Author Archive

Because I have the tendency to be very detailed and write novellas instead of blog posts, here’s a short recap of my trip to NYC for the Audiobook Publishers’ Association Conference from May. My husband was there on business as well (meeting with photo editors, as setup by his agents and himself) so we hardly were able to catch up unless we had dinner together, otherwise it was sometime after 1 or 2am!

Saturday: Got into town that evening, saw my extended family and a friend came in to visit us from Boston.

Sunday: Lots of walking and just hanging out during the day (ate lunch at Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner building, yum!) Then, the conference unofficially started with the APA Mixer at 3 Monkeys bar that night; afterwards I got together with my audiobook crew and caught up after the mixer and had an early night in preparation for our busy day

Monday: APAC! Highlight: my one-on-one critique session with Bob Deyan from Deyan Audio. Elevated my read in a major way and encouraged me to keep pressing on and don’t lose hope that I’ll be working more in this industry! The conference was pretty good, and my friends surprised me that night with a baby shower in the hotel room!

Tuesday: BEA (Book Expo America) – lots and lots of walking, Gary joined me midday and we made the most of our time in the huge Javitz Center. Must have put a few miles on my shoes that day. Back to the hotel to update the rest of the girls on our day and then prep to head out for The Audies!

Tuesday evening: started at 7pm, ended at 2:30am. The Audies were a lot of fun and it was great to spend more time with people we’d met on Sunday and Monday. Everyone looked fabulous, and our group of narrators was no exception (I even found a lovely maternity dress to wear!) The awards were a lot of fun and we cheered on friends, narrators and the many producers we knew. We were invited to the Audies After-Party and of course we went, extending our evening a few more hours and having a lot of fun chatting with everyone.

Rachel Fulginiti, me, Amy Rubinate, Heather Henderson, Gary Dikeos; photo by Andy DeLisle

Wednesday morning: catch a cab at 7:45am to get to the airport! Did you read anything about sleeping during this trip? Didn’t think so. It was so totally worth losing sleep to make the most of our time we had with friends and new connections! We headed not home but ‘back home’ – to Raleigh, NC to spend 6 days with friends and family and have a little vacation time after going non-stop in New York!

I’ve promised an update about the audiobook conference (APAC) and that’s coming, although my iPhone decided to wipe out my half-done post so I’m still rewriting that. However, before much more time passes I wanted to make a very special announcement, one that my friends who read this blog already know, but not all of my VO friends and clients know about yet.

My husband Andy and I are expecting our first child in early August! We’re super excited about welcoming and facing the unknown changes and challenges this baby will bring into our lives. We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, so there’s the old fashioned element of surprise left for us when I deliver our baby on top of all the wonderful and overwhelming feelings that go along with being first time parents. I’m pretty sure being cat-parents doesn’t count ;) (although nearly a decade of dealing with litter boxes and hairballs has had a stomach-strengthening effect over the years that should do well by us with all that babies do on a regular basis.)

So now that this is out in the wide open, here’s my rough game plan in terms of VO for the upcoming months. Starting when I give birth (estimated to be August 7th but realistically could be a week on either side of that) I will spend 2-3 weeks focusing on just being a new mom, where I won’t be taking on any new clients, but will handle any “emergencies” for my current clients. Anyone I’m currently working with will get an email reminder of the dates that may be affected and I’ll have a notice of when that time off officially starts ready to send out once the baby comes. My husband is more than qualified to hit the “send” button on that email on my behalf. After that initial time away from my studio, I will be working 100% from home, guaranteed for 8-9 more weeks. My husband also works from home, so since we’ll be sharing as much of the newborn responsibilities as possible (while certain things will naturally be 100% my job), I’ll have regular studio time and will be “back to work” for new and existing clients. The biggest difference will be figuring out my turnaround time on projects based on all the new changes going on in our lives, and that will be communicated on a per-project basis as we take things one day at a time until we’re more accustomed to our baby’s schedule and needs.

If you regularly read this blog, you know that I also have a full-time production and VO job in radio. At this point and for many reasons, I won’t be speculating about the choices I will make towards the end of my guaranteed 12 weeks of leave. I’m grateful that we’ll have our insurance through them and that my leave is at least partially paid, as the time off from my freelance work and my husband being away from his editorial assignments and other photo work during the first few weeks won’t be a hardship on us and we can focus on what’s important – being parents to this awesome little baby!

If you follow me on facebook or twitter (which I don’t post on frequently so I won’t be an annoying add), I will be broadcasting my availability changes on there. Even though I’ll have a brand new baby on my hip, I’m still hopelessly attached to my iPhone and our iPad so I probably won’t be taking any time off from social media (or Angry Birds or Ticket to Ride…) During those middle of the night feedings with baby, I welcome you to challenge me to a game of Words with Friends and help me stay mentally sharp (username – arielleaudio). It’s a very exciting time for us and I’m happy to share that baby and I are healthy and having a low-risk pregnancy, and I’m feeling great, fully enjoying these last 8 weeks or so before becoming a new mom.

I’ve just wrapped up a whirlwind trip to NYC for my 2nd APAC – Audio Publishers Association Conference, my 2nd Book Expo America and my 1st time going to the Audies. Since Saturday I think I’ve slept about 5 minutes, walked 50 miles and met 500 people. I’m still sorting out the overwhelming details in my mind. It was an amazing experience, even moreso than last year. I’m going to take a few days to wind down a bit while visiting family, friends and doing a little more business in the Raleigh, NC area but will have another post recapping the trip, including some photos, once I catch up on sleep.

I’ve been preparing to attend my second APAC (Audiobook Publishers Association Conference) next week, along with the Children’s Author Breakfast followed by at least a morning of being totally overwhelmed at Book Expo America, AND an evening of glamour and award winning voices at the Audies (seriously, a lot of things to look forward to)! I had to update some of my older demos with some new material. Check out my new audiobook demos: a YA sci-fi/fantasy favorite and a selection from a book by one of my favorite bloggers.

I’ve got one more for you that I’m very excited about. My brand new radio imaging demo is also online (on my home page and the Creative Services page.) I’d like to thank the super talented producers at Krash Creative Solutions for putting together that stellar audio for me. I love working with them and if you need a new female voice AND producer for your radio station’s imaging, well you know what my suggestion would be!

My husband and I joined a friend for dinner last week and as usual, a bit of business talk came up. I’ve mentioned here that my husband is a photographer, and our friend works for an agency and often is in a position to hire photographers, usually for out of town projects. We talked about the awkwardness of pricing, from both sides – the one holding the budget, and the creative who hopes for fair compensation. Apparently, it’s just as awkward to present a low budget to a photographer as it is gut-wrenching to quote a fair rate that sounds like a lot of money for a few hours of work. She’s one of the ‘good ones’ though and she does her research and tries to work with the client to find enough money to at least be fair.

We know for photos as well as voiceover, the majority of the cost of a project is for the usage and rights. I can’t remember where I heard or read this (I think it was a photography business blog), but another line of thought I love is that the client is paying for you to bring your past experience and training that has created your ability to complete the work quickly, even within just a few minutes. However, the quickest way to get deleted from my audition inbox is to say “this will only take you a few minutes” when we all know that is supposed to somehow be reflected in the rate I charge for my work and your usage. Would you ask a medical practitioner to reduce her fee because she completed a successful surgery faster than someone else would? Price and expediency should not be linked as long as the quality of the work is top-notch.

I corresponded with another friend earlier this week who was asked to submit a quote for a large IVR phone system. We went back and forth on the amount of work, the estimated finished time, the word count, the exposure/usage because of the type and size company it was, and came up with a strategy for her to quote a rate she feels is fair, although she’s still a bit uncomfortable asking for it. I think a lot of people would discourage themselves from charging a fair rate due to that feeling of being uncomfortable. Whenever that feeling comes up for me, it’s a chance to more closely examine the issue at hand and figure out what’s at the root of it. Not feeling that your work is worth the rate? Feeling intimidated by the client? Being scared of losing the business and you’d rather charge lower to ensure you don’t chase them away? When I feel that way when generating an estimate, I think that yes, just 5 years ago I wouldn’t have been comfortable charging that, but I’ve been doing this for much longer and am performing at a level where I know that the rate is fair to the client and myself for my voicework. Plus, a savvy agent would charge you that and likely add their fee on top!

I made it one of my goals this past year to put together a thorough ratecard for myself. Even with my happy little spreadsheet, I still have those moments of doubt in my own rates. Am I not taking into consideration how big of a project this is going to be? Is this rate sustainable for the industry and fair to me and the client? Or, am I charging too much? Back to our dinner from last week, our agency friend shared that she feels anxiety set in the moment after hitting “send” with an estimate/budget. I definitely feel that way when I’m quoting for a large project or for a client I’d really like to work with. Having a ratecard gives me a starting point for finding my confidence in that moment – I look it over and can remind myself of why I charge what I charge, what the benefits are that I offer my clients and that I’m being fair to myself and to the industry in maintaining respectable professional rates.

A few pointers for quoting voiceover rates:
1. Get the full script in your hands (well, inbox, that is.)
Being told that a project is 5 pages long doesn’t help you see what’s involved, how many files it’s broken into, how tiny the font is to fit it on 5 pages, how technical the writing may be and a bunch of other surprises that may be disappointing after you’ve already accepted a rate for the work.

2. Ask questions!
For example, what file format? – phone systems have notoriously funky file requirements and knowing you need 8mHz u-law wav files or 48khz vs 44.1khz audio in the beginning is good to know! How many different files does the client need? – with e-Learning you could be working with just a few or a few hundred files or more, and if you have to name them specifically for the client’s compiler then you may want to adjust your rate to reflect this additional file caretaking. Super important of course is, when do you need it? – I don’t know how clients feel about seeing a price breakout with “rush fee” tacked on, but I think there are times when it’s called for, and you’ll know when it feels right, and it’s your choice to show that line item in your estimate or not. Everyone’s definition of “rush job” is different, but in general if someone requires their audio returned within 24 hours on a large project and I have to change or cancel my personal plans to accommodate for a much longer day in the studio, that qualifies for a set rush fee in my book.

3. Compare rates to similar completed projects. If you’ve done medical narration before and felt your 4000 word, 8 page project about lumbar surgery went well and everyone was satisfied with the rate, and now you have a similarly technical project nearly double that size, you know you have a starting point to go from.

4. Have a ratecard or reference sheet you are comfortable with, but not too comfortable. For established VO artists, don’t be afraid to charge what your talents, skills and experience are worth. This is likely to change over time. Don’t price gouge based on ego, either (1 or 2 national spots don’t rocket you to upper echelon talent status) but certainly don’t sell yourself short. Remember that sometimes the client is not educated on rates or underestimates what’s involved or the cost of the usage they’re asking for, and sometimes they’re just trying to get the cheapest deal. I’d personally rather lose a few potential gigs by bidding fairly than retain clients who don’t respect the value of professional voice over work. There will always be someone willing to do it for $50 on Craigslist from their laptop in their kitchen, and I have no intention of competing with them.

**If you’re just starting out in voiceovers and realize you’re still sounding a bit rough and have much to learn, no, I personally don’t think you should be charging full scale rates as those rates in theory are for trained professionals, and you’re going to be working towards that. But you should re-evaluate your progress and not keep those same amateur rates when your talents and techniques have improved.

Resources
If you’re union solely doing union work, you’re protected by scale and the rate likely just is what it is. Non-union talent have the task of drafting their own rate card or quoting on the fly. The Voice Over Resource Guide provides a PDF of the most recent AFTRA rate card, and SAG rates can be found with a bit more digging under the Contracts tab and by selecting which type of VO rates you’re looking for. Specifically for non-union work, Voices.com has a rate education sheet for clients to better understand what is fair to expect, and Voice123 has a more outdated suggested rate sheet for the same reasons.

Don’t be fooled, working in a creative field is still running a business despite how artistic and creative the work itself may be. In our household, we run a few businesses in 2 different creative fields – voiceover and photography. No matter how good my husband and I are at our work, if we didn’t treat them like the businesses they are then we’d eventually run them into the ground due to lack of structure and business sense. I’m going to address just one aspect of spending in my business where I’m constantly evaluating my ROI because it’s a huge category: self-promotion, marketing and advertising. I’m including anything here that I pay for that promotes my voice to people who I believe will refer or hire me. I don’t go into any of the free marketing options in this post. Here’s what I consider to be important:

1) Making a Budget – First of all, yes you need to have one, even if it starts out a bit vague. This also means you should be keeping track of your gross income (look at your tax return and your pre-deduction total for VO income.) I’ve seen statistics suggesting that small businesses may allocate about 11% of their total operating budget to marketing and promotion. The past 2 years my percentage has been closer to 15-20%. Spend what you’re comfortable spending, but know that being super conservative here is going to hurt you. Besides marketing and advertising being a business write off come tax season, you need to know what you’re spending to see how much you’ve made back from those efforts.

2) Planning – The painful truth is, you do have to spend money to make money, but you should be planning how much exactly to spend and WHERE and HOW, not just spending indiscriminately. Between joining Pay-to-Play sites, paying for placing your demo and contact info on a website, and building and maintaining your own website, you could spend your entire annual budget online. You have a lot of options online if that’s where you choose to focus your energy; that’s what I prefer for most of my self-promotion and marketing. However, you should also think about targeted mailings and packages to solicit new agents or clients. As easy and free as it is to send an email, I believe people do appreciate the extra effort of receiving a nice FedEx package and it’s a way to stand out from the crowd.

Don’t forget to think about conferences and conventions! While most are primarily educational in focus, you may also connect with agents, producers or other talent who wear multiple hats in the studio as producers and casting directors themselves. There’s VOICE in L.A., NAB in Las Vegas, more genre-specific conventions (APAC for audiobooks, etc) and peer-led conventions like the newly created Faffcon series. Even if you don’t consider any part of this “marketing,” you will likely be bringing business cards and demos ‘just in case,’ right? Be sure to plan for these business essentials in your budget as well.

3) Research who you’re doing business with – In VO we all do the same thing, but the unique item we’re selling is ourselves, our way of doing business and what specialties we can offer our clients. Find the best fit when partnering or joining websites, link-trading and be cautious of people calling themselves online agents*. As in any industry, there are always people eager to take your money and offer little but empty promises in return. What good is it to pay to be listed on the front page of a website where half the other talent there don’t have professional quality demos? How likely do you think it is that a client will keep listening to sloppy amateurs until they come across your polished demo? When considering a paid-placement site, don’t be afraid to contact other voice talent currently listed and ask their experience before committing your money, and ask for traffic stats from the site admin upfront.

*re: Online agents – You should never have to pay for an agent. Period. If someone is offering you a buy-in to their agency, I’d see that as a red flag and suggest you move on. Agents receive 10-20% commission off bookings, and if they’re supplementing that income with an upfront fee, I’d wonder how many bookings they actually oversee and what your income potential is from an agent like that.

4) Non-Financial Investments – This idea covers a few trains of thought.

Technical investment: do my demos for this type of work sound updated, relevant and representative of my current abilities at their best? If you think heavy promotion can make up for an outdated demo, you’re not spending your money wisely. Be sure that you’re marketing a good product.

Emotional investment: is this a type of work that I’d love to do? I’ve spent a lot of my budget last year and this year marketing myself for audiobook work and have completed one book so far. As someone who loves stories, characters and in general a well-written book, I know I’m choosing to put more of my self-promotion eggs in this basket for emotional reasons, not ROI reasons yet. But audiobooks fall into my long-term marketing plan, as I don’t expect my efforts to pay for themselves within the first 2-3 years.

Time investment: Do you want to spend hours compiling names and email addresses off websites or would it be worth your time buying a database list? It also takes time to get up to speed, manage and track your advertising efforts; if you’re taking on too much then something is falling between the cracks. Know what you can dedicate time to working on and be realistic.

5) Evaluate based on actual results: This is the part that will help you achieve progress in your marketing. What works, and what doesn’t? Decide ahead of time how you plan to measure results. I heavily use Google’s free resources, including Analytics, when it comes to measuring anything that I want to use to direct traffic to my website. From Analytics, I can break down what parts of my website are more appealing to visitors and how much time is spent on each page, what people are interested in and the overall quality of the leads I bring in from each website I receive hits from. With Site Overlay, I can even see which demos are listened to based on where the traffic comes from! Any actual paid advertising (Google AdWords or other) can be broken down into which keywords and phrases worked best, which sites where I have an ad have lead the best prospects to me and just as importantly, I can find out what hasn’t worked in these areas. Like what we tell people with their radio or TV advertising, we can get them to your store but you have to sell them your merchandise. Site traffic analysis is a great way to see if you’re getting good leads but losing them due to an issue within your website.

I gauge the return on my investment from P2P and membership sites based on what I’ve booked through the site. I’ve dropped my placement and membership on 2 websites because of the overall low booking ratios I experienced there compared to the other sites I’ve been very happy with and renewed. Don’t be afraid to make changes, you’ll free up your budget to find a better fit next time.

You shouldn’t setup your marketing and let it float on auto-pilot. Check in on your efforts and adjust them over time. If you think you’re just too into your art to spend time thinking about keywords and campaigns, then pay someone to do it for you. You’re making an investment in your career, one that you may want to have for 20 or 30 years (or more, youngsters!) so it’s worth setting aside some time each week, each month and every year to evaluate how well your paid self-promotion endeavors are working for you.