What is voice over? Tips, tricks, and expert advice from a veteran voice-over artist

What is voice-over work?

Voice-overs are narratives that accompany video content or, at times, serve as a standalone, enhancing story-telling and delivering information. For example, in many movie trailers, there’s someone narrating the important events of the movie; that’s a voice-over. You might have also heard such narratives in video games, movies, commercials, podcasts, educational videos, or audiobooks.

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg; voice-overs are much more than that. For instance, to create one audiobook, a voice-over artist had to read the book, understand the characters, develop voices for them, record the book, listen back to what they’ve recorded, pick out mistakes, re-record to fix mistakes, and then either the talent or an engineer will edit the entire book. The voice-over artist must then do one final listen to be sure the audio matches the text word-for-word before a final master is mixed. It can take them two weeks to finish one eight-hour long book. When it comes to audiobooks and other long form projects, voice-over work is an art that the voice talent needs to love.

How to become a voice-over artist

Becoming a voice-over artist is easier said than done. Unlike when Terwilliger started, today’s market is full of talented people with authentic accents and professional home studios. So, with new talent appearing each day, and producers being highly selective, how does one get into voice-over work? Here’s what Terwilliger suggests to cut through the noise and market yourself as a voice-over artist effectively.

Find your niche

From podcasts and audiobooks to dubbing for characters in movies, commercials, and video games, there are different types of voice-overs, and each type requires a unique approach to reading scripts. So, it all starts with understanding where you fit, or as Terwilliger says, “You’ll need to know what lane you’re supposed to be in, in order to make a living doing it.”

Establish a web presence

Nearly 67.1% of total global population consume information online daily and that makes one thing clear: having a website is essential. It not only makes it easy for your clients to find you but also helps you market yourself digitally. Terwilliger maintains an SEO website that shows up when her clients search for her. In fact, Terwilliger landed one of her longest running clients in the year 2000 because of her digital presence.

Record your demo

Having a professionally produced demo reel that showcases your unique talent not only makes you stand out from the rest, but can also help your potential clients or casting directors assess your abilities. Depending on the niche that you’re trying to break into, the duration of the demo can vary from 90 seconds to 5 minutes. For example, if you are interested in doing commercials, then you will have to create a demo of 60 to 90 seconds.

Have a home voice-over studio

Once you know that you are ready to compete and want to work for the long term, you will need to invest in a home voice-over studio. Create an acoustically treated space that blocks background noise and picks up sounds clearly. You’ll also need high speed internet, a robust computer, a good microphone, and a recording software. If you want to connect live to studios around the world, you will need some special software (and perhaps hardware) such as Source-Connect. Once you set up a space that would allow you to record, the next step is to find clients.

Network to find your clients

Voice-over talent must be proactive these days to find clients. Traditional methods of cold-calling have been edged out with more online methods. Many people use LinkedIn, Facebook groups, Pay-to-Play websites (more on this later), Instagram and Agents. Check your area to see if there are any professional associations where you can interact directly with producers. Some associations even host events where you can showcase your demos to potential clients.

How to handle difficult clients

You might encounter clients who make your journey an uphill battle. However, you can navigate challenges by keeping some principles in mind. Do your preliminary research; if there is a company that is interested in hiring you for voice-over work, research them and figure out who they are and what they do before accepting the offer.

While every voice-over talent occasionally has a difficult client, Terwilliger encourages setting boundaries via contracts and good communication to reduce the chances. “I make it clear from the start: If my clients want to direct the session, then they’ll get everything they want, and everything will be fine. On the other hand, if they want me to self-direct, then they’ll have to be specific about the tone, delivery, and the pace of the recording. All of this is written in a contract to make sure that we are on the same page,” says Terwilliger.

Other important details to specify in your contract are the number of retakes you’ll allow if you follow your client’s instructions, but if they still aren’t satisfied, you’ll need to outline how much you’ll charge them for retakes under those circumstances.

How to start freelancing as a voice-over artist

Most of the voice-over jobs you see online are freelance gigs. Voice-over artists take on projects that might require them to produce audio content on a recurring basis, such as e-learning videos and podcasts, or finish one-off recordings for specific projects like audiobooks, video games, or commercials. As a freelance voice-over artist, you can produce audio from a production studio or work remotely from your home studio.

“If you get to record from a studio, then you have a director there, and all you do is just record, and everything else is taken care of. However, if you record from your home studio, sometimes you will usually have to self-direct and make the edits all by yourself,” says Terwilliger.

Be it a production studio or your home studio, one piece of advice that Terwilliger has for all the voice-over artists is to know what you’re good at and target auditions in that niche. Once you’ve figured out where you’ll want to be, prepare a demonstration and get it into the hands of the people who would love to buy what you have to sell.

A lot of voice-over artists find freelance work by signing up for pay-to-play sites. A pay-to-play website is a site where voice-over talents get to showcase their demos and audition for companies worldwide by paying a membership fee. Some are curated so that only professionals can join, and others are open to anyone who pays the fees. Do your research to determine what site might be right for you. A few to review include voices.com, voice123.com, bodalgo.com, acx.com (for audiobooks), and similar sites.

Managing finances as a freelance voice-over artist

As a voice acting instructor, one thing that Terwilliger always tells her students is not to put all their eggs in one basket. There was a lot going on in Terwilliger’s life when she quit her security blanket job as an announcer, but luckily, her networking skills helped her out. In addition to spending time recording auditions and projects, she continues to invest time in developing good business relationships with local production studios and companies (and now national and international groups as the Internet has grown).

It’s more than just saying “Hi, do you have any voice-over work” when you speak to a potential client. You should always find something relevant to talk about. Do your research about them, know what they have been doing and how well they have been doing it to engage them in a dialogue and establish a relationship with them. So that when you are financially struggling, you would have laid down the necessary groundwork for other opportunities.

Kick-start your voice-over career

As the voice acting industry evolves, so do its challenges. With the boom of generative AI, there is a common fear among voice-over artists about losing their jobs. But rest assured, AI can’t do what a human can do. Production companies still want natural voices over synthetic ones. So, if you’re ever planning to set foot into the voice-over world, or you’re already a part of it and trying to establish yourself as a professional, figure out your niche, create demos that could be used to assess you ability, and network with other voice-over artists and production companies effectively to establish a steady flow of clients.

The business side of the business is very important for longevity in this business. Once you take on clients, it is important to maintain good business practices so that you get paid in a timely manner. You may need to send estimates, track hours, and, of course, you will create accurate invoices to bill your clients using tools like Zoho Invoice.