Step-by-Step Guide to Start Voice Acting with No Experience

This is the step-by-step version of what I'd tell you if you walked into one of our classes tomorrow. It's the order I'd do things in now, knowing what I know.

When I started, I had no idea what I was doing (and I still bumble around). I was working a full-time teaching job, so I'd teach all day and record at night.

My first booth was a frame of plastic pipe with packing blankets thrown over it. I put it up and took it down every single night because I didn't have the space. My microphone was a $40 Blue Snowball. I didn't even know what a pop filter was yet.

I built my business in that hut.

So if you're wondering how to start voice acting with no experience, I want you to know that's where a lot of us start. Nobody hands you experience. You go and get it, one read at a time.

What is voice acting, really?

Voice acting is acting. That sounds obvious, but a lot of people start out thinking it's about having a nice voice.

The job is taking words on a page and making somebody believe you mean them, without anybody seeing your face.

And there's a lot of different work under that one name. Commercials, e-learning, video games, animation, audiobooks, corporate narration. They don't all want the same thing from you.

An audiobook about history and a bloody sci-fi video game need completely different acting. One of the first mistakes I see is voice actors approaching every category the same way.

You don't need a special "type" of voice to begin. You need to be willing to learn the acting and do the reps.

What training should I get first? (Step 1)

Start with the acting. I always say that your gear, your studio, your pictures, your marketing and all that stuff is the icing, and your ACTING is the cake.

So start with the cake. Training gives you the basics of delivery. You learn where to pause and when to speed up or slow down. You also learn where to put the emphasis in a line.

It also gets you used to taking direction. At some point somebody is going to say "Can you give me one more, a little warmer?" You need to be able to do it.

The biggest thing I see new voice actors struggle with is sounding natural. When they talk to you, they're completely normal. When they get in front of the microphone, they turn into something else. I used to call it the crap between here and the microphone. Getting past that is most of the early work.

At VO Journey Academy we do this live on Zoom every week. Gabby Nistico teaches Acting on Monday nights and I teach Marketing 101 on Tuesdays. Script Workout is on Wednesdays, and it's never recorded, so it's a safe room to take risks. Launch Pad with Angela Ohlfest is on Thursdays. Launch Pad is where new members start.

How do I practice every day? (Step 2)

Read something out loud every day. Record it on your phone and listen back. Where did you rush? Where did you sound like you were reading instead of talking to somebody?

Here's a drill I like. Say "The dog ran home" four times, and hit a different word each time. Then take one sentence from a script and say it at three different speeds. Can you really hear the difference? If you can hear it, you can fix it.

You don't need to buy scripts to practice. We have over 2,000 free ones in one place, the VO Journey scripts library. There are commercial and audiobook scripts in there. There are duet scripts too, so you can practice with a friend.

If you need a warm-up first, these 25 tongue twisters and these voice acting exercises are where I'd start.

What do I need for a home studio? (Step 3)

You need a quiet space with something soft around you. Then you need a decent microphone and headphones, plus some recording software. You don't need an expensive studio to start. I mean it.

Find the quietest space you've got and put something soft around you, so your voice isn't bouncing off bare walls. A closet full of clothes works. Packing blankets work. My fort did that job for years.

Don't buy the most expensive gear out there on day one. Buy something good enough, learn how to use it, and upgrade when the work pays for it.

I've written two posts with more detail, setting up a voice over recording studio and the best starter microphones for voice actors.

The other half of this is learning to edit. Your audio quality has to be the best it can be for your setup. Poor audio will hold you back even when the read is great.

When should I make my demo? (Step 4)

Make it when you're ready, after you've had some training and some reps. My advice is don't rush it.

Your demo is your audio business card. It's the first thing a client or an agent hears, and they'll decide pretty fast.

A commercial demo is usually short, around 60 to 90 seconds, with a few different spots that each show something different about you. A narration or audiobook demo lets them hear you hold a story for a bit longer.

If you make your demo in your first month, it will probably sound like your first month. Get the training and the reps in first, so the demo shows where you actually are.

How do I start auditioning? (Step 5)

Treat auditioning like part of your business instead of a lottery. This is where you find out what works.

I'll be honest, there's a lot more competition than when I started. When I started on Fiverr in 2017 there were about 6,000 voice over gigs listed on there. Now there are over 40,000.

I'd still do it. Keep track of every audition you send and every job that comes from it. That way you find out how many auditions it takes you to book a job.

Send more than one take, and make the takes actually different from each other. Keep each audition quick, so you can do a lot of them.

I wrote a whole post on this, How Many Auditions Does It Take to Book a Voice Over Job?

I remember a stretch where nobody answered a single audition I sent. What got me out of it was changing my reads instead of just sending more of the same. Sending it is the key. But send something different when what you're doing isn't working.

Are audiobooks a good way to get experience? (Step 6)

Yes. If you like to read, audiobooks are one of the best ways to get real experience. You're doing long-form work on real books for real authors.

The most common way in is ACX, which is Audible's marketplace. Authors post their books, narrators audition from an excerpt, and the author picks who they want. I wrote a starter post on it, ACX for Beginners.

Files have to meet ACX's technical standards before a book can go live. I have a walkthrough for that, formatting your audio files for ACX in Adobe Audition.

The other way in is the reason we built Academy Voices. It's our audiobook publishing side, and our narrators have published over 790 audiobooks through it. Every VO Journey Academy member gets free access.

You narrate real books for real authors. On our in-house productions, royalties are paid for 20 years. When an author chooses royalty share, it's 10 years. There's also a file checker that fixes your files so they pass the technical requirements.

Angela Ohlfest, who runs Launch Pad, came in as a VO Journey student and has narrated over 250 audiobooks. That's where this can go.

If you want audiobook material to practice on right now, the audiobook section of the scripts library has it.

What does voice over work pay? (Step 7)

It depends on the type of job, and you need to know the usual rates before you quote anybody.

You have to put the business hat on, because this is a business. Or it's just a hobby.

Our voice over rate guide lays out typical rates by type of job. I'm not going to promise you a number, because it depends on the work and on how much you put in.

It also means being careful. New voice actors get targeted by fake jobs. If a "client" wants you to pay them something or cash a check for them, walk away. If a job looks odd, read my post on voice over scams.

How do I keep learning once I've started? (Step 8)

Find other voice actors. This business can be lonely if you do it by yourself in a closet.

You'll learn faster with other people around you. You'll hear about work you'd never find alone. And you'll have people who understand why you're excited about a three-hour audiobook.

That's a big part of what VO Journey Academy is. There are live classes every week and a Discord community. There are also people a few steps ahead of you who are happy to tell you what they did.

And keep learning. I finally have a master plan after ten years, and I'm still changing things. You never really stop.

If you already know you want in, the plans are on the join page.

Frequently asked questions

Go read something out loud today.