We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ruthie Bowles. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ruthie below.

Ruthie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Diving into narration was probably the next biggest risk after quitting my full-time six-figure job. I quite my employment to become a freelance writer, and that grew into content marketing consulting. Just before COVID, I narrated an audiobook for fun as a side thing. During COVID, I became disillusioned with my chosen career path. I wondered, if a virus might end my life here and now, what would I feel like I had done? Not to mention, getting bamboozled by some business coaches definitely soured me on the whole industry.

My marketing client base began to wind down, as companies cut costs, and I couldn’t find it in myself to find new clients. Then I remembered that I had narrated that one book that one time, so maybe I could find more authors who were interested in having me do that. I sent the first audition that would start my new career on January 1st, 2022, and the rest is history!

I took this risk because I figured if I wasn’t successful, I could always try something else. Nothing I had tried so far, since quitting my full-time employment, had killed me. But this has turned into something beyond my wildest dreams.

Ruthie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Ruthie Bowles, a US Army veteran, and California girl living in Maryland with her spouse, kids, goats, and chickens. I have a couple of cats too, but one of them keeps trying to eat my house plants, so we’re on rocky ground at the moment. After my first career in the government, which lasted about ten years, I became a marketing consultant for another five years. However, for the last three years or so, I’ve been an audiobook narrator, and it might be my most fulfilling role yet.

I don’t have a formal performance background; I just decided to give it a try. I figured if I was any good, I’d get work, and if I wasn’t I’d do something else.

A quick glance at my back catalogue on Audible will show anyone that I primarily narrate books written by marginalized authors about marginalized characters. Being able to earn money from a creative profession was already exciting to me, but using my art to help bring books written by authors from traditionally-excluded groups (U.S. perspective) has made it all mean even more.

I also sensitivity read manuscripts for authors. What that means is if an author is writing a character with a marginalized identity they do not hold, they can hire me to assess the manuscript and provide them feedback. This has been very fulfilling work, because it means I’m helping authors who want to write inclusively.

This year, my company, No Market for That Book, bought it’s first sets of audio rights: two fantasy series that feature diverse casts and meaningful stories. I’m really excited about this new direction, as we’re able to offer competitive advances and more than competitive royalty rates for our authors.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Where possible, art lovers should try and support artists directly. As an indie audiobook distributor, I cannot directly upload audiobooks to most platforms . I have to use a third party. This cuts into our profit, which we share with our authors. Like many platforms that sell retail goods, there’s a lack of transparency around why we get paid what we get paid. Some times, we get paid pennies for audiobook listens.

So direct support means that audiobook listeners can be sure that their money is going towards entities they actually want to support. And libraries. Check out our audiobooks from libraries!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I love making people cry. Whether it’s authors crying because they’re hearing their work performed for the first time, or listeners crying because the performance is sad, it tells me I did what I set out to do. I was a part of the listener connecting to the story in a way that was deeply moving.

I think the arts help us connect on a deeper level, soul-level, if you’re into that kind of thing. So when they feel moved, I know we connected across time and space.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nomarketforthatbook.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/ruthie.narrates.book
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Ruthienarratesbooks
• Other: https://tiktok.com/@ruthie.narrates.books