Please read the VO FAQ here:

http://www.spokenword.com/home.htm

Beau is one of the top 10 guys out here in LA.
I remember when he was just a young hungry eager pup.
So his advice is worth its weight in gold.

I'd look into finding an agent to represent you. They don't get paid unless you get paid. ANDY

Some random thoughts. I am not a VO talent, but I hire them on a regular basis for online learning and other multimedia applications (ie, not TV or radio).

We don't hire from Voice123 or other online places. There are a few reasons for this.

One, is that I want people coming to our studio, especially people that we haven't used before. In our experience, it just works out better. We will have some people do pickups from home studios, but almost never whole scripts.

We typically work with a small group of people for most of our projects. We have a decent mix of male and female, old and young who we know can read our scripts and have a decent vibe working with us.

In our case, having a nice voice isn't the deciding factor. How well a talent can read and the type of scripts are big factors.

Someone who works well for narration often doesn't work well for voice acting (and vice-versa). There are exceptions, but I would say that only half of our VO talent shine at both.

We won't hire unknowns for big projects. I am pretty good at estimating time needed for sessions. If I book someone for four hours, then I need to know that they can do the material in about four hours, or my day really gets hosed (especially with back-to-back sessions).

New people are either referrals from other companies or other VO talent. We will sometimes vet new people on smaller projects. We may hire them for a voice acting job, and then audition them with a test narration when we are done.

If we need a particular voice (eg, authentic foreign accent), then we go through a local casting company.

Gotta run. May fill this out more a bit later.

Thanks

Thanks MPD and everyone who has contributed to this...

Stephen