When hiring a voiceover vendor, freelancer, service provider or individual voice artist - without representation, agent or union -, I always look for balancing important values for my clients' projects as:

• safety

• professionalism

• agility

• certainty

Safety, Professionalism, Agility and Certainty are the cornerstone for any successful and pleasurable collaboration. To some extent, all these elements must be present when hiring a freelance voice actress or actor. Otherwise, we risk losing time and other resources with unreliable and unprofessional artists.

These 4 aspects can be verified through questions like:

• Professionalism:
  • Is the voice actor professional (not so personal and moody), polite, clear and balanced?
  • Does our communication flow and progress toward the same end goal?
• Agility:
  • Is the voice actor daily/frequently available in his (tested) home studio?
  • Is he fluent in all steps, from voiceover pre-production to post-production?
  • Is he resourceful and proactive in solving problems and take decisions along the way?
  • Is he someone I can rely on?
• Safety:
  • Is the voice actor reputable and ethical?
  • Is he committed and compliant to my project?
• Certainty:
  • Is the voice actor ready, proactive and fast, so that I'll have what I expect, on time?
  • Does he follow instructions?

These values have no relation to the vocal attributes or the acting skills but they are as important as the artistic aspect of voiceover casting and the auditioning stage.

With these 4 values in mind, we move to the enxt step: narrowing down the shortlist to reliable and ready voice talents.

Email: The Easiest & Fastest way to hire a reliable Voice Actress

Great emails - accurate, relevant, easy and pleasurable to read - take time to be written. They are not as fast as instant messages but they communicate much more professionalism and safety. And it's valid for both parts: the contract and the voice talent.

If you communicate well through e-mail, the higher the chances you have a professional and reliable voice actress. If the project gets complicated along the way (revisions, change in direction or divergences), you have already paved the way to discuss complex matters in detail.

And just like we expect professional emails from the voiceover actor, we also need to match this standard and communicate our values in our first outreach email.

The quality of the initial communication is key and there wouldn't be a better way to collaborate than through a mutually respectful, personalized and planned outreach between the contractor and the VO freelancer.

Great emails - accurate, relevant, easy and pleasurable to read - take time to be written. They are not as fast as instant messages but they communicate much more professionalism and safety, especially if the non-union voice actor has his/her own domain and is in the industry for years.

If you communicate well through e-mail, higher the chances you have a professional and reliable voice actress. If the project gets complicated along the way (revisions, change in direction or divergences), you already have paved the way to discuss complex matters in details.

The quality of the initial communication is key and there wouldn't be a better way to collaborate than through a mutually respectful, personalized and planned outreach between the contractor and the VO freelancer.

Of course, WhatsApp, video calls, phone calls, and messages in voiceover casting websites are also valid mediums to carry voiceover projects on.

I had extraordinarily successful collaborations on projects that started on or moved to WhatsApp and have been lasting for years. It requires much organization and commitment from the voice actress side.

It's also common for me to use Trello/Atlassian, Todoist, WhatsApp groups, Google Spreadsheets, Dropbox, Frame.io and Vimeo's review tools and many other tools to help us get the job done - with creativity, speed and elegance.

Generic, spammy, poorly written emails and hurried messages waste everybody's time and hurt the project owner's reputation, and the project result.

A truly professional freelancer won't stop suprising you with how much they can be generous and helpful if you treat them personally, clearly and respectfully.

Intelligent, brilliant and collaborative professionals gravitate towards eachother and potentialize each other's talents and results. That's why specific projects excell in results (both creatively as financially) for the whole team and company while many others remain at or below the median/ordinary line.

Shortlists: Narrow Down to the Right Group of Voice Actors & Actresses

Based on industry & customer experience research and on my role as a producer and creative & managing director at A2Dots Production Ltda., the better way to hire a voice actor or actress directly through email is limiting the number of voice talents you get in touch with:

The fewer voice actors you get in touch with and the more vetted and qualified they are for your personal preferences and project's requirements:

• the more you have time and energy to be specific with them
• and to show them the quality of your project,
• and in return, they express better interest, attention, quotes and ultimately results in their auditions or final recordings.

In summary, hiring non-union voice artists can take time and you must be willing to invest this initial time to save you trouble along the way. If you invest time now, at the initial stages, you'll work with professionals who will save you time as soon as you start working together.

On the other hand, if you look for a shortcut at the beginning or overlook those 4 elements, you might end up without a solid vendor for a long-term partnership or with serious issues while the project is still running.

Checklist to hire a Professional Non-Union Voiceover Actress or Actor

I concluded that the smoother, most time-efficient, pleasurable & successful projects have these characteristics in common:

• are carried by through email

• have a contract or an official quote in Adobe Sign or .pdf format

  ^{(Whether I am the company offering the services or hiring other companies' and freelancers' services, I provide either a contract or a detailed quote/offer that works as a simplified contract.)}

• are described with:

  • long paragraphs and text walls bullet points,
  • bold
  • and italics

• everybody calls each other by their names

• clear and straightforward information, especially about

  • when to begin the work
  • additional unforeseen costs and requests
  • and when the project was approved and is officially finished.

• anticipated information about

  • expected deliverables
  • and payment terms

• with a balanced tone of voice ranging from professional/factual to kind/collaborative tone

• grammar and typo-free

• with consolidated feedback and final modification requests in one single email

There'll be exceptions and out-of-the-ordinary situations. Still, the checklist above can help you quickly assess the trust and interest that you can deposit in the voice actor and also the trust and interest he deposits in you, your company and your project.

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How to Write an Email for a Non-Union Voiceover Actress

Below you can find relevant information you can ask or include in your emails before starting the project.

• Get in contact through email

  ^{(In a hurry? No worries, Amanda replies emails super fast. If you prefer, call her, reach her through WhatsApp, contact form or other voiceover casting platforms and websites too.)}

• Check availability

  ^{(Not a problem. Amanda is a full-time VO actress and is always on her studio for your project.)}

• Project's details & information

  ^{(You can send her the final script and/or the script length - in word count, video duration, number of pages and font/size used, )}

• NDA

  ^{(Or first do you need Amanda to sign an NDA before sharing the projects' details? Send the NDA to projects@amandadeandrade.com and she'll reply immediately.)}

• Budget

  ^{(Amanda appreciates working with professional, organized and creative people, so if the project has a limited budget but checks all the other requirements, she can flexibilize and work within the client's budget. Her quotes are transparent and balanced to help you move forward in your project.)}

• MP3 demos ^{(Tell her as much as possible about the style, industry, genre or type of voice you're looking for. She has hundreds of demos and might have the exact one you want to hear or approve with your client. The more specific you are, the more specific she can be to rapidly fulfill your needs and expectations.)}

• Artistic direction, reference & brief

  ^{(Send Amanda a precise artistic direction so she can record the perfect sample, reads or audition for your script. With clear artistic direction, your satisfaction is guaranteed - there's no way she can't serve you with what you need. You can use your own words, send her external audio references or tell her about a demo that you heard in this website and would like to mirror or get inspiration from.)}

• Usage

  ^{(Where, How and When/For how much time will the voiceover be used? This impact significantly on the voice actor hiring costs. However, many projects are way simpler than that and can be easily and transparently budgeted.)}

• Payment terms

• Provide or ask for a contract

• Ask for a formal quote

• Deliverables (naming, .wav, .mp3, in sync, changes in the script)

❔ Does it look like too much for the first email? It isn't, because most projects can be emailed in 3 paragraphs or some bullet points. Many projects don't have special usage other than company website, organic traffic on social media, internal usage for the team or eLearning intranet training. For simpler projects, this information is enough:

• script
• budget
• where will be used
• preferred timeline
• brief / artistic direction / audio reference
• expected output
• payment method and terms

Beyond that, a complete and clear first email avoids back-and-forth, follow-ups and scattered messages. Your first email and Amanda's first reply will summarize most of - if not all - the scope of the project. It'll look like a contract and it'll not only save time later during the project but will also help both parties to check if the deliverables meet the requirements and the agreed terms.

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