The Ultimate Guide to Marketplace Narrator Profiles - Part 2: Your Avatar
Your avatar is the face of your narrator brand on Marketplace. Here are some considerations when creating an avatar that will help your Marketplace profile stand out.
Your avatar is the face of your narrator brand on Marketplace. Here are some considerations when creating an avatar that will help your Marketplace profile stand out.
When creating your avatar image you’ll want to first consider the following:
- Do I want it to be a photo of me?
- Do I want it to be a wordmark or signature of your name?
- Do I want it to be a logo?
Your avatar can be any one of these things. Determining what’s best for your audiobook narrator brand is up to you.
You don’t always have to use a photo of yourself. In some instances, a logo, signature, or wordmark can be the perfect visual to get your name out there. What is a signature logo? It’s a logo made up primarily of your name written in cursive hand lettering or calligraphy-style typography and is popular with ‘personal brands’ like artists, photographers, and in this case, narrators. Successful and memorable logo designs are simple and professional-looking.
Choosing the right photo of you can be a difficult task. You may have a great photo of you, but ask yourself the question “Is it the right photo for my narrator brand?”
A savvy designer by trade or ad agency would approach this by wanting to craft a brand image that visually represents the tone and primary genre of your voice acting. How do you do this? Look at the cover art of the titles you mostly narrate. Are there common elements, colors, typography, locations, etc.? Look to stage your own photoshoot by composing a shot that feels like it would fit in seamlessly.
Narrator Curt Bonnem uses a signature logo in his cover image and his avatar photo is staged on a blue background with him narrating a book in front of what is clearly a professional microphone.
Your photo should be a recent one and match up to your bio and badges. For example, if it’s a photo of you from 30 years ago and you have 30 years of experience listed, it doesn’t add up and look in-authentic.
A black and white headshot is always a solid choice for an avatar photo. These historically portray someone as professional talent. As for the technical specifics, we recommend sizing your avatar as a 1:1 square at 300x300 pixels in size.
Most importantly, your avatar is the one visual identifier for your profile when you appear in search results. On your landing page, it’s above the fold and it’s important to consider that your avatar should work in conjunction with your header cover image in your profile to create your visual brand identity for your narrator profile.
A great example of an avatar image working well with the cover image is narrator John Teal. His avatar perfectly sets a vision of what you might expect from his voice. The photo has the sun behind him on what appears to be a ranch, warm deep colors surround him wearing a cowboy hat, sunglasses around his neck atop a smart canvas jacket. This avatar almost asks to click play on his audio intro and hear what he has to offer. On his profile page, he deepens the feeling of his narrator brand with a cover image of a ranch at the base of a mountain range. You can imagine his voice taking you there.
Consider the feeling you want to imbue when people come to your profile. When authors click the audio intro play button located on top of your avatar, they’re going to be looking at the avatar image as they listen to your 30-second intro. Make the feeling of your audio and the visual of your avatar sync up to portray the essence of you as a narrator and the talent you bring to the table.
While you’re bringing your narrator visual brand identity to life on Marketplace, please be sure to adhere to our community guidelines and keep imagery professional.
Your narrator profile avatar photo is as important as audiobook cover art. Getting it right for you and the genre you work in, or want to work in, most is the first visual cue an author sees and judges before listening to your intro and samples.
Your avatar is the visual gateway for getting the job to bring an author’s story to life as an audiobook. Get started now.