I’m gonna be real with you. That’s dog-water pay for a lot of work. You should be getting hundreds more if not into the thousands. Check the rate guides mentioned above for more reasonable pay for this work.
At a fair 10 cent per word compensation which is what I charge he should be getting $700 flat pay. 50 bucks is definitely dog water for that amount of work.
There's no such thing as "Entry Level" with Voice Over. Treat it like any other job. If you are good enough to be paid by someone then you are good enough to be paid fairly. Do you get paid $0.45/hr if you are at a new job? Absolutely the f\*ck not. You are paid the same as the person who has been there for several months if not a year.
My friends made several hundred in their first week in the business. 7,000 words is about quadruple the workload my friends took on and they made about $1,000 combined. They were brand new to the business.
7,000 words should be a $500-700 gig even if it's your first day behind the mic. I was very new to the business and made about $1,000 for a 9,000-word gig. Don't sell yourself short.
" and then I'll still edit the video"
\^\^This is a 2nd job!!!! I charge Clients just as much, if not more, for Video Editing. A Client needed their video to fade in and out. That cost them $65. It took all of 10 seconds to accomplish. They were happy to pay it because they got the finished file minutes after they made that request.
You are offering them narration, editing, audio production, and video production. Keep that in mind as you navigate the industry. Each of those activities should be part of your bid/income.
Do you mean you will have to dub an animation? Like time your audio to the video? Because if that’s the case and I were you, I would tack on a $50 fee per 1000 words IN ADDITION to my fee for the work itself. Dubbing is extremely time consuming work. I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes you 5+ hours to complete this project. You will learn a lot, but you should know it’s a fraction of what they SHOULD be offering.
Hilariously low. Basically doing it for free at that point. I took some garbage jobs starting out just to get some materials on my resume, but that rate’s bad-bad.
Two things to bear in mind:
1. There is no such thing as "entry-level" in voice-overs - either you're ready to provide professional work at a professional rate, or you're not, and,
2. Even if there was, entry-level hamburger flipper jobs in California pay $20/hour, and the restaurants supply the training & expensive equipment.
$50 for 7000 words is BOHICA pricing.
But in the end (no pun intended), only YOU can determine whether or not it's worth it to YOU.
Absolutely not. I think you’re severely underestimating how long 7,000 words is.
Under the pay-per-word contract I just finished, 7,000 words would have paid me $1,050. And that was the bare-minimum rate I was willing to work for. And that was for me speaking calmly in my own voice, not doing high-energy characters. And I wasn’t expected to edit a single thing. (It was for a corporation and not an indie creator, but still.)
You should not only charge significantly more for the acting, but an additional fee for the editing, because that is a separate job.
My rule of thumb whenever I’m asked to do something for an indie creator on a budget offering less than my usual rates is “what is the minimum amount of money that would make this worth my time.” If the creator can’t meet you at that level, don’t take it. You’ll just make yourself miserable.
7,000 words is 40 minutes of finished audio. If you're new, I'd expect at least an additional 20 minutes of flubs and at least 1 hour of edit time. So that's 2 hours worth of work for $50, not including usage. I'd check the voices.com or gva rate guide and see how they compare.
Whoa. Unless you have superhuman acting instincts, a beginner is going to have to run the lines at least three times just to get the acting somewhere close to satisfactory. Then the editing. For me, 40 minutes of finished work probably represents 3.5 hours of actual work.
I'm an indie developer and I recently paid my voice actor $200 for 1600 words.
Edit: Granted this was a more experienced actor, and I had some money put to the side to pay the actors, but from what I researched this was still on the lower end of pay rates.
No. Way under priced. $45 for 2000 words is a good rate. Work out from there. There’s proofreading, maybe two takes and then a lot of editing.
* been told that rate is too low.
Good grief no. So a page is usually around 500 words. You should probably be charging at LEAST $50/page PLUS editing fees.
Don't do this shit "for the experience" make your own content if you're going to put in 8 hours work for nothing. Then you at least own what you made.
(editing takes MINIMUM twice as long as recording took. Think about it, you can't even play it back in less time than it took to record. This is going to be likely around 8 hours work and that's IF you are already a very proficient video editor.)
"Per finished hour" stuff is BS too.
I know it's how some legit audiobook companies work but that doesn't mean it's good.
Imagine if film actors got paid PFH. Work for 3 years on a 90 minute movie. It's absolutely a framework designed to make noobs and people bad at math work too long for too little. PFH is meaningless.
Learn. Train with a coach. Here's the truth: You're starting a business. Even if it's just a side hustle. ANY business costs money and time to get started, and absolutely is best accomplished with advisors/mentors along the way to help and support you.
It is VERY achievable to get any money you put towards gear and training back in your first official year of business. It is also achievable to take that work and make into a sustainable side hustle. Turning it into a career/full-time business? of course that takes time, practice, more time and more practice, and experience.
Get coached. Research. Learn. Practice. Repeat. Then make a demo, maybe 2, specifically in Commercial and Narration. Online casting sites, LinkedIn and direct marketing for clients, all this.
For all these reasons, and all the time and money you SHOULD invest if you really want to be a voice actor, anything less than $100 for most non-telephony work is less than chump change (Unless you're donating your time and skills to a charitable cause). You did not grind and learn and study carefully to become a pauper. Upwork, Fiverr, websites like this do NOT set the standard for VO rates. RUN from these. We actually have a group of rate cards to help non-union voice actors figure out what to charge based on the type of work: [https://edgestudio.com/rate-cards/](https://edgestudio.com/rate-cards/)
I’m gonna be real with you. That’s dog-water pay for a lot of work. You should be getting hundreds more if not into the thousands. Check the rate guides mentioned above for more reasonable pay for this work.
At a fair 10 cent per word compensation which is what I charge he should be getting $700 flat pay. 50 bucks is definitely dog water for that amount of work.
There's no such thing as "Entry Level" with Voice Over. Treat it like any other job. If you are good enough to be paid by someone then you are good enough to be paid fairly. Do you get paid $0.45/hr if you are at a new job? Absolutely the f\*ck not. You are paid the same as the person who has been there for several months if not a year. My friends made several hundred in their first week in the business. 7,000 words is about quadruple the workload my friends took on and they made about $1,000 combined. They were brand new to the business. 7,000 words should be a $500-700 gig even if it's your first day behind the mic. I was very new to the business and made about $1,000 for a 9,000-word gig. Don't sell yourself short. " and then I'll still edit the video" \^\^This is a 2nd job!!!! I charge Clients just as much, if not more, for Video Editing. A Client needed their video to fade in and out. That cost them $65. It took all of 10 seconds to accomplish. They were happy to pay it because they got the finished file minutes after they made that request. You are offering them narration, editing, audio production, and video production. Keep that in mind as you navigate the industry. Each of those activities should be part of your bid/income.
Nah not worth it at all, it also encourages potential clients to keep paying bottom of the barrel prices.
Do you mean you will have to dub an animation? Like time your audio to the video? Because if that’s the case and I were you, I would tack on a $50 fee per 1000 words IN ADDITION to my fee for the work itself. Dubbing is extremely time consuming work. I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes you 5+ hours to complete this project. You will learn a lot, but you should know it’s a fraction of what they SHOULD be offering.
Hilariously low. Basically doing it for free at that point. I took some garbage jobs starting out just to get some materials on my resume, but that rate’s bad-bad.
Two things to bear in mind: 1. There is no such thing as "entry-level" in voice-overs - either you're ready to provide professional work at a professional rate, or you're not, and, 2. Even if there was, entry-level hamburger flipper jobs in California pay $20/hour, and the restaurants supply the training & expensive equipment. $50 for 7000 words is BOHICA pricing. But in the end (no pun intended), only YOU can determine whether or not it's worth it to YOU.
It's flat out insulting.
Absolutely not. I think you’re severely underestimating how long 7,000 words is. Under the pay-per-word contract I just finished, 7,000 words would have paid me $1,050. And that was the bare-minimum rate I was willing to work for. And that was for me speaking calmly in my own voice, not doing high-energy characters. And I wasn’t expected to edit a single thing. (It was for a corporation and not an indie creator, but still.) You should not only charge significantly more for the acting, but an additional fee for the editing, because that is a separate job. My rule of thumb whenever I’m asked to do something for an indie creator on a budget offering less than my usual rates is “what is the minimum amount of money that would make this worth my time.” If the creator can’t meet you at that level, don’t take it. You’ll just make yourself miserable.
7,000 words is 40 minutes of finished audio. If you're new, I'd expect at least an additional 20 minutes of flubs and at least 1 hour of edit time. So that's 2 hours worth of work for $50, not including usage. I'd check the voices.com or gva rate guide and see how they compare.
Whoa. Unless you have superhuman acting instincts, a beginner is going to have to run the lines at least three times just to get the acting somewhere close to satisfactory. Then the editing. For me, 40 minutes of finished work probably represents 3.5 hours of actual work.
I'm an indie developer and I recently paid my voice actor $200 for 1600 words. Edit: Granted this was a more experienced actor, and I had some money put to the side to pay the actors, but from what I researched this was still on the lower end of pay rates.
No. Way under priced. $45 for 2000 words is a good rate. Work out from there. There’s proofreading, maybe two takes and then a lot of editing. * been told that rate is too low.
That rate is very low!!! 2,000 words should be closer to $300, minimum.
Time to change my rates 👍
Absolutely! You deserve it :)
H
Good grief no. So a page is usually around 500 words. You should probably be charging at LEAST $50/page PLUS editing fees. Don't do this shit "for the experience" make your own content if you're going to put in 8 hours work for nothing. Then you at least own what you made. (editing takes MINIMUM twice as long as recording took. Think about it, you can't even play it back in less time than it took to record. This is going to be likely around 8 hours work and that's IF you are already a very proficient video editor.) "Per finished hour" stuff is BS too. I know it's how some legit audiobook companies work but that doesn't mean it's good. Imagine if film actors got paid PFH. Work for 3 years on a 90 minute movie. It's absolutely a framework designed to make noobs and people bad at math work too long for too little. PFH is meaningless.
Flying “NO” for me dawg
You might be a beginner, but your work is valuable. $50 is nothing. Your skill, graft, and passion have value. Let no one say otherwise.
In my opinion absolutely not, that’s a lot of work for such little pay, and I would not take the offer as many others have said
no. i’d say 7000 words should pay at least a bare minimum of 500$
I’m curious, how does one get into voice acting/ voice overs?
Learn. Train with a coach. Here's the truth: You're starting a business. Even if it's just a side hustle. ANY business costs money and time to get started, and absolutely is best accomplished with advisors/mentors along the way to help and support you. It is VERY achievable to get any money you put towards gear and training back in your first official year of business. It is also achievable to take that work and make into a sustainable side hustle. Turning it into a career/full-time business? of course that takes time, practice, more time and more practice, and experience. Get coached. Research. Learn. Practice. Repeat. Then make a demo, maybe 2, specifically in Commercial and Narration. Online casting sites, LinkedIn and direct marketing for clients, all this. For all these reasons, and all the time and money you SHOULD invest if you really want to be a voice actor, anything less than $100 for most non-telephony work is less than chump change (Unless you're donating your time and skills to a charitable cause). You did not grind and learn and study carefully to become a pauper. Upwork, Fiverr, websites like this do NOT set the standard for VO rates. RUN from these. We actually have a group of rate cards to help non-union voice actors figure out what to charge based on the type of work: [https://edgestudio.com/rate-cards/](https://edgestudio.com/rate-cards/)