Here is Jason Downs and an extremely pale vampire—I mean me
doing a Q & A for a writer’s conference. First question: How closely do
you work together?
(Note: I’ve never recorded Skype before and really had no
idea what I was doing. And I never really meant to post it to YouTube, but it
turned out to be too long for the conference. I was aware of the box in the top
corner, but was afraid of messing up the recording if I tried to get rid of it.
It finally went away on its own and I don’t know why. I also knew the mouse
arrow was on my shoulder, but was afraid I might accidentally minimize the
program if I tried to move that too.)
(Good grief! It was really hard for me to post that to
YouTube...)
Cheri’s additional thoughts on this question...
I think how closely you work together largely depends on the
author and how involved you want to be. But it is a creative collaboration, so
perhaps more authors should be more involved. That doesn’t mean that you need
to be nitpicky or annoying, though. That just means get to know each other a
little so you can make the best decisions for the story, and better market the
book after production is finished.
My guess is that producers and authors that have done a
royalty share deal are more likely to work together closely during and after
production, because they both benefit financially if sales are good.
Jason mentioned that he's had some authors who just approve
the audio without making any changes, and I wanted to comment on that. I don’t
know if all producers do it this way or not, but Jason would post chapters as
he finished them. Either one at a time, or a few at a time. I couldn’t resist
reviewing them right away, but I have heard of authors who don’t bother
listening to the chapters at all. And then when it’s finished they wonder if
they should listen to it or just approve it. I don’t think that is wise at all,
and I was surprised to hear from Jason that some authors actually do that. Yes,
producers edit their work, but things can still be missed by mistake. Just like
authors need more than one editor, so does a narrator. With ACX, I feel like
the rights holder is final QA, and if you don’t listen just to make sure there
aren’t any random repeats still in there, you’ll make your producer look bad
and that will affect his rating in the reviews. I have listened to audiobooks
with repeats in the finished product and it always surprises me, because it
wouldn’t have been all that hard to fix.
However, while reviewing the audio, remember that every
change you ask for could cause a change in sound. So be very selective. I’ve
heard of some authors who feel like that’s how they wrote it so the producer
had better not change a single word! Oh please, sometimes that just happens
when reading. But if it sounds natural and still makes sense, then leave it
like it is. That will be better for sound quality. And you'll likely have a
better working relationship with your producer if you're not a pain to work
with.
Thanks for dropping by, and check back for more videos of
this Q & A...
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