Okay, you want the simple answer?
Do. It. All.
There are four basic ways to earn income as a voice actor:
(and I don’t mean genre or niche here, just ways to find work)
P2P sites
Agents
Self-marketing
Networking
Let me expand on this, but not too much, because it’s 11:30am on Sunday, and I usually put my blogs out on Sunday…but I digress.
I had a very nice chat with a Canadian voice actor the other day. He is very well represented by many agencies, and I had written him wondering if he had any insight on the different agencies, how they compared, and if he had any advice on approaching any of them.
His advice: Agents aren’t everything.
He told me that he gets most of his work through self-marketing.
I respect that. I definitely believe in self-marketing.
But self-marketing takes time, and the results do not happen overnight. Sometimes, in fact, the results take YEARS of follow up.
Other people have said similar things about P2P sites—”They’re a waste of time!” “I haven’t used P2P sites in YEARS.” “P2P sites are SATANIC!”
That’s great for those people. Whatever works for your business! And if your religion has something against P2P sites, by all means, don’t piss off your God.
And then there are people who will say “I don’t need an agent! I get all my work myself!” and that’s fine too. Some people really don’t want to do commercial work. And I think some people just grow bitter that it’s so hard to get an agent, so they don’t keep trying.
But in my personal opinion, if you want to have a sustainable career, you should be open-minded and explore all of it.
Diversify your revenue streams as much as possible.
Are you ready for a gardening metaphor? (I LOVE gardening metaphors)
Getting all of your work from one source is like only having one kind of crop in your garden.
It’s hard to sustain yourself if all you grow is different kinds of peppers—you need a variety of crops to live.
You don’t plant apple trees because you want an apple pie tomorrow…
Self-marketing is like growing an orchard. You plant seedlings and wait for a LONG TIME for them to fruit, but in the meantime, you have to keep watering, pruning, fertilizing, etc.
Agents are like your main vegetable garden. If you have enough of them and are attentive, you’ll reap the rewards.
The stall on the end? SO bougie, and WAY overpriced.
P2P is a little more like going to the farmers market. They have everything available that’s in season, and you can reap the rewards there much more quickly. You just have to know which vendors are overpriced, and which are offering great produce at good deals.
And networking is like making friends with your neighbor down the road who’s growing something different than you or just happens to have bees or make their own sourdough. One day, they just might pop in and say “Lord, I just have too much rhubarb! You want some?”
Good ol’ Bob never shows up empty handed!
In my mind, while you can sustain yourself through one, there’s always a danger that something might happen to that one source of income and leave you scrambling to find other sources. And if that happens, it’s likely that you won’t be the only one doing so.
Everyone’s career is different, but diversifying your revenue streams (whether by genre or by source) is a good tactic for keeping the work flowing on a regular basis.