Do I have the right idea using text from classic literature in my Voice Over demo?

[kylelos267]

Hello,

I feel like asking for opinions on the script material I'm currently using for my voice over demo. Two of my specialty VO areas are video narration and radio, and I wanted to demonstrate my skills in narration in my demo recording. I thought the best source of royalty free scripts I could use for that was classic English fiction, since it is in the public domain. I've recorded a few clips of such text now. Recently though, I was searching through other Fiverr VO artists gigs and noticed that no one else seemed to be using literature text (or story text of any kind for that matter) in their demos. For those doing video narration, like me, they seemed to prefer using commercial or explainer video script. 

This has made me start to wonder, is classic literature a good fit for a voice over demo specializing in video narration? Would it be better suited for doing audiobooks? I'm just starting out in voice over so I wasn't sure about doing audiobooks yet, because of them being a "marathon" read. 

I'd appreciate any opinions on this. 

[melissaharlowvo]

What a great question. @kylelos267
 

Your demo is your calling card. Potential buyers/ clients want to hear your voice and don’t seem to care if it’s BMW or expensive chocolate reads on your demo. Most don’t get past the first :15 anyway. I have heard reputable agents say that. 
 

On Fiverr, I feel the buyers take care to find the right voice but you have to know your buyer/audience. I am not sure many scholars are coming to find that perfect voice to read their dissertation on classic literature??? Your read is nuanced and very niche. If you want to make money, create the commercial demo first and slowly build your narration demo on the side. 

As far as the script, write your own! You can certainly take it from the public domain but do a little DYI. I have created all my demos, scripts, videos etc. there are many sellers who will create a semi- pro demo one is @troyholden674 Look to your peers who are willing to guide you. Don’t spam people though. 

Reach out if you need anything. 

[kylelos267]

5 hours ago, melissaharlowvo said:

What a great question. @kylelos267
 

Your demo is your calling card. Potential buyers/ clients want to hear your voice and don’t seem to care if it’s BMW or expensive chocolate reads on your demo. Most don’t get past the first :15 anyway. I have heard reputable agents say that. 
 

On Fiverr, I feel the buyers take care to find the right voice but you have to know your buyer/audience. I am not sure many scholars are coming to find that perfect voice to read their dissertation on classic literature??? Your read is nuanced and very niche. If you want to make money, create the commercial demo first and slowly build your narration demo on the side. 

As far as the script, write your own! You can certainly take it from the public domain but do a little DYI. I have created all my demos, scripts, videos etc. there are many sellers who will create a semi- pro demo one is @troyholden674 Look to your peers who are willing to guide you. Don’t spam people though. 

Reach out if you need anything. 

Wow, thanks so much for your reply @melissaharlowvo! I really appreciate it!

Since I made my first post about this a couple weeks ago, I've done some more research into what kind of scripts I should use for my demos. I found a nice detailed article that discussed demos for different voice over genres. I learned from it that public domain literature is more often suited for VOs looking to record audiobooks. At that point, I actually began to wonder if I wanted to make audiobooks the primary genre my demo would focus on. As I mentioned before, I was unsure about it at first, but I had recorded several bits of text from public domain fiction by then, and found I really enjoyed it. I felt intrigued at the idea of doing audiobooks for a living. 

If I'm just starting out as a working VO though, your advice would be to start with the commercial demo and build up an audiobook one as I gain more experience? 

I admit it never occurred to me that VOs could create all the script for their demos. As I've discovered through research however, there are plenty of resources out there for getting tips on writing scrips in different genres. For my narration demo I did record text from five pieces of creative writing (mostly fiction) that I did in the recent past. It seems it would be worth my while though to get into the habit of writing my own demo material in any genre. It would likely also give me insight into the creative process of my clients. 

 

[melissaharlowvo]

I think the most important thing about creating your demo is it needs to be professional and sound amazing. The competition out there is very clear and your recording space needs to be perfected first. I would send recordings to people who you trust and get their valuable opinion first. Don’t spend time on creating a demo until your sound is absolutely perfect. it doesn’t mean it needs to be expensive…It just needs to be perfect. I would be glad to listen to anything you have and give you my honest feedback. When you send things out just be prepared to get a variety of responses. Your family will say it sounds great!  Your colleagues will say it sounds good….Keep it up. A Coach will give you specific pointers on perfecting your audio….Especially if you’re doing audiobooks. ACX is the standard these days for what your audio should sound like with regards to audiobooks. 

Also, sending a sample of your audio to an audio engineer is also a great way to get pointers on perfecting your recording space. There are audio engineers on Fiverr and if you need a contact, I can certainly refer one to you.