Audiobook Production Via ACX Q&A ~Part 2

A series on audiobook production via ACX by Cheri Schmidt.

Here is Jason Downs (aka Tristan Hunt) and Cheri Schmidt (aka that pale vampire) doing a Q & A for a writer’s conference. Second question: Can the author approve the voice of each character?



Jason brings up a good point. You've already been through the audition process, so there shouldn't be too many surprises. And you really should trust this person that you've hired to know what they're doing and allow them to do their job without you nitpicking over details that just don't matter. Let them have creative license with the story. This is a collaboration...

However, I feel it's important to note that you should take care in the audition sample you choose to post for the book. Make sure you have voices of the two main characters in there, along with some accents that might be necessary. I would also suggest choosing a scene with some tension and dialogue for both a male and female character.

Oh, and there's one more thing I forgot to mention. If you've described your characters well enough, the right voice for each one will be, or should be, pretty obvious to the professional you've hired. That's one thing that changed for me after I first heard my stories "performed." As I wrote, I could hear how it would sound as an audiobook. I couldn't do that before. I think it also improves your writing, because you know what will and won't work better than you did before

Thanks again for visiting my blog. Check back later for more... And please comment and share. ;)

Audiobook Production Via ACX Q&A ~Part 1

A series on audiobook production via ACX by Cheri Schmidt.

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...