Authors and Celebrities Are Voicing Audio Books
Take a glance at the audiobooks’ jackets in the bookstore and you’ll see some familiar names. As audiobooks become ever more popular, celebrities are jumping on the bandwagon to get their voices out there and authors love the added media exposure they get when someone famous agrees to be the voice of their work of art.
Many celebrities have written best selling books that proudly display their pictures on the cover, but audiobooks take them one step further by having the stars read the books they wrote. Audiobooks allow the celebrity to inject his or her own emotions in the reading and also encourages their fans to purchase the book.
Authors who write fictional or non-fictional books can depend on a jump in sales if a well know personality endorses his book by giving it a “voice” in the audiobook market.
Many times, audiobooks are performed by several different voices – or characters – played by various actors and actresses and can also be enhanced by background music. You can find entire volumes of audiobooks complete with sound effects and character contributions.
Bill and Hillary Clinton both loaned their voices to their best selling books. Sales of their audiobooks went through the roof, demonstrating that people enjoy hearing memoirs from the authors, themselves.
Children’s audiobooks have also been the recipients of our favorite celebrities lending their voices for readings. Animal growls, songs and other sound effects can be interjected into the audiobook, making it realistic and much more interesting to a child.
Celebrities aren’t necessarily attracted to lending their voices to audiobooks because of pay. The normal pay rate to read a six-hour audiobook is only $4,000 to $6,000 – mere pocket change to the highly paid famous of today.
When an audiobook is read by a famous person, it’s usually because the celebrity is a personal friend or a fan of the author. Books are also read by celebrities in order to make a political statement.
Whatever the reason that celebrities lend their names to audiobooks, sales are increasing and it’s becoming ever more chic for celebrities to use their highly recognizable voices to read them. | 
