My book The Taming Of April will be published in March of 2023. This is a rated-R romantic comedy novel. Sex ‘talk’ but nothing too over-the-top spicy.
I’ll soon be looking for ARC Readers
Author: frankjamesbailey@gmail.com
Never Chase Money!
Don’t get the wrong idea! YES…I want to make money doing voiceovers and selling comics but there’s a big reason for this blog, I promise.
In the past few weeks, I’ve been watching YouTube videos where someone voices / narrates a brief outline of a movie. Mystery Recapped is one. There are also Movie Recaps, Story Recaped, and a bunch more. I saw how many views these videos were getting and figured out there were probably making a LOT of money just from the views alone. We’re talking between $5,000 – $10,000 dollars or more PER VIDEO! So I made a NEW channel for my version of this type of video called Movie Rundown.
First, I posted 2 shorts, which didn’t take me very long to make and then I posted my first video called “2 Girls Get High Together” about the movie Fall. It took me a LONG time to voice and edit that 8-minute video! On Friday, Nov. 4th I voiced another video that took me hours to record. This video would probably be between 12-14 minutes long! It took me over 2 hours just to record the audio and I didn’t even edit the video yet!
When I woke up the next morning I thought…
What am I doing? I’m chasing money again!
So on Saturday, Nov. 5, I decided to scrap the Movie Rundown idea…for now.
Listen, I know I NEED money to make a living. I would love for all of you to buy my comics. (hint, hint…lol ) and I hate giving up on things but, I have a gut feeling this Movie Rundown is NOT the path I’m supposed to take.
November is National Writing Month. I should be writing!!!
In the summer of 2022, I wrote a LOT of outlines and summaries for different story ideas. There are so many stories I could be working on right now besides making videos. The Molock Powers, Vita: Villmark (Part 1) Vita: Earth (part 2) Vita: War (part 3) Vita: Invasion (part 4), The Legend Of Zelta Dusana, Yami: Kim Sweet and (believe it or not) there’s more…
I’m not a religious man but if I can come up with ALL these ideas in one summer God, the universe, SOMETHING, or SOMEONE is telling me…I’m a writer and I need to be writing.
So for most of November, I’m going to take a break from making YouTube & TitTok videos. I need to put all my focus and energy into what I absolutely LOVE to do. Writing!
When to turn away voice work
The old saying in the voice-over industry is never to turn away voice work. I disagree with this and here’s why.
1 – What if the job isn’t for you?
I recently got an invitation to audition for a radio commercial on a freelance site. They wanted a guy who could read the script in Spanish! I don’t speak Spanish…let alone read it! I Turned that job down!
2 – What if the price is too low?
I was also recently offered a job way below my usual rate. Now for the record, I am willing to negotiate a little but if I charge $100 to voice an explainer video but the client wants me to come down to $25 for – just this one time – you can be sure the client will ALWAYS want me for only $25! I’m not going to do a LOT of work for a little bit of money! I Turned
that job down.
3 – What if you’re unavailable?
Thanksgiving is coming up in a few weeks. Most of us are going to spend time with friends and family. I’m sure your clients are too. Some clients…need you available 24 / 7! I usually let my clients know when I’m going out of town and I’ll be unavailable.
4 – Are you sick?
I’ve only had to turn down a voice job 3 times in the past 10 years because I was sick. Only 3 times because this client needed their job done today and my voice did not sound the way it usually did. The other times I was sick I got lucky. My clients waited until I got better to finish the job.
So to answer the question, should you ever turn away VO work? I say yes – it is OK to turn VO work away…well, sometimes.
Blog #5
Nothing Happens Unless You Make A Connection!
Make a connection!
My best friend who owns an audio body shop told me some great advice. Nothing happens unless you make a connection.
What he means is, there is no way you’re ever going to do business with ANYONE unless you make some sort of a connection first!
Remember this simple rule, it takes 7 – 12 touches (or connections) before a business will remember you. So you have to think of different ways to connect with your clients that will not look like spam or sound pushy.
Here are a few connecting tips.
1 – I start by liking their business Facebook page or by subscribing to their YouTube page and making a comment on a video. These are small non-pushy connections and these days it’s better to create a personal connection than to just say right away “Hey, let’s do business.” Whenever someone sends me an email and says “I have a deal for you” I delete it right away.
Anyway, making a comment makes my connection more personal. It gets my foot in the door. I do this all the time. This way they SEE my name, Frank James Bailey when I post a comment on their video. If they want to look me up…they can.
2 – In about a week I’ll make ANOTHER connection by commenting on another NEW post or video.
3 – By week 3 I usually send them an email introducing myself. This will work very well if the company responded to the comments I made. (You see why I said like and comment first!)
4 – In week 4 I’ll make another comment on a post or video again. This way if they didn’t get my email they should know my name by now. After all, I’ve made a few comments on their posts.
5 – By the 5th week (or 5th connection) I’m sending out an email again.
6 – In the 6th week, if the business has a Twitter or Instagram account, I’m usually following them this week and “hearting” some of their posts this time.
7 – By week 7 I’m sending out a cold call.
There are many more ways to connect with people but this is my strategy and it’s worked for me so far.
Happy connecting and remember…nothing happens unless you make a connection!
Newsletter #12
The Taming Of April will be published!
As most of you know I was running a Kickstarter for my book The Taming Of April. However, my Kickstarter failed.
For the past few weeks, I’m been a little depressed and feeling down. I felt like a failure. As of today, I’m done feeling that way. It’s time to move forward.
My first comic con of 2023 is Fan Expo Cleveland in March of 2023 so as of right now, my new publishing date for The Taming Of April is March of 2023.
Finally, the Taming Of April will have over 60 chapters. If you want to read the first 3 chapters click – HERE.
Newsletter #11
Tercona comic #7 is coming soon!
After school, on a cool crisp fall day, Tercona is needed to save people from a house fire that just happens to be the home of Britney’s uncle. She must act fast to save everyone trapped inside because the structure is falling apart. Tercona finds Britney’s 10-year-old cousin Teodora and brings her to safety but when she returns to the burning building to save Teodora’s father, the unthinkable happens. The house explodes! Tercona learns that even superheroes can’t save everyone.
There are still a few minor changes to be made to this comic (making sure everything is spelled right for one. lol) Along with some minor color changes and a few more things too but…I wanted to let you guys know that Tercona comic #7 – You Can’t Save Everyone will be ready by 2023!
Blog #4
Miro-Jobs sites have come a long way!
Back in 2011, I blogged about an up-and-coming micro-job site called Fiverr. This is what I said…
I recently discovered a website called Fiver.com. Now in case, you don’t know what this is, it’s a website where people can do just about any odd job (or silly job for that matter) for $5. There are people on the site doing crazy things like…”I will do 10 push-ups in your logo shirt for $5” or “I will review your website or youtube channel for $5”…or…”I will do a voice-over for $5”.
Those of us who have been doing voiceovers for a very long time know that some of the tops voice guys in the country get paid very big bucks for doing movie trailers or national commercials. When I saw that some people are offering a VO for $5. I was beside myself. Really, I was FLOORED!! When most voice actors charge up to $120 or more for a fully produced 60-second radio commercial. There are some people doing this for as little as $5! And get this….it’s actually only $4!! Because Fiver.com keeps a $1.
Now it’s 2022
Wow, has this site ever changed since 2011. Now I see a few of my voice-acting colleagues on the site. Some prices start at $125! And these voice actors offer more “add-ons” like background music for a fee, the “rights” to use the voice-over for whatever they want for a fee, revisions for a fee, and more. What I think happened was in the past several years Fiverr figured out that they can more money when their “gigs” can offer more money besides just…$5.
VERY IMPORTANT! I don’t use Fiverr and I don’t recommend it to anyone to use this site either. The reason I’m not on this site is that I got burned once doing a e-book. It took me over a week to record the audio and when I was done the client didn’t like my audio. So, since he was the customer, HE got his money back and he got to keep my audio too! I’ve searched all over the internet for my voice on that book and I still haven’t found it after all these years so that’s a good thing. Fiverr left me high and dry with wasted time and no compensation. That’s why I don’t use Fiverr.
So in closing, Fiverr has changed, and if you want to use Fiverr to get more voice-over jobs you can because you can actually charge a price that’s not just $5 anymore. However, be careful of the clients who (for some reason or another) don’t like what you give them and just want your audio for free.
Newsletter #10
My Kickstarter for The Taming Of April has FAILED!
Ok…truth be told, with only 6 days left I canceled it. I canceled it because I only had $350 (which is only about a 1/4 of the way to my goal.) and I knew that I would never in a million years be able to get the rest of the funding ($650) in only 6 days!
For the record, the book was going to be published in June of this year but I listened to everyone’s advice and put the book on the Kickstarter instead to make the backers feel special that they go it first. But now that the Kickstarter has failed, I’m kicking myself for not having copies of the book to sell at comic cons this year.
My plan now is to publish this book in March of 2023 and make it available for the first time at my first comic con in 2023, Fan Expo Cleveland.
Thank you to everyone who funded the Kickstarter and helped me out. Even though it failed, I really appreciate what you did. Thanks!
Newsletter #9
My last comic con in 2022 was The Cincinnati Comic Expo this past weekend!
I went to this comic con in 2021 and it was fantastic. I couldn’t wait to go back and it did NOT disappoint!
The crowd was so busy on Saturday that I hardly got a chance to talk to anyone because they just kept walking by. It was kind of like the “herd” mentality.
Even though I did sell a lot of comics I didn’t make a profit because my hotel cost was high. I assume the more books I have on my table the more people will have to choose from and the better chances I’ll have at making MORE money by selling more books.
Nonetheless, this is one my my favorite comic cons of the year because I always do well. I can’t wait to go back next year to The Cincinnati Comic Expo.
Blog #3
2022 Monroe Pop Fest – Review
