Do friends and family say you have a voice that's silky smooth, lyrical or just plain ol' beautiful?

If they're right, it could be worth some money. Then again, maybe not.

In the growing world of voice acting, it turns out there's a lot more to success than just having a golden throat. Exactly how much more is the sort of thing that will be covered in a seminar May 10 at St. Louis Community College's Forest Park campus.

"Getting Paid to Talk" is an offering by the school's continuing education department, which tends to focus on funky subjects designed to grab students' attention. Other recent topics include things like meditation, overcoming rejection, dealing with clutter and how to be a disc jockey.

"We're just trying to keep up with what's big and popular at the moment," said Erin De Vore, a program director.

The voice acting workshop, which travels around the nation, is operated by Voice Coaches, a training and production studio based in Albany, N.Y. The company won't say how many of these sessions it does in a year, but officials say they've trained more than 6,000 people in the field of voice acting.

So, in short, they ought to know what it takes to make it in the business. And apparently it takes a lot more than a student can demonstrate during a two-and-a-half hour class.

"As far as telling someone whether they can be successful or not, that's a tall order," said David Bourgeois, the company's president.

That's because having the right voice is just the first step. The key is being able to network and market yourself. You also need to develop yourself as a professional, learning the tools of the trade.

But if you can do all of that, there's an odd world of possibilities out there.

Too often, Bourgeois said, people envision TV and radio commercials when they think of voice acting. But such commercials represent just 10 percent of an industry that pays an average of $47,000 a year. There's actually a lot more work to be found in genres like audio books, video games, animation, training manuals and even things like the audio tours found in museums.

And as this niche industry has grown, so too has the range of voices being sought. No longer is it just the deep male voice that's in demand, Bourgeois said. It's more important to be able to convey a message to listeners, without simply sounding like you are reading a script.

"Our field has really gravitated toward believability and sincerity," he said.

The May 10 class, which costs $34 to attend, will cover the ins and outs of the industry. Instructors will explain the opportunities that are out there as well as the difficulties facing anyone hoping to pursue a voice-acting career.

Already, he knows at least part of the makeup of the classroom. There will be a couple teachers, a lawyer or two, someone with an English accent, and some creative types — maybe a massage therapist. They are the types of people who tend to spend lots of time talking and being praised for their voices.

They won't find any work as a result of the class. It's not an audition. But it could offer some guidance.

"It does a good job of talking people into or out of pursuing the field," Bourgeois said.