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.

Here's how my friend James used a voice talent niche search tool to quickly help him meet a tight deadline...

It was lunch hour on a Thursday, and James, based in Boston needed to find a voice actor to record 10 minutes of voice-over for his sales presentation. He had to present on the following Friday morning, so timing was critical. He had to find a voice talent, and fast.

James knew what he wanted - an authoritative male voice in the 30 - 45 year old range with a Boston accent, but he was having difficulty locating someone who matches all of his requirements in spite of searching on one of the larger search engines.

After a series of frustrating dead end searches, James turned to one of his colleagues, Crystal, and asked her what she'd do.

Crystal had used a specialist voice talent search tool previously, and found it a much more efficient way to find a good voice resource. So that's what she advised James to do.

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

Already 20 minutes into his lunch, time is of the essence. James thanked Crystal for her advice, and headed over to the voice talent website she suggested. From there, James discovered, much to his delight, that he can find voice actors quickly via 3 unique ways.

Firstly, by searching the voice actor database.

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

Thirdly, by posting 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 needed to get responses from talent quickly and complete his project for his Friday morning presentation.

At about 12:27 p.m. James left his desk to microwave his lunch. Ten minutes later, he returned to his desk, opened his email, and saw the following message:

"Dear James,

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

James was 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 identified the voice actor who he would like to work with.

After a quick consultation with some of his co-workers, they gave him the thumbs up to move ahead with Boston Sean.

Boston Sean was 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 promised to deliver the files before the end of the working day.

Paying Sean was straight forward - he prefers PayPal, so the entire project was completed and paid for on the same day.

As soon as he was awarded the contract, Sean got to work on James' sales presentation, and ahead of schedule, an email appeared from Sean in James' inbox letting him know that the files were ready.

James reviewed the voice-over, and was delighted with what he heard. He picked up the phone and dialed Sean's number, thanking him profusely for his professionalism and for the creative interpretation of his script.

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

The room erupted with cheers, the audience exclaiming "What a success! Where did you get that voice?"

The outcome was that James knew he'd found a real winner in Sean, and they now work together regularly. Sean has also gained referrals from James to other colleagues in related markets.

It all began because James asked Crystal for help, and she referred him to a specialist voice talent search engine web site. He couldn't have done it within his deadline without her help and the site that she referred him to.