BlankBetter money than I realized.
Steve
Putnam: Haslett actress finds lucrative career in audiobooks Judy Putnam ,
Lansing State Journal
HASLETT She's a 24-year-old college graduate who has found a career so
financially rewarding that she's paid off $25,000 in student loans less than
three years after her Hope College graduation. What would you
expect her major to be? Computer science? Engineering? Business? How about
English and theater? Lauren Ezzo of Haslett is finding success as a narrator
of audiobooks. And, yes, she's an English major with a second degree in
theater.
A 2010 graduate of Haslett High School, Ezzo's love of clowning around
and talking in accents as a child and teen is paying off. She's working for
Brilliance Audio in Grand Haven and taking on independent jobs. She earns nearly
$200 for a finished hour of recording. An eight-hour book takes her two to
two-and-a-half days to finish, she said. She's recorded a few dozen books in
the past two years. "It's not a traditional full-time job, but I am a full-time
narrator. That's how I pay my bills," she said. Her first book was a somewhat
steamy romance that made her worry what her mother would think. "I didn't know
a
thing about the industry. It's a huge, huge industry and it's only going
to get bigger," she said. She figured it would pay $50, enough to fill her
car's
gas tank. But she got several tanks worth of pay, and she loved the job.
"It's turned into so much, much more," she said. In December, she won an award
from AudioFile Magazine. Her narration of "The Light Fantastic" by Sarah
Combs won in the Young Adult category for one of the best recordings of 2016.
It's the story of a school shooting that was recorded with another narrator,
Todd Haberkorn. She recorded it the same week of last June's horrific nightclub
shootings in Orlando. "It wasn't fun, but it was intense," she said. Audiobooks
are growing in popularity as more and more people turn to them as they travel,
do household chores, garden, exercise or other activities, listening to
them on smartphones or other devices. The Wall Street Journal reports that they
are the fastest-growing format in the book business today with sales in
the U.S. and Canada jumping 21% in 2015 compared with the previous year. Lauren
Ezzo checks her mic equipment in her recording booth at her parent's home
in Haslett. Ezzo has recorded a few dozen audiobooks. (Photo: Julia
Nagy/Lansing
State Journal) Ezzo's neighbor and supporter Carol Trojanowski tipped
me. "It is inspiring to hear the success stories of local citizens,"
Trojanowski
wrote to me Most of Ezzo's work is done in the studio in Grand Haven,
where she is put up in a hotel for multi-day projects. At her parents home in
Haslett, she uses a soundproof booth in the basement that was built with
help from her dad, Larry. It looks like a big steamer trunk sitting on its end.
It's a 4-by-4-by-10-foot windowless locker with just enough room for a
small desk, recording equipment and a chair. Ezzo calls the booth the "panic
room" or "John Wilkes. (Think about it.) Eventually the plan is for the booth
to move with Ezzo wherever she lands. She's hoping to join the Actors Theatre
of
Louisville in the fall for a year of training. Lauren Ezzo reads over
a recording proposal in her recording booth at her parent's home in Haslett.
Ezzo has recorded a few dozen audiobooks. (Photo: Julia Nagy/Lansing State
Journal) The audiobooks will help her financially as she pursues her love of
stage acting. She's recently been in local productions at Robin Theatre and
Peppermint Creek . She offers me a sampling "party trick" reading that glides
easily from accent to accent: Russian, French, Scottish, Australian, Deep
South, mid-Atlantic. Ezzo is filled with glee that she's found something she's
good at that will allow her to set her own schedule and pursue her acting
career. She may never have to punch a time clock. "I love my love my job. I
find
it interesting," she said. Ezzo's mother, Lynne, admits to being worried
about the choice of major of the oldest of her two children. "I thought,
theater
and English, OK, what is she going to do? I was worried. This came up
and it's like 'wow,'" she said.