For Trained Actors A Good Voice Pays
有聲書演員 賺錢難出名
By Leslie Kaufman

Gabra Zackman is a new kind of acting star: she is heard, but unheard-of.
嘉博拉．札克曼是新型態的演藝明星：聽眾聽她表演，但沒聽過她的名號。

Ms. Zackman had classical training through the Shakespeare Theater of Washington, has worked in regional theaters and has had a sprinkling of appearances on television shows. Those performances, however, have brought neither fame nor fortune.
札克曼曾接受華盛頓莎士比亞劇場的正統訓練，曾在區域劇院工作過，也曾在電視節目中零星演出，但那些表演並未為她帶來名利。

Instead, like a growing number of actors, she has found steady employment as a reader in the booming world of audiobooks.
相反地，她跟越來越多的演員一樣，在蓬勃發展的有聲書世界中找到穩定的工作：負責朗讀。

In recent years, Ms. Zackman has recorded more than 200 titles, and she says she can now count on two books a month, earning $1,000 to $3,000 a book.
最近幾年札克曼錄了200多本有聲書，她說她現在每個月肯定可接到錄兩本書的活，一本賺1000到3000美元（約台幣3萬到9萬元）。

Once a small backwater of the publishing industry, in part because of the cumbersome nature of tapes, audiobooks are now flourishing. Sales have been rising by double digits annually in recent years. A recent survey by industry groups showed that audiobook revenue climbed 22 percent in 2012 compared with 2011.
有聲書曾經只是出版業一個沒什麼搞頭的小區塊，部分原因是錄音磁帶不夠方便，現在有聲書卻蓬勃發展。近年來有聲書每年的業績以兩位數成長，最近業界一項調查顯示，2012年有聲書的營業額比2011年成長了22%。

Much of the growth can be attributed to the business’s digital transformation – from how books are recorded (increasingly at studios in the actors’ homes) to how they are sold (through subscription or individually on the Internet) and consumed (downloaded to mobile devices).
這個成長有很大一部分歸功於出版業的數位化轉變：從如何錄製有聲書（越來越多有聲書是在演員家中的工作室錄製），到如何銷售有聲書（透過訂閱或在網上個別出售）及購買（下載到行動裝置）。

That development is good for publishers and authors, of course. But it has also created a burgeoning employment opportunity for actors pursuing stardom, allowing them to pay their bills doing something other than waiting on tables.
這些發展除了對出版公司及作家有利外，也為懷抱著明星夢的演員創造了許多就業機會，讓他們除了在餐館裡端盤子之外，還能有別的法子賺錢來支應生活開銷。

Audible, the biggest producer and seller of audiobooks, says it produced some 10,000 recorded works last year – either directly or through a service it provides that allows authors to contract directly with actors. Each book amounts to an average of two or three days in the studio.
最大的有聲書生產及銷售公司Audible說，該公司去年大約製作了一萬本有聲書，有些是公司直接製作，有些透過該公司提供的服務，讓作家與演員直接簽約合作。每本書平均在錄音室裡錄製兩三天。

Donald R. Katz, the founder and chief executive of Audible, which was bought by Amazon.com in 2008, said that his company employed 2,000 actors to read books last year.
Audible已在2008年由亞馬遜網站買下，該公司創辦人兼執行長卡茲說，他們去年雇了2000名演員製作有聲書。

As with other forms of acting, compensation varies according to fame. An unknown actor might earn a few thousand dollars for a book, while stars like Nicole Kidman, who recently narrated Virginia Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse” for Audible, can be paid in the hundreds of thousands.
有聲書演員就跟其他形式的演員一樣，酬勞視其名氣而定。沒沒無聞的演員可能錄一本書賺個幾千美元，可是像最近為Audible錄製作家維吉尼亞．伍爾芙的作品「燈塔行」的明星妮可．基嫚，酬勞會高到數十萬美元。

The field is so promising that drama schools, including prestigious institutions like the Juilliard School in New York and Yale University in Connecticut, have started offering audio narration workshops.
目前這個領域大有可為，包括紐約茱莉亞音樂學院及康乃狄克州耶魯大學這類頗負聲望的戲劇學院，都開始開辦「聲音旁白研習班」。

Courtney Blackwell Burton, director of career services at Juilliard, said: “It is very exciting because it is a new source of income and work that really uses their training.”
茱莉亞音樂學院的就業輔導室主任柏頓說：「這令人振奮，因為這是新的收入及工作來源，而且讓學生所受的訓練真正派上用場。」

Katherine Kellgren has led narration classes at various acting schools. She said she was excited that audio narration is finally getting recognition.
凱瑟琳．凱爾格恩曾在不同的表演學校帶過口白課程，她說，她很高興聲音旁白終於受到了重視。

Ms. Kellgren attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art for three years.
凱爾格恩曾在倫敦音樂及戲劇藝術學院讀了三年。

Now, Ms. Kellgren, who refers to herself as an audiobook narrator instead of an actress, can command as much as $450 for each finished hour of narration.
現在，自稱有聲書旁白人而非女演員的凱爾格恩，以錄製好的成品計，每小時旁白收入高可達450美元。

Another actor, Jonathan Davis, also can command a premium price. He has narrated more than 30 “Star Wars” books for Lucasfilm and Random House.
另一位演員戴維斯酬勞也很高。他在盧卡斯影業及蘭登書屋的30多本「星際大戰」系列書籍中擔任口白。

His style is more restrained than Ms. Kellgren’s. “You paint the whole picture but you are very controlled,” he said.
他的風格比凱爾格恩更嚴謹內斂，他說：「你為整幅畫上色，你得相當自制。」

“A fan once said to me that my narration was like ‘a modern version of sitting around a campfire listening to tribal elders,’ “he added. “That is what makes me feel I am on the right track.”
戴維斯說：「曾有個粉絲告訴我，我的口白像是現代版的『大家圍坐營火旁，聆聽部落長者說故事』。那讓我覺得，我做對了。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/business/media/actors-today-dont-just-read-for-the-part-reading-is-the-part.html

Video：Inside the Voice Actors Studio: Young actors find steady employment as readers in the booming world of audiobooks, and some make it a career.
http://nyti.ms/14GgOwo

2013-07-16聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 馮克芸譯 原文參見紐時週報十二版右