8. Do you have any other advice for the aspiring voice actor?

Oh, absolutely!

1. Voice acting is a hobby for a lot of people I know and know of. However, before you commit your free time to doing this sort of thing as a hobby, first ask yourself why you're doing this. Popularity? Because your friend is doing it? For the lulz? Those reasons are fine, albeit wishy-washy. In the end, those are the ones I see quitting while those aiming to go pro keep practicing, growing, and obtaining more knowledge about the industry. I encourage you to really consider these things so as not to clog up the drain of amateurs wanting to go pro because you're bored. Harsh, but true.
   


2. Take your experiences in stride and always seek to stretch your range, acting, and knowledge further. The moment you become content with just doing fandubs is the point where you will find yourself stagnating. Keep things exciting and fresh. Challenge yourself every year knowing you may fail. Understand it's going to take hard work to learn how to be your own vocal business brand as a pro.
   


3. Don't start amateur voice acting just to be in anime. Actually, let me rephrase that: don't let anime be your only reason for voice acting. If you have been to any voice acting panel at an anime con, you should know that voice-over in anime does not pay a lot. Why? Because there are no residuals (i.e. You get paid only for the job, not every time someone buys a DVD.) You have video games (same as anime, but they pay more), commercials, narration, audiobooks, training videos, and the list goes on to what voice-over encompasses. If you just want to voice in anime, you're tunnel-visioning yourself and you will find yourself struggling to live off one small category.
   


4. Remember that the voice-over community is a family. I have heard pros say this time and time again that voice-over is one of the friendliest lines of work to be in. Everyone is supportive of each other, and are just really fun to be around. They even go as far as to tell other VAs about auditions and recommend each other. In many ways, that's true in the amateur VA community, but also not so true. Many tend to forget that, regardless of whom we are up against for a role, it's not up to us but the director's whim. Same applies in the pro arena. We all have our own unique sound that sets us apart from each other. The pros understand that and don't get bent when someone they know lands a role. My point: Don't make enemies or compete with one another. You never know who might be able to use their leverage to help you just because they know you're good and should have a shot at a role.
   


5. Audition for a role, then forget about it and move on. Don't get wrapped up in landing that single coveted role when you could be using your energy towards more auditions.
   


6. If you want to do this, act like it. Keep learning from those around you. Attend webinars. Invest the money needed to improve your equipment and train. Don't give up. Don't become complacent. Seriously have fun because you love doing this.


7. You may see amateurs with demos and such on their YT channel, but I've come to realize that making a demo when you've had no formal training or have only been at it for a year or so is pretty useless. Don't waste your time trying to impress because everyone else is doing it. Get out there, practice, audition, fail x10, learn, practice, audition, and get some amateur/fan/original work under your belt. Start thinking and researching about a demo when you know you're ready for it. If you want to make an amateur demo once you've done a number of projects, go ahead. Just remember that a real demo is your resume that's meant to showcase your strengths as a VA, and should be scripted, mixed, and produced specifically to accentuate you, not you voicing your favorite anime characters for 35 seconds each. If your resume is thrown together, you just wasted yours and the listener's time.

Can you tell this was my favorite question? XD

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