So, you want to be a voiceover...

Practise reading aloud, record yourself, listen to voices on TV, radio, film and ask yourself why they are good or bad. Could you have done better? If you really want to do it, phone your local ILR ask if they make radio commercials there and ask to sit in a few sessions listen and learn.

You will need to make a demo of your voice and put it on CD. Ideally it should last no longer than 3 mins. What are you going to put on it? That's up to you, but before you decide get advice from the experts. Some say you just need to do a mock up of 3 commercials. Use a basic audio prog on a pc with a basic mic, add a bit of music. You are not selling comprod, you are selling your voice.

Ask a creative producer at your local station if he will help you by directing you on a script or two, if you can't take direction, then this isn't the job for you, sorry. It is a lot harder than it looks/sounds being able to follow direction, hearing the slight inflection changes the producer wants and being able to do them on demand.

Phone up and/or e-mail producers and ask if you can send them a showreel. Ask first if they'd prefer a CD or e-mail attachment. First impressions count. A showreel simply needs to show your voice.

I also suggest that when sending MP3 attachments, your name is part of the filename: "charliedavy-demo.mp3" will suffice. Consider a busy producer with four folders of files, each with varying names: "demo.mp" / "demo2006.mp3" / "voiceshowreel.mp3"... My point here is that if you label your demo CD when mailing it, PLEASE label your MP3 file (an ID3 tag is VERY helpful to producers). That way, it's more likely that you'll be contacted for a job.

With with more people wanting "freebies", you may find it hard to put a price on your voice talent. You may need to be flexible, you will certainly need to be tactful - after all, the person offering you £10 to read an ad may have £500 for you next week. If you think you have what it takes, try to get into a studio or find somebody local to you with facilities - or if you're feeling brave, buy a nice microphone and a mic pre-amp channel. The gamble here is that you need to think about whether the price of your equipment will be paid for by the work you are going to do.

There's more great advice at the Excellent Voice company's website.

Thanks to Philip Banks, Chris Stevens and Charlie Davy.