Hi Patrice,

I've had a quite a bit of experience with narration and voice-over work. There are a few things that you should consider to get started.

1. Get a quality recording of your voice. It's a lot easier and cost-efficient to do this these days. Perhaps you can set something up at home. The main thing is to be sure you can be heard clearly without a lot of noise.

2. Practice and perform the material that you are most comfortable with. Many voice-over artists have a wide range (comedic, dramatic, etc.) but there are also many that focus on one type of thing. Make many recordings, and go back and critique yourself. Have other people listen and give you their opinions – "not enough anger there," or "your voice cracked here" – you know the drill.

3. Get used to creating inflections in your voice by not necessarily raising the volume of your voice. Some of the best VO people out there can create emotion without making it a technical nightmare to record. The louder your voice becomes, the easier it can distort the recording.

4. See if there are volunteer opportunities to get you started. Are there local charities like "Recording For The Blind" that you can practice your technique for? Or perhaps local stations or companies that make local commercials might be willing to give you a try for free? Building a credible portfolio can only help. I would take any opportunity to do public speaking as well. The more you are comfortable performing with your voice, the better you will be during recording.

5. Listen to how other people record for books, commercials, radio, etc. There is a lot to learn about how people treat the same material differently. You will easily notice (and I'm sure you may have already) the variations in VO personality. Think critically about how they choose to emote and how you might do it differently – i.e. "His voice came up really high on that ending. It made him sound less credible."

6. Create a quality set of recordings showing your style and range, and post it on your own website and your Jobcase profile.

You may know people that say, "you'd be really great as a book narrator." That could be telling you something. Have fun with it, and give it your best shot.

The biggest lesson here is that if you want to be a professional narrator, there is a ton you will learn just by listening. Hope this helps. Best of luck and let me know how it's going.

Cheers, Matthew

Patrice, being a book narrator sounds SO cool! Have you done it before? Since you already know what you're looking for, here’s how to see who’s hiring near you:

• Double-click the Jobs button at the top of this page
• Enter the type of job role you're looking for
• Click the blue search button If you see something that looks interesting, just click View Job and follow the instructions to apply. Let us know how it works out for you!