Meet Eric Priessman

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eric Priessman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eric, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
As an audiobook narrator, my success comes in fits and starts. When I started over 4 years ago, I was met with some small success which fueled me enough to keep going and give it a real try. However, there have been times when business was slow and that’s when doubts inevitably crept in. “Was I good enough? Was my success thus far just a fluke?”

But I found that just as I was beginning to fall into despair, it picked back up and I realized this was a very “feast or famine” industry. To be successful, a good narrator has to have patience. Producing audiobooks is not like managing a store that sells things that people need everyday. There’s no guarantee on the horizon other than what you go out there and hustle for.

Currently, I am slowly riding an upward line on a graph of success and I’m always hoping and looking for that “moment” when things go into afterburner.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
When I was still working as a law enforcement officer, I was repeatedly told (as many people in voiceover can attest to), “you have a great voice!” Well, I took that encouragement to heart, did some research on what it meant to be an audiobook narrator and what it took to get started and I took the plunge! I spent some money setting up my first recording space, figured out how to navigate the internet to look for auditions and dove in. That was a little over 4 years ago.

My business has been on an uphill track since the beginning; I was fortunate to have the voice for this industry right off the bat – though that’s not to say I haven’t taken advantage of coaching and mentorship. No one has a “golden voice” from the start! But I have improved from day one and my eyes (and voice) are always on the horizon looking for new challenges and opportunities to get my name out there. My biggest goal is to get added to the talent rosters of the big name publisher’s out there, like Podium Entertainment, Blackstone Publishing and MacMillan Publishing, to name a few.

I love this industry with all it’s highs and lows. I happiest in my studio bringing someone else’s story to life!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I think living in the Los Angeles area is a hidden blessing! There is so much history and culture here. I’m a big movie fan (I can get easily star-struck) and I would show my friends all the places and things they’ve seen in countless movies their whole lives. We would hit the Griffith Observatory, Universal Studios, Hollywood Blvd where we’d eat at Musso and Frank’s or Tao. And, of course, no trip to LA is complete without going to Disneyland!

Website: https://www.ericpriessman.com

Image Credits
Thomas Goodman, Michael Harbron, European P. Douglas, Phillip Jett, Julian Gould, Linda Griffin, EJ Fisch, PS Rover, Ryan C. Thomas