How to get the most out of your (voice over) buyer request

[Guest joshcates]

Hello!

I know the majority of users on the forums are sellers, but there are some buyers, too! And many sellers are also buyers. While browsing Buyer Requests, I often see those which have missing or incomplete information, which makes it very hard to gauge whether or not the project is worth undertaking. I thought I would put together a tiny guide on how to get the most from a voice over request.

Draft a buyer request which includes the following information for best results:
-Word count. This is what most people base their pricing off of, but it can also help someone determine if the project is too large for them to handle. It also helps determine what they’re preferred turnaround time is!
-Preferred accent / gender of speaker if necessary. I’ve run into a buyer request where this wasn’t listed, and the buyer messaged to tell me ‘we want female only’. Thanks???
-Use. What the VO will be used for. An ad? Internally? An audiobook? This helps determine what rights are necessary, but also what sort of tone to take and what the requirements will be. I would read an advertisement way differently than I’d read a person passage, for instance.

Some considerations: An hour of finished audio takes anywhere between six to eight hours of work to record and edit. Wanting a 30,000 word book read in 24 hours isn’t going to happen! Commercial rights are necessary when advertising a product or service on a private source–e.g. on your website. Broadcast rights are needed when advertising a product or service on a public source–e.g. radio.

That’s it! I hope you found this helpful. Cheers!

[barrelofmonkeys]

Coming from a voice over artist, if everyone did this, life would be so much easier