audio books | Helle Gade

Please give a warm welcome to

Tell us a bit about yourself

I am a narrator/producer of audiobooks and I own my own company with a team of 9 others. It’s a globally recognized SAG AFTRA contracted award winning company called Audio Sorceress where we service indie authors (self published or with smaller publishers). I am also a stay at home mother to 5 year old identical twin girls. And I raise chickens. I am also cowriting an adaptation of a historical romance fiction series into a play about Matilda Flanders (William the conqueror’s wife) and the first anointed queen of England also my 27th great grandmother I learned about that months ago.

Have you always wanted to become a narrator?

Actually no. LOL! What I mean is I was pursuing a career in acting and had just broken into TV when I found out I was pregnant with twins and that changed the trajectory of my career path. The wonderful thing is that I still act just not on stage as much it’s mostly behind a mic now.

Where do you find inspiration for your work?

My children inspire me. People watching where you can do character studies of people hopefully not that they notice that’s what you are doing. But whereas in acting I used to watch people and imitate their hand gestures body movements I now really focus on their voices and what they are doing with their tongues when they speak and then file that away for a character to use later somewhere.

What are you working on now?

Too many things. Hah. No seriously I have 20 books in my cue most of them romance with some poetry thrown in there along with time travel and a non fiction dual narration something I have actually never done that should be very interesting. And that doesn’t include the 30 or some projects that I will be producing with my company and other narrators this year.

Do you have any quirks while working?

Not a quirk but I do love my stuffed animals. I have a ton of them and some are 3 feet high and the studio is like 6 by 5 feet or something crazy. It’s tiny. My favorite is a yellow bear names Milo. He is the best.

What are your hopes for the future?

I really hope to grow Audio Sorceress where we can service even more of the indie community and get their words out there. I love supporting great talent. I would also loved to strengthen relationships with publishers so that they will look to us to do their audio for their clients.
I would also like to develop stronger relations with publishers to be hired independently of Audio Sorceress.

Do you have any advise for authors concerning audiobooks?

Absolutely. I saw someone the other day who said when I win the lottery I will do an audiobook for my book. Audiobooks can be done for no pay up front like through ACX when you do a royalty share and split the net royalties with the narrator. There are some super talented folks who do RS so don’t ever think it’s not possible to bring your book to audio. And it can be a significant financial commitment but the benefits are amazing. It does several things for you the least of which is increasing your credibility as an author. Remember what works for one person may not work for all so you may have someone who wants to go through ACX or Findaway (that’s another one if they want global reach) and someone else who wants to go through a production company. Now will you pay more than simply hiring a narrator on ACX absolutely but remember that by hiring a company you now have an entire team working to help with the success of your audiobook. So you must determine your budget and figure out what works for you. I will say this though RS can be a tough sell these days so I would strongly consider offering a stipend or flat PFH rate along with it like 100 or 125 PFH so that the narrators editing proofing and mastering cost are covered or at least some of it is. If you do you will find that your pool of talent will grow exponentially.

Do you have anything to say to your followers?

I LOVE YOU!! Seriously I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for you. I think I have about 20k across all social media now and man it’s mind blowing. Your support and your trust and your faith in me has been tremendous and my only hope is to continue to pay it forward and to continue to give you my very best.

I am currently working on a romantic comedy series by international bestselling author Lucía Ashta who is just a dream to work with. It’s a dual narration with the sexy voiced Lucas Webley who is fantastic as well and can pretty much do anything…seriously he can.