Why do I keep putting in these stats? In my start-up as a Voice over Worker, I was frustrated by the dearth of specific information that I could relate to, in order to have some idea if what I was doing was average, below, or above. Now, until some of you start to reciprocate and make available on your own blogs or in comment here similar numbers, these will remain unrelatable, so please, share some thoughts if you care to.

This past week got me to these numbers:

• 332 auditions
• 59 offers
• 12 in produntion
• 45 completed
• 26 auditions pending
• 220 sold

The Cone of Silence continues to evolve. I have realized that just a mouse, even the new wired one, is insufficient in some areas. The initial idea was to just be able to start and stop the DAW as I recorded – the previous work process had been to hit record on the DAW, duck in to the booth and record on the roll, and eventually when tired, step out of the booth to stop the recording, SAVE THE WORK, and prepare to edit or change projects for more recording.

This worked well enough, but if I had two or three auditions to do, then a First 15 to produce, and then some fixes to record again, that required a lot of moving back and forth. Because of that, I decided a keyboard would add some needed functionality. I opted for a compact Perixx mini-keyboard with trackball mouse. The space in the Cone is limited, the amount of typing is limited to mostly book titles, and the trackball mouse is workable enough within the DAW as I am not dong any editing, mostly just start and stop and SAVE THE WORK.

I have completed another round of edits for Trauma and Tenacity, and while any project can tend to get old if it lingers around too long, I believe this is an important book and one I want to do well, for myself and for the author, so I am working on being diligent and doing it right. I am hoping this will be headed to retail in the next few days, and soon I can offer some promo codes for those first few requesters.

Suchavoice has turned into Such-a-letdown. I had the first phone call with a rep, who was very professional and personable, and I thought she was a great rep for her company. After hearing me read my choice of scripts, she assured me that I would be a good candidate for Voice over Work (I haven’t had ANYONE tell me to stop – less because of any ability and more for their own business reasons, I suspect!). After a pleasant talk about the business and other niceties, we scheduled a follow-up call and she said her goodbyes. And that was the last I heard from her.

I did receive two emails with offers from Suchavoice. The first was a premium package that included coaching, a studio produced demo reel, and a membership in Voices.com! Quite a package, and quite a lay-out at like $4,500. I got a second pitch for a scaled down offer, leaving off the Voices.com and a few other things, but still including the coaching and demo reel for around $3,000. Still steep, but in the grand scheme of things probably realistically priced for the type of coaching and a real reel. But my self-financing venture isn’t that cash rich yet, so I didn’t sign up for any of that.

Lastly, as we speak about Voices.com, I was impressed to receive a phone call from a rep there, after creating an account and populating it with the minimal amount of information. I understand that this is a pay to play site, but still I thought it was a step above to have a human contact me about working with or through them. So that’s pending. More later, I would bet. Who amongst our readers has any experience with Voices.com?

Categories: Voice over Work