voice actor

Fiction Audiobook Narrator Award: Readers Favorite: We Won!!

November 25, 2024 by Laura Schreiber

Winning Silver

While I am still glowing from an incredible weekend at the Readers Favorite awards event celebrating our win of the Silver for the best Fiction Audiobook for the Girl in the Toile Wallpaper by Mary K. Savarese, I figured I would put pen to paper and try to capture the joy of the experience because it really was truly special! When Mary let me know that she had submitted our audiobook and that we won, I was simply elated. We work so hard on these books and put so much of ourselves into them. When you have a passion for what you do, there is simply no other way. Then, to have someone you work with submit is thrilling and to actually have your work recognized and honored amongst such other great talents is extremely meaningful and is not something I take lightly or for granted.

Sharing the Win with Mary

When Mary, the author, informed me that we won for our audiobook I was so excited! She actually lives in Florida and invited me to come down and stay with her to share the win at the Readers Favorite awards ceremony in Miami. I thought about it for about 30 seconds before logging into United Airlines and buying a ticket! As Mary put it, we could attend the weekend festivities together and celebrate as a team. What could be better?

Why it was Meaningful: A Great Collaboration

As I reflect on my experience not just this weekend but in working as the audiobook narrator on the Girl in the Toile Wallpaper in general, this acknowledgment was so meaningful because of the relationship that Mary and I built as professionals collaborating together. Each step of the way we listened to each other, made time for each other, and were responsive to the other’s meaningful feedback. It was the picture of what collaboration should be and the work that resulted was something that we are both so proud of!

The Riders Favorite Experience:

Upon my arrival in Florida, Mary drove us down to Miami for the Book Fair. Readers Favorite had their own tent where all the winning author’s books were for sale for ten dollars and the money was a contribution to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital! The tent also served as a central gathering place for the Readers Favorite community to stop by and get to know one another and see our books on display. It also happened to be a glorious, sunny day and we all enjoyed our time there.

Mary and I met many of the other authors both at the tent and at the evening “Meet and Greet.” Everyone was so lovely and down to earth. It was thrilling to hear people’s stories and learn about what motivated them to write their stories. Honestly, it was refreshing to not talk politics and that not a single person mentioned AI the entire time! I was thrilled.

A common theme that came up repeatedly over the weekend was not to wait to share or write. If you have something that you want to say or do, do it. It is amazing how many different people said this in different ways. I also was delighted to see how many working moms were inspired to make a difference and set an example for their children. One woman even had her medal put on her son’s neck and shared she would not have had the strength to write without him. It was one of the many touching and poignant moments of the weekend.

Gratitude

In life I always have an attitude of gratitude, but this whole weekend there were so many moments big and small that I appreciate! I was so thankful just to be there. I was so thankful that I recorded the book in the first place. I was so thankful for Mary and her husband Vinny’s hospitality and warmth. I was so thankful to meet so many kind and interesting people. I was so thankful I was able to arrange to go and that my husband could watch our dogs. I was so thankful that in a world with so many super talented narrators our audiobook won!!! I was so thankful that my flights were on time and there was no travel drama. The list goes on and on, but the sum total of all of these little moments is an overall experience that left me filled with joy and with memories to hold onto for years to come!

Next, Mary and I will be collaborating on the next booking her trilogy, the Starwriters Club, in the spring of 2025, so do look out for that!

Scheduling Tips to Book Like a Pro

October 15, 2024 by Laura Schreiber

Having a Schedule Matters

As full time, professional voice actors, it can often seem like there is not enough time in the day. I can’t tell you how often my to do list carries over from one day to the next, with priority given to booked work, live sessions, and coaching students. There is always a difference between what has to be done and what can wait, and essential items like booked work typically can never wait. Some might say to higher a VA, but as someone who has never had great luck with a VA, I am always striving to improve my time management skills. Over the years the have improved. My children have also gotten older. The combination has enabled me to improve my scheduling so that I can book more work. Here are some scheduling tips to help you book more work:

Google Calendar

I switched to google calendar a few years back and this was life changing. This enabled my calendar to sink on all my devices all the time, everyone. It has several features that I love:

I love that I can block out chunks of time in different color
I love that when I am going somewhere (like a VO conference) I can add locations and ticket attachments as a PDF. For those of us juggling way to many balls this is amazing
I love that I can send calendar invites to guests also sharing an event.
I love that it integrates seamlessly with other apps like Apollo, Evernote, and Calendly!
I love that if an event or task changes it is easy to edit.

Calendly

Calnedly client Dashboard — This is what clients see when they log into Calendly,

Years ago I decided I needed to make my scheduling life easier, and Calendly was the answer to all of my prayers. Are you ever tired of the constant back and forth about when to schedule a zoom and how to accommodate your clients or industry friends? I sure was? Calendly put an instant end to all of that. Different types of calls and zooms are available. I have it as a drop down tab on my website. If someone needs to change a time, no problem, they go back in and reschedule. The best part of all is that this syncs seamlessly with Google Calendar which of course syncs with all my various devices.

Calendly User dashboard — This is what I see as the user when I log in. Notice all the functionality options at the left to set my settings.

Without Calendly, I would almost certainly need a VA to schedule my appointments at this point in my career. I simply do not have time for the back and forth conversations and to coordinate between coaching students and voice over clients. Often peoples’ schedules change. I also do not have time to have repeated conversations about the same session. Calendly makes all of this seamless.

Let’s say you never want to work Thursday afternoons because you have a prior commitment. No problem, so set that up in your availability settings. Perhaps your accountability group meets every Wednesday night. That’s fine too, just block the time. Calendly let’s you make yourself available when you are and carve out the time when you are not and you no longer have to explain it!

Planoly

I confess I have a love/hate relationship with Planoly. Her my many years in business, sometimes I am super focussed on it, sometimes I can’t bear to use it, and I think it simply depends on how much I have to say, how much is happening in my personal life, and how much is happening in the studio. With that caveat aside, Planoly allows you to pre-plan and line up your social media posts on sites like Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and X. You can line them up a month (or more, I think) in advance and they will automatically post for you. You can even pre-plan stories, which I find to be mind-blowing.

There are several pros to this. Planoly allows you to sit down in one fell swoop and make sure, in just a few hours, that posts will happen and you will indeed have a social media presence. Whether you do it or a VA does it, it will get done and those posts will go up! You will have a chance to build great branded content and can cleverly weave themes throughout which is quite nice.

There are cons as well with Planoly. Let’s say there is a natural disaster or terrible, tragic event, whether it be in your personal life or on a national scale. But now, you have used Planoly, and regardless of what is going on in the world, you have a post going up at 3:10 PM on all fronts that is all glitter and hearts. This may not be idea. It may go with your brand but yikes, it may be all kinds of wrong. You need to make sure that wherever you are in the world you can stop or block such.a post in the event of an unforeseen emergency.

Paper Lists

Weekly Planner — I am obsessed with this weekly planner!

Yes, I confess, I am still a woman of a certain age and even though I could do it all with Google tasks and phone apps, there is something about having a paper list and seeing it in front of me. I confess I use several different paper items because I love them so much. I use a paper weekly planner for on-going brain storming so my ideas don’t get lost, I use 3 x 5 cards because I love the size and feel, and I use paper “to do” lists because a girl who has a love of lists can never have too many lists. I’m not kidding, I actually love the paper products and I make no apologies for it.

Hiccups

Nothing is perfect. In VO, a lot of my work books very last minute. Many of my commercials which require Source Connect sessions come in same day and then require that something be moved. It just happens. The other problem is that I am, at the end of the day a human and a working mom and I mess up. Sometimes I schedule everything I’m doing on google for the 1st of the month and then nothing gets blocked an I am double booked. That really stinks. Try not to do that! It is apparently google’s default. I also apparently often put actual religious holidays on the wrong day. I am Jewish and observe a lot of holidays, especially in the fall. We actually go to synagogue, so I cannot take bookings those days, and this year I accidentally left the second day of Rosh Hashanah open. Oops! Basically, you can make mistakes with all of this and the only way to catch it is to inconvenience people and it is very, very annoying. Some people will be kind and others will make snide remarks.

Lessons

Over the years I have learned that trying things and learning from other industry friends is generally a help! Be adventurous, test things out, and see what works for you! You will have opinions and will like some things and really dislike other things, but you won’t know until you try.

Why You Need a Home Studio When You Start with a Coach

June 3, 2024 by Laura Schreiber

Getting Started in Voice Over

When people come to me for voice over coaching, they are at all different point in their VO journey. Sometimes they are quite experience but many are totally new to VoiceOver and are making the bold move to pursue their dreams. Building a strong foundation is extremely important, and my production partner Dave Scott and I work really hard to help our students learn things the right way from the start. Still, whatever regardless of when you plan to do your demos, it is really important to start practicing on an actual microphone with a preamp or interface in a studio setting for several reasons. Here are some thoughts to consider:

Learning Mic Technique

Good microphones are powerful. Whether you are starting out with middle of the road mics like the Rode NT1 or the Cad Equitek E100S, or investing in a more expensive microphone right away like the Neumann TLM 103, these microphones are condenser mics and will pic up all the sound in a large radius around them. You need to learn proper technique to best enhance your sound. Also, technique varies by genre. The way I work with my mic for conversational commercial reads or intimate reads is different. When I do video games I move around a lot and often back away from the mic, especially when I am shouting and doing effects. These are all skills I was taught and worked hard to hone, I did not wake up one day and just know how to do it. It takes time. And you do not want to walk into a studio for a job or worse for a booking and not have the skills necessary to rock that session!

Form Good Habits

Put simply, lessons are expensive. When you pay for a voice over coach or take a voice over class online, you are investing in yourself and your career. Whether it is the time spent with the coach in sessions, the time spent doing your homework in between sessions, or for daily practice, you need to be establishing good habits. You simply cannot do this without the pro equipment. You need to set up your studio so that you can prepare to be a professional. There is only one way to do this and you need to master your technique early on so that it is seamless when you launch your business.

You Might Have Diction Issues

No one in VoiceOver wants to have speech issues. Speech issues that I have had to deal with as a voice over coach range from diction issues, regional accents, articulation issues, plosives, and sibilance. If you only record on your computer and submit, it can be really hard for your coach to pick up some of these, or pick up the severity of some of these. Imagine speeding months coaching, getting ready for demo day, going to a pro-studio, stepping in front of a U87, and your coach hears a major diction issue they never noticed until demo day. What a disaster! This can, however, be easily avoided simply by setting up your professional home studio and working with your coach on real recording equipment.

The other side of this is that you need to become a critical listener of your audio too! You need professional headphones, or cans as we call them, that do not have a filter in them. You can not really hear how you sound without them, and you can not really hear what clients will hear or be listening to without them, so this is essential to your training!

You Need to Practice Recording and Editing

When you are working with a VoiceOver coach, you need to practice recording and editing they way you would when you would submit for an audition or a job. You can only do this if you have a functioning booth with a microphone, preamp or interface, computer with a DAW, and good cans. You need to practice editing your audio every day so that you get used to the ins and outs of your DAW and become efficient at producing pristine audio. Nothing else will suffice in this business. And it does not happen overnight, believe me!

Conclusions

I hope this has helped you better understand why you should not wait to set up your home studio! Timing matters a lot. While budget plays a factor for most people, even with cost in mind we can work with you to help guide your choices as your start to big gear for your home studio. It’s better to have it ready and get going and be well-practiced when your launch your business. For those of you thinking that you might get coaching, do your demos, then build your booth, that is not advisable. Read the blog again and re-think your plan! Now, best of luck in your VO journey!!

The line between the voice actor and our business?

February 28, 2022 by Laura Schreiber

The Philosophical Question of VO

Without doubt people love John DiMaggio’s character Bender on “Futurama.” So when DiMaggio’s contract was up, he faced a dilemma. Many voice actors have actually faced this very dilemma. Does he hold out for the rate he deserves? Should does he walk? Or perhaps in this instance, DiMaggio responded like his character Bender would have.

This is a complex situation. If you have not watched the show or have not read about it, there are a few key details. DiMaggio has played Bender since the 90s. He has described Bender as being part of his soul. Hulu decided to revive the series. There are a lot of unanswered questions:

We do not know the entire budget.
What was John DiMaggio’s offer was relative to others in the cast like Billy West?
Was actually only about the rate?

As voice actors, we face a daily struggle. We are working artists. Creatives. How do we align artistic principles with business principles? If something is “part of your soul” how do you attach a rate? When a character becomes part of the fiber of who we are, how do we walk away? At the same time, we spend years training. We invest in pricey gear. We have a huge cost to maintain our business. How can we afford not to maintain our rates? If we do not stand up for our value, who will?

Recently I was on a college tour at Georgetown with my son. They tour guide spoke about religious and philosophical life on campus. He said they want the students to grapple with the questions to which there are no answers. When I read DiMaggio’s story, I thought back to this. As voice actors, we need to find the intersection between our acting goals and our business goals.

Voice Over Bookings Like Library Books

In March of 2019, I was at the World Wide Radio Summit in Burbank. I remember Kelly Doherty saying something brilliant. She likened VO gigs to library books. Kelly said they are ours for a time then they go to someone else. I loved that. As someone who has always believed we get the jobs we are meant to get, that worked for me. My friend used to do the Burlington ads on Spotify, then I did them. Now someone else is. I used to do the IVR for Big Bear Gear. Then they wanted a male voice and I happily passed it on. That’s how it goes.

What makes it different in the scenario is with Bender, is that fans equate actor with the actor. The actor has developed the character. The actor has not only made the character who he is, but the character then becomes a part of the fiber of the actor.

Now, let’s flesh this out. There are times when actors assume roles that have already existed. For example, Bob Bergen took over as Porky Pig. Dora from Dora the Explorer has been voiced by three actors: Isabella Merced, Caitlyn Sanchez, and Fatima Ptacek. “Tom and Jerry” had no fewer than seven voice actors over the many years. There was not feuding when these actors stepped into a role, the role, like a library book, simply changed hands.

What Makes the Bender’s Voice Over Role Different

Some philosophical questions must be asked at this point in analysis:

Does fan attachment come into play?
Do some actors define a role?
Can actors seamlessly take over for each other?
Where is the line between budget and performance?
Is it more important for a talent to earn a living wage? Or, is it more important for the character to go on to exist and be part of a series?

When DiMaggio could not reach an agreement, many industry insiders came to his defense assuring everyone that they would not assume his role either. This leaves us with an open-ended question: imagine of someone had tried to replace Beaver Cleaver or Arther Fonzerelli? If someone tried to replace Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, we would notice that too, so perhaps some characters are just different. Perhaps Bender is one of those characters. That, of course, leads to another great question: does the voice actor develop the role is does the role create the space for great talent?

As a professional voice actor, I can tell you that great scripts are a gift and they do not come your way so often. When they do, they give voice actors a chance to shine. It is hard to give a brilliant performance when the specs in no way match what you are sent script wise. So my thoughts are that when characters become iconic, it’s because an extremely gifted actor is placed in a wonderful cast and has a great script to work with.

Voice Actors Earning a Living Wage

All of that said, I am a voice actor because I have a passion for my craft. I have an advanced degree and while there are many things that I could do, there is only one thing that I want to do: voice over. Of my daily routine, I take joy in the minutiae with one exception: negotiating rates. Despite the prevalence of well-publicized rate cards, I constantly have to negotiate with clients. It is so frustrating. DiMaggio’s recent problems bring all of this to light. If the most famous and talented among us cannot get paid what they feel they need to continue an on-going role that they are known for, how are the rest of us supposed to hold out hope that we will get the rate we need on the next commercial or eLearning gig?

Pickups and Revisions: What’s Your Policy?

January 31, 2022 by Laura Schreiber

Why Voice Actors Need a Policy for Pickups and Revisions

As a full-time, professional voice actor, I love working with repeat clients. I love delivering finished audio I can be proud of, and over the years I’ve come up with a few strategies to reduce the number of pickups I have to do. It is important to understand the difference between pickups and revisions, and how live sessions come into play.

Just What is a Pickup

A pickup implies that you, the voice over talent, have made an error, and typically any and all performance errors are covered by the actor regardless of the size of the job’s budget. This could mean that you misread the script, it could mean that there is an odd noise in the recording and it is obscuring your work, or it could be a performance error. Perhaps you were meant to sound calm and relaxed and the client feels you give off an agitated vibe. Any of this constitutes a pickup. When I book a job, I do ask clients to give me the courtesy of asking for pickups and deliveries within 48 hours of when I give them the finished audio. Most do. Some don’t. How flexible you want to be is up to you, and makes a difference in how you feel about your relationship with the client.

What is a Revision

A revision is different than a pickup. A revision implies that the client has changed the script. Typically this means that they got your VoiceOver audio back, reviewed it, and then decided to make tweaks. For me, for jobs over $250, I include one round of minor revisions which I define as less than 20% of the script within 48 hours of delivery. If it is after 48 hours or more than 20% I charge $75 per 30-minute revision session. If the revisions are more than 40 percent of the script I adjust the rate. If the script starts to look more than 3/4 different and it is a long narration, then it becomes a new job, and negotiations begin. This is not common. In all my years as a VO talent and coach, the two times this has happened, the clients were upfront about the revisions and offered me a new rate before I even had to start worrying. If you are noticing, they are noticing. In terms of the turnaround with revisions, again, you have to decide what you can live with. For example, I work with some eLearning companies that take quite a while to review their work. For me, this is not a problem and I am happy to wait.

Throwing a Live Session into the Mix

So you have a session for Source Connect, Zoom, or Skype. Wonderful. What should your pickup policy be? Audio from a live session is always final delivery. Period. The session should not end until the clients have what they need. This is the industry standard. If the client comes back after a life session and wants a re-record, you are entitled to a fee for an entirely new booking. Basically, you have made yourself available to however many people from their team are on the call, from the producer, to the creative director, to the folks from the brand. They have plenty of time to give direction, chat, and get all that they need from you. You are not in any hurry. If, after the spot is produced, they decide to take the work in a different direction, that’s fine. They can pay you for another session.

Tips to Avoid Pickups and Revisions

In the end, here are some tips I have come up with that leave me having to do very little pickups.

On jobs under three and a half or four minutes, I deliver at least two takes. If a client has options, they are less likely to come back to you wanting more.
I deliver wilds of the end. If there is a talk line, give them lots of options of the end as you would in a live session.
If there is something that may have an unusual or unexpected pronunciation, either try to call the company and hear how they say it, or fine it on YouTube and avoid having to do the retake for that. If you can’t find it, give them wilds of the word or sentence with different pronunciations.
Try to review your audio several times before you submit it. If you are new to VoiceOver, this is a reminder that you need to do your editing for correctness to script before adding EQ/Compression/Effect stack.
If you have a long narration, I actually edit page by page. I go through each page twice before moving on to the next one. I catch my errors and it gives my voice a break.

Ultimately Why Pickups and Revision Policies Matter

In the end, we want our clients to have a great experience working with us. We want them to come back to us over and over again. If we lay out our policies clearly, and there is no room for ambiguities, communication should be seamless. Expectations should be clear. Relationships are built on trust, and when policies are consistent, because there is, in fact, an actual policy, it is much easier for a client to understand what they are being charged for and why.

A Day in the Life of a Voice Actor…

December 6, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

My jam

You might be thinking, hey- I wonder what it’s like to be a voice over actor? As a full-time, professional voice actor, sometimes my days can feel a little bit like Groundhogs Day, meaning that there is a certain rhythm to my days that tends to play and repeat. To be honest, as a working mom, I’ve come to count on this routine and structure and don’t mine it at all. I find this order and structure is really helpful and as my business has grown over the years, and I have expanded into coaching and demo production, I have carefully worked all of that into my schedule. There are some basic elements that are to be expected in every voice actor’s day:

Auditions:

I typically do these quite early, and I think my auditions serve as a great warm up for my actually paid work. Whether they are for pay to plays or for agents, I love running through the pace of auditions and feel that this helps me stay on my toes and understand the current industry trends for what is being sought after. Daily submissions are a must, and I typically submit early morning and late afternoon at a minimum. I like submitting, and relative to other talents I know, I regularly submit a lot. I think it depends on your specific goals, but auditioning is for sure a part of my daily routine.

Booked Work

Then I begin my booked work. Depending on what is do when, and how urgent some bookings are, I decide my order of events. Sometime the vocal age of the casting comes into play for me. For example, if I am required to sound young, I have a specific window when I sound really young during the day, so I make sure to record at that point. Conversely, if I need to sound like a mom, or a 40 something, I save those recordings for after lunch. Thus, I plan my day.

Website Updates

I am often doing website updates. From adding blogs like this one, to adding client logos, testimonials, new demos we have done for students, and samples of finished booked work, the like of website updates goes on and on. I try to do these regularly so they do not become insurmountable.

Marketing and Direct Outreach

Marketing is a constant it my daily routine. I think the only day of the month when I do not send any emails is the day my newsletter goes out. I have different groups of people I work on reaching out to, and I am always keeping in touch with current clients and reaching out to new ones. I also do all of my own social media work, so marketing is a daily constant.

Billing and Invoicing

I do this regularly. Every time I deliver finished audio to a client, I send their invoice along with it. I send regular reminders, and am very on top of my invoicing. After all, voice over is not a hobby!

Equipment

My gear is so important. It is the foundation of all of my work. Whether I am researching my next purchase or neatening my wires, I am doing something related to m studio gear every day. I also constantly watch YouTube videos about equipment and find tis very helpful.

Dog walking

A highlight of my day, throughout my day, are the breaks I take with my studio dogs Violet and Daisy. I love walking with the girls and taking these sporadic breaks every few hours is really good for me. It is so good to leave the studio and get actual fresh air. I occasionally run into neighbors and that is really nice too.

Workouts:pilates

In addition to walking, I do Pilates regularly and this is very much a part of my routine. I find that scheduling this time for my self is essential to my mental and physical wellness. I tend to do these reinvigorating workouts either early morning, before work, or mid-day on my lunch break.

Household Chores

As a wife and mother, my daily household chores are endless. From cooking and cleaning to laundry and homework help, the list goes on and on. This time of year, there are holiday chores too like gift wrapping and all of those cards!!

The Glimpse….

So a lot needs to happen to run a successful voiceover business. There are a lot of moving parts, and when something falls off of my radar, ultimately it means less work will come in. So, it’ on me to make sure that my work gets done, and all of my ducks are in a row.