Peter Baker - The Professional Voiceover Handbook

Also Included with this book: FREE 90 Minute Voice Training Video Course!

Essential Voice Exercises and Training Tips to Transform Your Voice and Work from Home as a Voice Over or Voice Actor

Click Here to Get Free Instant Access!

Getting paid ridiculously well for just reading at home. Sounds crazy doesnt it? But thats exactly the job that thousands of others round the world do on a daily basis, taking advantage of the Internet and the fact that English is the main international language.

My name's Peter Baker, and with over 40 years of solid and successful voice over experience behind me, as they say, what you won't be taught in this book, is not worth knowing!

So let the journey begin.

1 - INTRODUCTION & WELCOME

2 - HOW THE NET OFFERED VOICEOVERS THE WORLD

3 - EXCLUSIVE AGENT OR INDEPENDENT?

4 - SKILLS REQUIRED FOR VOICEOVER SUCCESS

5 - YOUR VOICEOVER WEBSITE

6 - CREATING SHOWREELS

7 - WHAT TO CHARGE? RATE CARDS & QUOTES

8- SETTING UP YOUR HOME STUDIO

9 -TYPICAL ROOKIE MISTAKES

10 - WARMUPS & VOICE TRAINING

11 - THINKING OF THE LISTENER

12 - THE FIVE VOCAL ELEMENTS

13 - THE THIRD HEAD TECHNIQUE OF SELF-MONITORING

14 - MANAGING CLIENTS ASKING FOR WHAT YOU NEED

15 - NATURAL VOICE ACTING

16 - VOICE MODULATION

17 - MID-ATLANTIC OR INTERNATIONAL ACCENT

18 - COLOURING AND SHOWCASING WORDS

19 - RECORDING LISTS IN SCRIPTS

20 - DEALING WITH BREATHS

21 - MOUTH CLOSURE

22 - CHECKING PRONUNCIATIONS

23 - SIGHT READING SKILLS

24 - VOICE ACTING & CHARACTER VOICES

25 - AUDIOBOOK WORK

26 - GETTING PAID FOR AUDIOBOOK NARRATION

27 - THE AUDIOBOOK INDUSTRY AND ACX

28 - WHAT MAKES A GREAT AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR?

29 - AUDIOBOOK NARRATION PREPARATION

30 - FACTUAL AUDIOBOOK NARRATION

31 - FICTION AUDIOBOOK NARRATION

32 - CORRECTING NARRATION MISTAKES

33 - DEALING WITH FEEDBACK FROM THE CLIENT

34 - MASTERING AND EXPORTING AUDIOBOOKS

35 - SURVIVING DIRECTED SESSIONS

36 - RECORDING AT AN EXTERNAL STUDIO

37 - ESSENTIAL EFFICIENCY TECHNIQUES

38 - THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF CLIENT ETIQUETTE

39 - VOICEOVER VACATIONS

40 - MARKETING YOUR VOICE GET MORE WORK

41 - YOUR POTENTIAL FUTURE CLIENTS

42 - DIGGING DEEP ON THE NET & SEARCH WORDS

43 - THE THREAT OF THE A.I. VOICE

44 - VOICEOVER DIRECTORIES & PAY TO PLAY SITES

45 - FIFTY JOBS A VOICEOVER COULD DO

46 - TEN TOP TIPS FOR VOICEOVERS

1

INTRODUCTION & WELCOME

I TS OFTEN SAID BY people exclaiming the love of their own profession, that it is the most fun you can have with your clothes on. Unfortunately, considering the career of a voice over artist, we cannot boast such a claim, as rustling clothing and very sensitive microphones do not make a good mix. And it does get awfully hot in our little voice booths. So quite often, those clothes do have to come off! But if you share my love of being able to give consistently high-quality audio performances from a variety of types of script, using nothing more than acting skills, flexibility and the power of the human voice, then this book is for you.

First of all, I really hope that youre not going to be disappointed by this book.

Over the years in various bookshops, I have flicked through and bought many titles about the voiceover business and have been terribly deflated finding that the author just really wanted to tell their readers all about how they got their big break meeting some top agent in an elevator in LA, or all about their personal life in great detail or about some obscure awards theyd won. Of course, none of that would be relevant to anyone who just wanted to know solid practical techniques and proven working tips that would help them in their careers as successful voice artists themselves.

So, I make you this promise, that after this short section, I'm not going to talk about myself at all, apart from things that I have personally do that may help you in some way. Ive tried my best to cram in as much useful information as possible about the voiceover business and recording and editing techniques that would be useful to someone who has just set up, or is ready to take their voice career to the next level.

Ill go through the opportunities out there and how to grasp them, how to optimise your website and showreels, how to give realistic quotes and quality customised demos. Youll also get detailed practical tips on all sorts of things that can make your life easier and to enjoy your life more. There are even sections on dealing with difficult clients, long-form projects like audiobooks and the threat of AI. But first lets get me out the way, shall we?

My first job was in 1975 at the biggest commercial radio station in the UK outside of London, called Piccadilly Radio, based in the city of Manchester. As well as presenting programmes, I also worked in the commercial production department, where, I recorded voiceovers for adverts and promos, and also taped ( yes, we had reel-to-reel tape recorders back then ) various actors and voice over artists who would come in to our studios to read their scripts. They had to physically come in, we had no internet then of course, and I would mix their voice tracks with sound effects and music off vinyl disc (no, we had no CDs either!) or tape cartridge.

Legal commercial radio had just started in the UK (after the 1960s pirate radio ships) and we were really beginners in the world of voiceover work and commercial production, so I was packed off to New York for a spell to spend time round various talk and music radio stations and production studios to see how they did things.

America had had commercial radio since the 1920s, so they knew all about writing and producing quality and powerful adverts and promos. I learnt some great techniques that we could adapt to the UK market and recorded voiceovers as well over in NYC in my British voice and learnt to perform various Mid-Atlantic accents!

After Piccadilly Radio, I worked for the BBC television in the 80s as a News presenter and a features reporter and later in the 90s ran a TV motoring channel at Granada TV, a commercial TV station. But throughout all my full-time jobs, I have always been regularly recording voice scripts. Theres been hardly a day in my working life where I haven't recorded some kind of voice over of some kind.

In the late 90s, I decided to go fully freelance, take advantage of the internet revolution and built a booth and studio at home, where things just rocketed for me. I can honestly say that in the last 15 years, I have regularly earned about triple what I was bringing in even as a staff executive at that TV station.

Plus, Im working for myself, I work mostly from home, and there arent many outgoings. After all, once youve set your studio up, your main outgoings are simply on internet and power charges, software and website subscriptions, accountants fees and of course a tax bill every year. Thats it really. After all, there are only so many microphones you can buy in life! I also personally dont have an exclusive agent to pay out a percentage to for every job either! But more on agents later.