Jim Patton
Voice actor, Audiobook Narrator
jim@jimbpatton.com
Jim Patton is a professional voice actor and audiobook narrator recording from his home studio in Las Vegas. He has extensive experience in audio drama, has coached with veteran narrators, Joel Froomkin (15 weeks+), PJ Ochlan (5 weeks+), Paul Ruben, Joe Arden, and Jack de Golia.
His home studio audio quality has been approved by Penguin Random House audio engineers as a pre-requisite for PRH-directed recording sessions.
He has guided projects as a rights holder through ACX, Findaway/Spotify, and Spoken Realms and can help authors through the publication/distribution process.

Audiobook Samples
The narrator relates a scene in Heaven where judgment is pronounced on a soul from O. Henry’s “The Guilty Party”. In this sample, O. Henry breaks the fourth wall by addressing readers directly at the beginning and end. The sample ends with commentary about the story from the narrator’s perspective.
This is a short 3rd person character narrator followed by F/M/F dialog, then 3rd person non-character comment on the story. It is the ending of “The Last Leaf” with a dominant female voice at mid-clip explaining her friend’s survival from an illness.The narrator relates a scene in Heaven where judgment is pronounced on a soul from O. Henry’s “The Guilty Party”
Action sequence wherein the heroine escapes a ship and tries to board another while pursuers chase her.
Western M/M/F/M/M – 3rd person limited from protagonist perspective. Southern, general American, Scandinavian, and Irish accents
Farcical 1915-ish romantic comedy, M/F protagonists + British M + NY M. See the Narrator Notes for Love Insurance
M/M/M. Chicago-style mafia gangster, with Chicago accents, 3rd person, two separate clips, one grilling a mark, and the other discussing the situation with another gang member. This was an audition clip.
Two Irish soldiers in the Confederacy talking, one of whom has infiltrated Yankee lines, gotten drunk, and is pretending to be a Yankee soldier
M/M dialog and third person narration. Two old men reflect on their lives as one is dying
Shows a variety of southern characters in a Civil War fictional memoir.
A third person nonfiction narrative is expressed like fiction with character voices. This nonfiction story telling style is possible because the subject is larger than life with copious humor. I call this “Paul Bunyan nonfiction”.
First person narrative of a San Quentin prisoner
This is an example of a first person narrator dialect sustained through the book.
About - Jim Patton
Story Telling vs Narrating
I love voicing characters. The hard part is narration. But everyone is a character, including the narrator! Characters tell stories. They don’t read books. It’s important to me that I “tell” your story, not “read” your book.

I am an audiobook narrator recording from my professional home studio near Las Vegas. I’ve been interested in theater my whole life, but the occupation that fed my family precluded a full time acting effort. As a result, I became an audio drama actor, allowing me to exercise my acting creativity from the confines of my home studio at a time of my choosing. Having spent hours auditioning, acting, editing, and performing in this manner convinced me that audiobook narration is a reasonable and desired goal.
I acted in high school, but I became hooked when I played Hamlet in a college production. I have since acted in community theater when I had the opportunity, but eventually, I found that remote audio acting was the most convenient.
I have a doctoral degree in electrical engineering. I worked as an international power system field engineer, located in the Middle East, South America, and Africa where I spoke French and Spanish. I then became a tenured university EE professor and a university administrator before retiring a few years ago.
My strengths as a voice actor are characterization and story telling. When I say “story telling” I am very conscious of and sensitive to vocalization that sounds like someone reading from a script. I have been told the extended narration I vocalize consistently represents the emotion and texture of someone relating a personal experience – a “story”
Accents
Narrator Accents: I am comfortable speaking in a western US accent or a number of southern US accents and feel confident I could maintain them through an entire book.
Character Accents: I am a relatively quick study at a variety of accents. I have voiced several British accents, along with German, French, and generic Spanish accents quite frequently and could maintain them through a major character role. I can, with study, voice a wide variety of other accents for relatively minor roles.
Coaching
I have completed PJ Ochlan’s six-class Masterclass Series and have had private coaching with him. I will continue to seek out high-level coaching whenever possible.
I am also an alumnus of PJ’s workshops on ‘Character Voice Toolbox’ and ‘How To Be Your Own Dialect Coach’.
I was pleased to attend Jack de Golia’s, ‘Character Voices 101’, offered by the Las Vegas-based Voice Actors Studio.
I have completed Don Baarns’ complete courses on Studio One and Rx and enjoy editing/mastering my own work.
I have completed Acting for Audiobooks, a 15 week acting course delivered by award-winning narrator and director, Joel Froomkin,
I have privately coached with Paul Ruben on mystery/thriller narration and with Joe Arden on romance narration.
Let's connect!
Questions?
jim( at ) jimbpatton( dot )com
(612) 208-6396