The book: Voice for Hire: Launch and Maintain a Lucrative Career in Voice-Overs
Whats the big idea: The First woman to voice the Academy awards, Emmy awards, and Tony Awards teams with Voice-over Coach and Producer to write the definitive book on the Voiceover Industry
The ONE BIG THING I got out of the book: The Voiceover Business takes hard work and dedication. It is extremely exciting, and there are many facets in which your voice career can go, yet you have to work at the business, keep at it, and really be up to date on all the aspects off the industry, at the top of your game, plus know about marketing, agents, home studios and more. This book covers all the things that someone needs to know about getting into VO.
If you can only read section – which one would you read: In this stage of my career, the section I would most recommend is section 2: Selling Yourself, which deals with demos, marketing yourself to potential voiceover buyers and landing and working with agents. This was great insight, and I have many notes from this section that I am going to put into practice right away!
Random: 50th word on page 125? for
Cool Factor: Voice for Hire comes with a CD of a coaching session with Randy Thomas and Peter Rofe. Some great motivation and great coaching by Randy and Peter of some pretty terrific talents. The CD is an awesome added value to this book.
Another Cool Factor: Don LaFontaine. Before he passed, he wrote the intro to Voice for Hire, and there are many stories of him throughout the pages. I never met him, but love to hear of his passion for the craft, and his desire to pass along his knowledge to other young VO talent.
Voice for Hire Delivers
“Since the Key to a successful career in Voice-over is reading, read everything about this business that you can. The more you know, the better prepared you will be.” – Don LaFontaine
I’ll be perfectly honest.
I was really excited when my copy of Voice For Hire arrived. Of course, I couldn’t pick it up from the post office box that evening, because the office was closed. I had to wait til the next morning. Such was my luck.
But I tell you what. I was like a little kid at Christmas the next morning, itching to get to the Post Office Box.
Coming from the rabble of radio, I have known about Randy Thomas for a long time. I had heard stories about her making the jump from Radio to Voiceover work. This was an exciting read for me, in that, even though I am a male – there was some similarity in our histories.
Funny enough, there is similarity in my history with Peter Rofe as well. He’s a Theatre guy. How perfect! With my BFA in Theatre, and radio background, this book was bound to be right up my alley.
Voice For Hire Is a great new resource for VO talent. As I was reading, I felt the passion and excitement building in me for this awesome field that I have chosen for my life.
Where is my Voice?
Broken into 3 Sections, Part 1 Breaking Into The Business and Finding Your Voice begins with a quick jab between the eyes asking – Where to begin? Peter and Randy say – get a coach, get into class! Learn about your craft. Yeah, talk about getting right into it!
Look, “Everyone Needs Coaching” – So says Lisa Marber-Rich at Atlas Talent Agency. WHat do you look for in a coach? Do you take classes? Do you do private lessons? So many questions, and this book answers them well.
Lining up the Next couple chapters – they are overviews of the different types of Voiceover work that a voice actor could be hired to perform. These are great chapters that give a “50,000 foot view” of all different types of VO jobs. (Don’t miss “Bringing a Script to Life” – one of the best parts of the book for analyzing copy.)
It’s All About Selling Yourself Baby
Part Two – Selling Yourself is all about Marketing, Your Demo and Agent Representation. With example letters to potential agents and talent buyers, there are tons of great ideas for marketing yourself and Growing your Voiceover Business.
Randy and Peter talk thru Demos – Commercial, Narration, Animation, Live Announce – you name it, they tell you what works and what doesn’t. Lengths and Styles, techniques to demo production. Yes, its in there.
Plus they go into how you should approach agents, what to do when you get one, and making sure they are the right fit for you.
Work it
Part 3 is about The Working Voice Artist – Auditions (“Statistically, if you book one job out of every fifty auditions you have a pretty good batting average“) and booking jobs (a pet peeve of Tony Mennuto of Sound Lounge Radio? A talent who shows up late and a talent who stays too long after the session).
In this section, there is a full chapter dedicated to Home Studios. Randy and Peter walk thru several levels of studios, and what is included in each. Equipment, soundproofing, and if you want a studio like Randy’s you have to buy a 300+ pound door… No Kidding.
All Right, That’s A Wrap
I enjoyed Voice for Hire
I walked away with some great action steps to take for my career, plus I was able to sit in a coaching session via the CD that is included in the book.
I would highly recommend you put Voice for Hire
I do have an affiliate account with Amazon – so the links contained in this review do link back with amazon and to my account.
