Audiobooks are where Tanya feels the most at home. She'll voice categories from true crime to fiction, even poetry, but romance novels have become her calling card. "It needs to have a happy ending, and the romance has to be Key to the story," she says. And although hard to believe, Tanya does not consider herself "an A-lister," citing narrators like Julia Whelan and Luke Daniels. "Those guys are the very best… I'm a workhorse," she elaborates. Her productivity is impressive. She delivers one and a half books a week, with a normal year encompassing around (70) books. For the uninitiated, that is a LOT of audiobook work. "You become the voice of the author," Tanya comments, "and in doing so, you pretend you're telling the story to a friend, and that'll create an "intimate" performance."
When voicing, Tanya explains she'll become emotionally involved with the subject manner. "You have to have a disposition of being task-driven and heavily focused so you can affect the listener," she says. Her workload is highly regimented. "I work from 9 am to 2:30 pm because the voice itself can't handle so much endurance." But to deliver a performance in any genre, Tanya searches for content that speaks to her personally. "And it doesn't Have to be about romance." That is demonstrated in this non-fiction book about John "Sonny" Franzese, the mafia boss who once was an underboss of the Columbo crime family written by J.S. Peddie. "I'm proud of this one."
As the voice for name authors like Dean Koontz and Susan Malory, Tanya speaks of her voice acting subtext, which takes place as she voices. "You have to get dialed into the story, and there is a sensation of just getting into the flow, which becomes a performance," she tells me. "Getting in the zone is how you make those words come to life."
Working with publishers and indie authors, Tanya cites getting involved with the Audio Publishers Association https://www.audiopub.org as a key to getting to the publishers that look for great narrators. "It's its own unique community, and when you're in, your IN."
Networking with other narrators is also a road in. "Here in Grand Rapids, several of us communicate together and share ideas, and that networking really pays off," she says, "and there are a lot of subtleties that make your narration work." Tanya, this week begins work on book number 1001. And her style varies from book to book. But one thing that does not change is her attitude toward this field. "It's a dream job, and that's for sure."
