From script to finished file, between meetings.

Hiring a voice without an agent, step by step

The mechanics are simpler than the industry's reputation suggests. You write a casting, which is your script plus a few lines of direction and a deadline. It goes out to voices whose sound and availability match. They record your words in their own studios and send them back as auditions. You listen, pick one, and pay the published price. The voice records the full job and uploads it, usually the same day. That is the entire process, and most of it happens while you are doing something else.

What a brief is really for

A brief is not a specification, it is a performance instruction. The most common mistake is describing the voice instead of the situation: "warm, professional, mid-thirties" tells a voice actor almost nothing, because every one of them can be all three. Describe the moment instead. Is this person reassuring somebody who is worried? Explaining something to a colleague who is slightly embarrassed to be asking? Selling to someone who has already decided not to buy? Voices act; give them something to act.

Two practical additions save more time than any amount of adjectives. Write out anything unsayable phonetically, because product names and acronyms cause more revisions than anything else in this business. And say where the audio ends up, because a staff video, a national campaign and a phone menu are three different performances as well as three different prices.

Judging auditions without second-guessing yourself

Listen to the first fifteen seconds of every audition before you listen to any of them in full, and listen with your eyes closed or your screen off. Names, photos and profile copy move opinions more than anybody admits. When you have three you like, play those three to somebody who has not read the script: the one they understand is usually the one your audience will understand too.

Ignore recording quality differences between auditions at this stage, within reason. Some voices audition on the fly between jobs; the booked recording will be properly done. What you cannot fix later is a read that misunderstands the script, so weight interpretation over polish.

What the price covers

The rate card prices by script length and usage. Corporate and non-broadcast work is a buyout in perpetuity, so you record once and use the audio wherever the project needs it. Broadcast commercials carry a twelve month licence from the date of record. Directed sessions, syncing to picture and production are separate published lines, so you can add them when they are needed and leave them off when they are not.

Because the money is paid to the site before recording starts, the voice never waits on your accounts department and you never pay for audio you have not heard. If a read comes back wrong, ask for a revision in the job thread; if the voice is simply not right, the satisfaction guarantee lets you pick another one.

Working with the same voice again

The first booking is the expensive one in time, not money. Once you have found a voice who suits your material, add them to your favourites and book them directly next time. Series, courses and multi-part campaigns all benefit from one voice throughout, and a voice who already has your pronunciation list and your style notes delivers faster on the second job than on the first.