“Then you career, from career to career…”

If my previous post on getting into voiceovers didn’t put you off, and you’re still reading, then I’d say the next thing to think about is what “getting into voiceovers” actually means to you, and how you’re going to fit a career in voiceovers into your life.

What do you want from this? A full-time job which can replace the one you already have? Or something less than that? Just a bit of money on the side, perhaps?

Let’s take the second option first, because that’s the one that people usually seem to opt for, at least publicly, and if only out of a sense of (false) modesty or self-deprecation. If you’re telling yourself that you just want a voiceover career on the side, permit me to suggest to you that you might not be being completely honest with either of us. Are you seriously telling me that you’d rather do what you’re doing now than be a successful Voiceover Artist? If you’re reading this (and haven’t landed here at random) then you’re interested in voiceovers as a career. If you read the previous post and you’re still reading, then you’re convinced you have the talent to make it. And with that amount of interest and all that talent, who really wants to invest the money on equipment and marketing, and the amount of time needed to get anywhere, if all they really want is the occasional voiceover job now and again? No, that doesn’t seem likely to me somehow.

So, I ask you again, what do you really want from this? 

Still happy with the part-time option? OK, at least I got you to think about it. I do feel, however, that most people would at least like to dream of the day where they could leave their existing job behind and make voiceovers a career. It can be done, and the evidence is all around you. But it’s hard work getting there and will most likely take a long time. Most people aren’t going to be lucky enough to walk into a full time voiceover gig with a radio or TV station (yes, I do count these jobs as voiceover jobs, by the way. There may be a big difference between being a radio presenter and a commercial or animation voiceover, but in my swatch-book they’re still shades of the same colour. You’re being paid to talk, after all, and the rewards and satisfaction are, in my experience, much the same…)

Unfortunately, there are challenges, whether you decide on the part or full time option. Here are a couple of things to bear in mind.

The obvious thing, looking from the outside, is to think of starting small and building things up. That approach works really well with making greetings cards or scatter cushions in your spare time, but the thing to watch for in the voiceover business is that you’re going to be dealing with deadlines. The phone will ring (if you’re lucky) and you will be expected to turn up at the allotted time, whether that’s for an audition or for the gig itself. How will you fit these kinds of demands in around your existing commitments? There are too many full time, experienced talents in the market who are available at the drop of a hat for producers to wait around for those that aren’t. Surprisingly though, depending on how you’re going to find your work, this doesn’t necessarily have to be a deal-breaker, and I’ll talk about why not in a later post on finding jobs. But it is something you need to be aware of.

If, on the other hand, you’re aiming for the full time option then you’ve probably already guessed the biggest challenge in making the jump: finding enough work to pay your bills. If you’re lucky, and if you’ve managed to overcome the challenges and build your business gradually, you may come to a point where you decide – either through choice or through force of circumstance – to cut loose and pursue your voiceover career as your main job. If you’re in a position where you’ve been made redundant and you have a pot of gold sitting in your account then you might be tempted to do this.

Don’t. My advice is that, unless you’re already having some success, and can see at least a few opportunities to expand from where you are now, I’d not aim for a full time voiceover career at this stage. Going from a standing start to working as a full time Voiceover Artist takes most people several years. So – unless you’re a captain of industry with a six-figure golden handshake (or you’ve won the lottery, lucky you) – your severance package probably isn’t going to cover you. What, therefore, will you do in this situation to make up the shortfall? And remember: whatever you choose as your “secondary” job will need to be flexible enough for you to run your own diary.

I’ve tried to set you up here by thinking about what’s going to happen when the work starts coming in, so the above doesn’t come as a surprise. Again, nothing here is supposed to put you off – it’s just meant to make you think it through, because the glamourous side of things has to be tempered with practicality. Like I said before – it can be done. I lived through a year in a call centre, and I’m here…

Next time I’ll talk about getting specific on the kind of work you want. Voiceover is a broad church, and finding your niche is going to be your next challenge.

So, you want to be a Voiceover Artist?

I can’t say I blame you. The hours are good, the money’s great and, if you like the sound of your own voice (who doesn’t?) then what could be better than being paid to talk?! Best of all, you need no formal qualifications, so anyone can do it! All you need is somewhere to record, a bit of kit and a website, before you go right ahead and nail a sign over your door marked “Voiceover Artist – Enquire Within…”

Before we get carried away, let me point out to anyone who’s missed where I’m going with this, that I’m joking. Well, mostly. The truth is that the hours are good, and based on an hourly rate the money could be seen as amazing, but only if you’re working regularly. £200 ($300) or more per hour is, to most people’s way of looking at it, a pretty good hourly rate – and it certainly compares favourably to minimum wage.

But permit me to play Devil’s Advocate for a moment, if I may? What if you’re only working two hours a week? Or one? Or if you only get one voiceover job a month? Many people who go out and buy microphones, sound editing software and mixing desks will never book a job. I can’t give you empirical evidence of this, of course, but having heard some of the people on some of the voice directory websites, I’d be surprised if I was wrong in my assertion.

If you’re faint of heart (or weak in the head), then I suggest you stop reading at this point, because I’m not going to be Mr Nice Guy for the rest of this post. I’m going to challenge all of your fluffy notions about the ease of getting into this business we call “Voice”.

First up, the failure rate is very high. I’m not trying to scare you, but lots of people never make it. Period. Sorry to disappoint. 

There are plenty of people out there who have been told they have a “great voice” or that they “should do voiceovers” (do you recognise yourself in this category?) More often than not, they’re told this by people who haven’t the first clue about it and who know nothing about how the business works. If these people tried to give any other sort of career advice, the person on the receiving end would probably either laugh politely, or politely suggest that they mind their own business. The truth is, we all like to be flattered…

What’s that? You do have a great voice? Seriously? Congratulations – you’ve just qualified to join the competition! But “competition” is the keyword here, and having a nice-sounding voice is only one part of the puzzle. Do you have the talent to back it up?

If you’re reading this because you want to get into voiceovers and you’ve never, so far, recorded anything and played it back to a jury of your peers for them to critique it, then now would be a really good time. Actually, before you play it to anyone else you’re going to want to critique it yourself. Channel your inner Simon Cowell before you go auditioning for anyone else’s Sharon Osbourne… Take a piece of prose (or poetry), a piece of print copy from a magazine, or whatever gets your juices going, and read it aloud into whatever sound recording device you have to hand – the built-in microphone on your laptop, or that old cassette recorder in the cupboard will do just fine for the purposes of this exercise.

What do you hear when you listen back? Are you ready for Prime Time just yet?

How’s the delivery? Does it keep you interested and hold your attention? (If it doesn’t hold yours then the chances of it holding anyone else’s are negligible at this stage.) If it’s not holding your attention then there are plenty of reasons why that might be (which are probably worthy of another post) but the key thing is to recognise that there’s something missing and accept that you’re going to need some sort of training to put it right. You’re going to want to do this before you start buying any fancy kit, and before you begin touting for business, too. After all, you only get one chance to make a first impression, right? The last thing you want to do is approach an agent, a producer or a potential client with anything other than your best foot forward.

Still reading? Phew, that’s a relief. I thought I’d lost you back there when I was laying out the cold, hard facts (most people don’t like that bit).

If you’re going to do this, you need to get serious about it and treat it like you would any other career option. We can’t all be astronauts, or pop singers, after all, so once you’ve practised a little and got some input from others, you’re going to need to be honest about the level of your talent and whether you think you can cut it in the big, wide world. As a marker for comparison, Google something like “British voiceover artist”, or “voiceover artist Los Angeles” or “female voice actor”, or whatever is most appropriate for you, and visit a few people’s websites. Look at the credits and client list to make sure you’ve got someone who’s making a living at it (anyone can have a website, remember?) and then listen to some of their audio samples. There’ll be a gulf in the technical quality compared to your own ad hoc recording (hopefully), but could you seriously imagine yourself delivering copy with the same degree of passion, zest, believability, or whatever other adjectives you can find to ascribe to the talent you’re listening to? Have you got it in you? Is it just waiting to be released? Or are you being unrealistic?

Hard lessons again, I’m afraid. But this post is an exercise in sorting out the wheat from the chaff, and I make no apologies for that. If I can save just one person the (considerable) time and expense of barking up the wrong tree, then I think that’s a good thing, and something that that person might even (reluctantly) thank me for before they move on to find their real inner passion. (I believe unquestioningly that we’ve all got something we’re really good at, by the way – it’s just sometimes a hard lesson to learn that it’s not necessarily the first thing you thought of.)

You’re still reading. Well done! Made of stronger stuff, eh? So, you’ve got the voice, you feel you have the talent – or the potential to harness and refine it – what next? Well, like I said, the voice is only one part of the puzzle. This is a business, after all, and you’re going to need to treat it like one. Next time I’m going to look at what might stop you (you with the talent and all) from making a living in voiceovers. It’ll be less Boot Camp-y (promise) but I’ll start to get you to think a little about application – and what your goals are, now you’ve decided you’re in…

Getting started in Voiceovers

A couple of people have asked me recently about how to get started with a career in voiceovers. Yesterday I went to write a short reply to one of them by email and ended up writing something of an essay, so I thought it might be helpful to share what I wrote here, for the benefit of anyone else who’s interested in my ramblings.

Because I wrote quite a lot, I’ve decided to break things down into more manageable chunks, so I’m going to post a series of blogs taking the subject stage-by-stage, as I see it.

I preface everything that follows by saying that I’m no more of an “expert” on this than the next guy: I know what’s worked for me, I’ve read some of what’s worked for others and I’ve read plenty of “advice” from those who do consider themselves to be experts, taking on or discarding that advice with respect to my own findings. Whole books have been written on this subject, but I’m aiming not to go on that long, promise.

As I see it, the main stages of getting into voiceover work include:

1. Getting your talent up to the standard needed - lots of people have a “nice voice”, or have been told they have, but it’s a big jump from there to being a good Voiceover Artist or Voice Actor
2. Working out what you want from your career - do you want to do this full time or as a sideline? And how might that work? What kind of work do you want to do? And, what makes you think you’re up to it?
3. Setting up your home studio – nowadays, few talents starting out can bank on a stream of work from clients with facilities
4. Finding work - not much point doing 1-3 if you can’t pull this one off

Stay tuned. I hope you’ll find my thoughts interesting and useful, and I welcome your comments!

I’m a bit excited. Indulge me?

This coming Monday a project I completed my part of  some months back finally comes to fruition, and I must admit I´m a little bit excited!

In the late autumn of last year I was contacted out-of-the blue by a delightful lady at German publishing house, PONS GmbH, to narrate some audiobooks for learners of English. I voiced two short stories by Roald Dahl, two by Ian Rankin and six of Nick Hornby´s “31 Songs”, and was also able to get two of my female voiceover friends involved: Trish Bertram (a voice recognisable from her many years of work for ITV) and Kathy Clugston (who´ll be familiar to anyone who listens to BBC Radio 4).

The titles go on sale today – with each pack containing a CD with the English recording of the story, plus a book with the English transcription and a German translation – and my contact at PONS emailed me today to confirm the publication date.

This is exciting for me, as it marks the first time my work will have been committed to something as permanent as a CD for sale to the general public. Most of my voiceover work, regardless of the size of the audience, has either been for immediate transmission and disappears into the ether, or – in the case of corporate work – disappears into the internal workings of whatever company commissioned it, never to be heard again by anyone not involved with the company in question. The idea that the (Ger)man in the street can buy something with me on it, therefore, gives me an absurd thrill (I´m sure it will pass, but bear with me for now?)

If you´re interested in taking a look, you´ll find the “Read and Listen” series on sale at the PONS website here. And if you´d like to hear a sample of one of my Roald Dahl stories, you´ll find it on my voiceover website here.

Mike drops a clanger

Yesterday I wrote my first “Blog in Error”, and I’m feeling a bit sheepish about it. I’m not above sticking up my hand and saying I made the mistake, though, so here’s my post in an effort to set the record straight.

I signed up last week for a new online pronunciation site called Forvo.com. The idea is that people around the world can send in pronunciations of difficult or local words, and the community benefits as a result. I have access to the BBC’s own Pronunciation Unit, which is great, but it’s always useful to have something else up one’s sleeve for when they’re shut (which is outside office hours).

So, I registered with Forvo.com. I figured that as it grows, it could become a useful resource, and the website is friendly, clean and seems easy enough to use and contribute to.

Yesterday morning, out of the blue, I received a nice email from someone in Poland, called Anna, telling me how to pronounce the word “virtu”, complete with an MP3. Very useful to the guy (Andrew) who apparently wanted it; not so useful to me; but easy to delete, and I figured I must have received it thanks to my notification settings on the site.

This was my first mistake.

When I looked a bit closer, I noticed that the email was sent not only to me, but to “103 others”. Sure enough, in the “To:” field, there were the names and email addresses of 103 other people – some of whom I recognised as other voice talents, and whom I took to be other subscribers to Forvo’s service.

This was my second mistake, and an incorrect assumption on my part.

Sharing 103 people’s emails with each other without their permission is really bad, and I was incensed. How could Forvo have got such a basic thing so wrong? I posted about it here, but I shouldn’t have done until I was sure of what was going on. An email from Forvo later in the day denied that there was any connection with them, and this morning I received confirmation from the sender of the email that this was her mistake. This doesn’t explain how someone I’ve never dealt with, in Poland, has my details and everyone else’s, or why she thought it would be a good idea to write to 103 people and put them all in the the “To:” field for all to see, but that’s a separate issue and has nothing to do with Forvo.

I got it wrong, and I’m sorry for any confusion. Hopefully you can see why signing up for a site and then getting spam of a very specific and similar nature might lead me to the wrong conclusion, but that doesn’t excuse me. There was a correlation here, but no causation.  I’m very grateful to Forvo for their understanding, and I wish them every success with their venture. In fact, as a community effort it will do best if more people sign up, so here’s your chance.

To rephrase my original blog title, Forvo.com did not drop a clanger. I did. Lesson learned.

I’ve always relied on the kindness of strangers

It’s always a nice boost when someone says something nice about you, isn’t it?

It’s especially lovely when it comes out of nowhere, without any prompting/arm-twisting/threats of blackmail. And it’s extremely welcome when you’re feeling as down-in-the-dumps and ill as I’ve been all this week.

So imagine my delight when my twitter feed filled up with messages from someone I’d never met and never worked with telling me that I posess:

“a voice that trickles you all over with chocolate sauce”

…that has:

“a tingling timbre”

…and that my voice is:

“fabulously sweet … like smouldering applewood”

She’s obviously not heard me in the last five days (it’s currently more like a crackling bonfire) but I’ll gloss over that.

This, friends, is one of the nice things about twitter. Whereas Facebook lets you stay in touch with your friends, however tenuous and tentative those connections may be, twitter encourages you to reach out and meet new people. Look at who your followers are, see who their friends are, check out who the friends of your friends are, and then follow them too! Of course, for this to happen, you’ll not want to be “Protecting” your updates, so switch that off in twitter’s preferences (what are you here for, if not to share?)

There are even services which help you find people to follow to enable you make those connections (here’s an article about some of them, and Grader, apart from telling you your “twitter grade” also does a good job).

The instantaneous nature of the response to twitter’s question “What are you doing?” begs more frequent updates than Facebook’s status updates, and keeps things moving along at a pace. Plus anyone who’s interested in following trends or finding out more on subjects that interest them is well-served by twitter’s in-built search facility. It’s hidden away at the bottom of the page, but it works very well.

Users can also “tag” their “tweets” with a useful word to make finding them easier for others – this week the tag #uksnow was a prime example for anyone following the story of a Britain caught in the worst snow for years.

I suppose this has really become that first post on social networking that I promised earlier, and I promise to write some more. But I also promise not to become a social networking “expert”, because those posts are already oversubscribed.

Back to the lady in question who prompted me into action. Her name is Anthea Bailey and she’s from somewhere in the North of England. She works in PR (hey, maybe I could use her?!) and her website is being constructed “as we speak”. So in the meantime you’ll just have to “follow” her, here…

We’d quite like to apologise…

Sorry for the break. I’m stuck at home with the worst flu I’ve had in a few years. And yes, it’s proper flu, rather than “Man Flu”. I sound like Gonzo from The Muppets and I’m not quite thinking straight.

Normal service should be resumed shortly. Please do not adjust anything.