Voice Actors for Your Audiobook - Where to Start?

Familiar with Google? Actively using their search engine to conduct keyword searches online?

As good as Google and their contemporaries are for finding generic subject matter, they are no match for finding niche search queries or specific answers to your questions about narrators, voice-overs and voice actors.

Take our friend James, for instance…

It’s lunch hour on a Thursday, and James in Boston needs to find a voice actor to record 10 minutes of voice-over for his sales presentation. He has to present on Friday morning, so timing is critical and he needs to find a voice talent, fast.

James knows that he wants to hire an authoritative male voice in the 30 - 45 year old range with a Boston accent, but he is having difficulty locating someone who matches all of his requirements searching on one of the larger search engines.

After a series of frustrating dead end searches, James turns to one of his colleagues, Crystal, and asks her what to do.

Crystal lets James in on her voice talent search engine of choice, Voices.com.

Using the tools at Voices to find talent allows James to conduct a more robust search, giving him search options such as voice gender, keyword, location, union status, and language.

It’s already 20 minutes into his lunch and time is of the essence. James thanks Crystal for her advice, and heads straight away to the Voices website.

While visiting Voices, James realizes much to his delight that he can find voice actors quickly via 3 unique ways.

Firstly, he can go about his voice talent quest by searching the voice actor database.

Secondly, James can browse the Featured Talent Categories, all of which are specific to a given application for voice-over.

Thirdly, James can post his job requirements and have qualified voice actors reply to his job posting, complete with a sample of their voice, a proposal, and a price quote. All of the replies are hosted conveniently online and can be viewed by other members of his team to help make a decision.

Best of all, there is an option for James to have his job approved immediately - just by setting the Response Deadline to today’s date - saving him time and money. This express job posting option is just what James needs to get responses from talent quickly and complete his project for his Friday morning presentation.

It’s about 12:27 p.m. James leaves his desk to microwave his lunch. Around 12:40 p.m., James returns to his desk and opens his email. He sees the following message:

“Dear James,

Your voice-over job has been approved! Talent are being notified and will answer within minutes…”

James is astounded! He hadn’t been away from his desk for longer than 15 minutes, and already there were 26 responses from talent with Boston accents awaiting him in his account, all with a sample of their voice, a proposal, and a price quote for his review.

After listening to several demos, James identifies the voice actor who he would like to work with.

James quickly consults with some of his co-workers and they give him the thumbs up to move ahead with Boston Sean.

Boston Sean is exactly what James was looking for and more. Not only is his voice perfect, but Sean is able to record the voice-over by 3 p.m. and will deliver the files before the end of the work day.

Paying Sean is easy - he prefers PayPal, so the entire project is completed and paid for on the same day.

After Sean is awarded the job, he gets to work on the sales presentation. Earlier than expected, an email appears from Sean in James’ inbox letting him know that the files are ready.

James eagerly listens to the voice-over, grinning from ear to ear. He excitedly picks up the phone and starts dialing Sean’s number, thanking him profusely for his professionalism and for the spectacular interpretation of his script.

The next day, the sales presentation goes off without a hitch, complete with a voice-over recorded the day before by the voice actor, Sean.

The room errupts with cheers, the audience exclaiming “What a success! Where did you get that voice?”

James knows that he found a real winner in Sean. He decides to work with Sean regularly, and over the years even refers him to other colleagues in vertical markets.

Afterwards, James finds Crystal and reiterates his thanks. He confides that he couldn’t have done it without her help and the fantastic site that she referred.

Still basking in the afterglow of a successful presentation, James decides to call a number of his friends and tell them about Voices and the presentation that got him a record number of sales.

Knowing that it’s easier to go to a website if it’s emailed, James opens his email program and types the website URL emphasizing his praises for the Voices service. He BCCs all of his colleagues and zips it off into the night.

This story rings true for many people who use the Voices web service to search for, audition, and hire voice actors. Many of our customers come to us through web searches, but a growing number are finding us by means of word of mouth or peer to peer marketing.

Let us be a part of your success story. It’s what we do best!

Looking forward to serving you,

Stephanie, David, Carol and Laurynda

3 Ways to Find Voices Fast

1. Post a voice-over Job

2. Browse the Featured Talent categories

3. Search the voice talent database

NOTE: If you’re reading this article and needed your voice-over recorded ‘yesterday’, here’s a link to quickly post your voice-over job and see results within minutes of approval.

Photo: sacrifice_87