Word of Mouth: A Guide to Commercial Voice-Over Excellence, 3rd Revised and Updated Edition

by Susan Blu, Molly Ann Mullin, Cynthia Songé

The art of voice-over is the backbone of commercials, animation, documentaries, and radio dramas produced for both national and local markets throughout the country. It is an ever-growing, lucrative field, and the demand for well-trained voice-over artists is increasing rapidly in our age of digital entertainment. Word of Mouth—now in its updated and revised third edition—is the primary instructional book in the voice-over field. A clearly written and practical primer for the beginner and a welcome refresher course for the professional, Word of Mouth contains voice-over exercises, sample copy, and essential advice about producing a demo, auditioning, self-promoting, getting an agent, and what to expect on the job. It also provides exclusive and up-to-date lists of voice-over agents, coaches, workshops, and demo producers and duplicators. It is the standard text for numerous university communications, television, and acting department courses. The book is accompanied by a 50-minute audio CD that demonstrates various techniques and styles of animation and commercial voice-over performed by ten top voice-over artists.

Genres: Nonfiction

182 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1987

Reviews

[Paige Realmuto · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful and thorough book! Any person looking to make it as a voice over actor should read it. It’s in depth, easy and interesting to read, honest, and helpful. It even has a list of classes and agents and such in the back categorized by city/state. The only thing is, it’s a little old. For example, I don’t know if CDs are the preferred way of getting your demo to agencies anymore.

If you don’t want to be a voice over actor, it’s still a great peak into the lives of a voice over actor. I definitely have more of an appreciation for all the time and effort it takes. It’s far more than just doing funny voices.

[James Laginess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed "Word of Mouth" and found a great amount of useful information here....Especially helpful was Chapter 2 "The Basic Process" which offers techniques and questions to assist us in Visualizing and creating a foundation for each Character !

[Marilyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this in the paperback version...just found out it was revised/updated in 2006.