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You’ve taken the time to research and write your book, you’ve got it out there, and you’re feeling great about it. The next step for getting your message or story to more people is obvious — create an audiobook. To do that, you’ll need one very important thing — voice actors!
Finding the right freelance voice actors for your audiobook project isn’t hard, but you’ll want to do your best to get the right team in place. Here’s how you can find the best audiobook voice actors for your project on Fiverr.
Before you start, it’s a good idea to know what you can spend. Put together your initial budget, understanding you may have to make some compromises along the way. You’ll want some flexibility, but you can’t spend what you don’t have, so you’ll need to know your limits too. Your audiobook production budget should include voice actors and any other production expenses like editing, mixing, and recording, if necessary. If you’re not editing and producing yourself, you can find out more about what production will cost by reaching out to several audiobook producers. Luckily, when it comes to recording voice work, most freelance voice actors on Fiverr are equipped with their own voice recording studio.
Once you know something about your overall budget, decide how many actors you’ll need. This may be as straightforward as counting the characters in your book, but remember that some actors can do multiple voices, so you don’t necessarily need as many actors as characters.
You’ll need at least a narrator — someone who reads the non-dialog text of your book. That person may be able to provide other voices, and depending on your genre, audience, and the actor’s skill, they may be able to do all of them.
Next, consider who your characters are — where they’re from, what language(s) they speak, their genders, ages, and so on.
If you want realism, actors who are like the characters work best — young people for young voices, female actors for female voices, and people from the same regions as characters for accents. Try listening to a few audiobooks that are like yours. If your book is a kid’s and young adult adventure fantasy, there’s plenty of room for fantastical or even silly voicing. For example, the Harry Potter series was done by one actor playing all parts.
In any case, get a good idea of what you’re looking for and what the voice actor(s) need to be able to do, so you can narrow your search quickly.
Not only is it important to consider your characters, but it’s also important to consider your audience. Your genre is a large part of what your audience expects, and in turn, your current readership gives you a good idea of what types of voices will resonate with them. Kids, for example, won’t necessarily respond to intimidating or overly serious readers, whereas a teeny-bopper voice won’t engender trust in a serious academic text.
If you’re having trouble with this, there’s one surefire way to find out what your audience wants — ask them! Run a survey, send an email to your list, or even ask individual fans directly. You’ll get a lot of different opinions but ask enough people and you’ll start to see a pattern emerge.
Most of the work of finding your audiobook cast is done up front, planning your production, and deciding what you’re looking for. After that, the job gets easier. Just head to Fiverr’s seller categories and search for “voice actor” or “voiceover.” You’ll find a plethora of qualified candidates.
You can narrow your search by language, budget, delivery time, gender, accent, and many other categories so you can find the right candidates fast. Then listen to their sample work and reach out only to those candidates who you think will fit. It’s as simple as that!
If you’re ready to find the perfect freelance voice actors for your audiobook, go ahead and head over to Fiverr today and get started.
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