Books for and about the Voiceover Business – each one has something of value, but like anything in this world, you need to use your critical thinking, your self-awareness and your budget contraints.
- There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is : A Complete Insider’s Guide to Earning Income and Building a Career in Voice-Overs by Elaine A. Clark. This is the required text for Acting for Radio / Voiceover 106 at San Diego City College. Lots of script examples with detailed discussions.
- Art of Voice Acting by James Alburger (with stories from other professional voice talent – including Connie Terwilliger) Fourth edition – an excellent book with CD examples. Complete overview of the business.
- How to Investigate, Break Into and Advance Voice Over Careers From Edge Studios
- The Voice Actor’s Guide to Recording at Home and On the Road
Jeffry P. Fisher and Harlan Hogan. Recording at home is a given. This book can help you figure out what to do. - You Can Bank On Your Voice by Rodney Saulsberry. Rodney is a great motivational speaker and offers another point of view on how to succeed.
- VO: Tales and Techniques of a Voice-Over Actor by Harlan Hogan. A very entertaining read.
- Word of Mouth : A Guide to Commercial and Animation Voice-Over Excellence 3rd Edition. Susan Blu, Molly Ann Mullin, Cynthia Songe (The first VO book I ever bought)
- How to Read Copy : Professionals Guide to Delivering Voice-Overs and Broadcast Commercials/Book and Cassette by Adrian Cronauer (Good Morning Vietnam) This is an old book with a cassette, but if you can track it down for a reasonable price, it might be worth the $$ to get another POV.
- Creating Character Voices for Fun & Profit an audio book by Patrick Fraley. This is Pat’s signature “book.” It has lots of great information on how to develop believable characters. This is a cassette and might be hard to track down.
- Greatest Cartoon Voice Tricks Ever Smuggled Out of Hollywood by Patrick Fraley. A CD with amazing “tricks,” including bats and babies.
- Talking Funny for Money : An Introduction to the Cartoon/Character/Looping Area of Voice-Overs by Pamela Lewis. This is one of the books/CDs that would be low on my list, but again, there is still good information here, so if you can find it for a reasonable price, go for it.
- Accents, A Manual for Actors by Robert Blumenfeld. This is an extremely detailed book and CD set for those interested in learning accents and dialects.
- Acting with the Voice: The Art of Recording Books by Robert Blumenfeld. Published in 2004 – this is now a bit dated.
- Voice for Hire: Launch and Maintain a Lucrative Career in Voice-overs by Randy Thomas. A top working talent talks about the biz.
- Voiceovers: Putting Your Mouth Where The Money Is Chris Douthitt and Tom Wiecks
Have a review of any of the above, or want to add a book to the list – please post a comment!
