How to Read Copy: Professionals Guide to Delivering Voice-Overs and Broadcast Commercials (Hardcover)

by Adrian Cronauer (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Bonus Books; Har/Cas edition (October 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0929387147
• ISBN-13: 978-0929387147
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #414,531 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Get the Basics First, May 10, 2000

By A Customer

I have made my living as a voice actor for almost 15 years and, in that time, earned over a million and a half dollars. Anyone wanting to do the same should read this book. There is new paradigm today for voiceovers that involves finding the human emotion in a script and conveying that emotion to the listener. That's why voiceover people are actors not announcers. But Adrian Cronauer's book is still a valuable exercise in the basics of copy interpretation. Before you can perform copy as an actor you have to know how to interpret copy--to make the writers words sound like they're your own and that you're speaking them just as you're thinking them. I hear many voiceovers, even on national spots, that break some of these basic rules. And when that happens it draws attention to the voiceover. The voice should be transparent--you shouldn't even hear the voice--only the message. The voice should be like a clean window, which only draws attention to the view, not a dirty window which draws attention to itself. The section of this book on marketing your talents is a bit outdated and there are many other fine books on that aspect of the business. But, all in all, this is a must read for anyone wanting to do voice-acting for commercials.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Bit Fussy For My Taste, March 25, 2000

By	Voiceguy (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Yes, this is the real Adrian Cronauer of "Good Morning, Vietnam!" fame. And this book is heavily influenced by the radio of that era -- it's all about reading "spokes" copy, where an anonymous spokesperson describes a product or announces a sale. It sounds just like what you might hear on, say, a network radio program in the 60's sponsored by Anacin.

Cronauer provides an audio cassette accompanying the text, and the reader is periodically asked to stop reading the book and listen to a specific cut on the tape. Unspecified but dire consequences are promised to anyone who continues to read without listening to the designated audio cut, or who dares to listen to more then one cut at a time. Only about half the cuts make points that are not already self-evident from the text.

The book correctly emphasizes the need to sound relaxed and conversational in voiceover work, and provides a number of specific, if dogmatic, rules for how to deal with particular issues in spokes copy. Yet the reader is left with the vaguely dissatisfied sense that something is missing. With all the rules about what not to do, or where and where not to place emphasis, there seems little room for personality to enter the work. Although the author lionizes voiceover legends such as Mason Adams (even reproducing a "Smuckers" ad on the accompanying cassette), he provides no real clue to what makes such people so successful.

It's as if the whole is less than the sum of its parts. There is value here, if the reader is willing to persevere through the minutiae of when to emphasize personal pronouns, how to handle definite and indefinite articles, how to distinguish function words from content words, when to end a question with an up-inflection versus a down-inflection, and so on. But the result of such mastery may have limited real-world value in today's voiceover market, because straight spokes copy is not as common now as it once was.

Bottom line: An interesting book, but probably not a "must-have."

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Bit Fussy For My Taste, March 25, 2000

By	Voiceguy (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Yes, this is the real Adrian Cronauer of "Good Morning, Vietnam!" fame. And this book is heavily influenced by the radio of that era -- it's all about reading "spokes" copy, where an anonymous spokesperson describes a product or announces a sale. It sounds just like what you might hear on, say, a network radio program in the 60's sponsored by Anacin.

Cronauer provides an audio cassette accompanying the text, and the reader is periodically asked to stop reading the book and listen to a specific cut on the tape. Unspecified but dire consequences are promised to anyone who continues to read without listening to the designated audio cut, or who dares to listen to more then one cut at a time. Only about half the cuts make points that are not already self-evident from the text.

The book correctly emphasizes the need to sound relaxed and conversational in voiceover work, and provides a number of specific, if dogmatic, rules for how to deal with particular issues in spokes copy. Yet the reader is left with the vaguely dissatisfied sense that something is missing. With all the rules about what not to do, or where and where not to place emphasis, there seems little room for personality to enter the work. Although the author lionizes voiceover legends such as Mason Adams (even reproducing a "Smuckers" ad on the accompanying cassette), he provides no real clue to what makes such people so successful.

It's as if the whole is less than the sum of its parts. There is value here, if the reader is willing to persevere through the minutiae of when to emphasize personal pronouns, how to handle definite and indefinite articles, how to distinguish function words from content words, when to end a question with an up-inflection versus a down-inflection, and so on. But such mastery may have limited real-world value in today's voiceover market, because straight spokes copy is not as common now as it once was.

Bottom line: An interesting book, but probably not a "must-have."