So you’ve written a book… you’ve found a narrator… now you’re done!

Yay!

Ok, so you’re not DONE done.

You need to decide what kind of a Rights Holder (RH) you’re going to be.

Even if you have a high amount of trust in your audiobook producer, you still need to communicate with them.

The biggest thing I run into (especially in fantasy narration) is pronunciation complaints.

How many different ways have you heard this name: Zendaya.

Now think of all the fanciful names of people and places (AND THINGS) in your manuscript.

As my girl Sabrina would say…

Please please PLEASE include a pronunciation guide for your producer. It will speed things up so much in the long run.

Another thing we need is a response to questions in a timely manner.

If I’m going days/weeks (true story) without a response, it can quite literally hold up production entirely.

Example: I found two different spellings of a character name that changed the pronunciation. I can NOT move forward without this info, so production was stalled indefinitely.

Finally, a producer needs your understanding. Our instrument is literally our voice, so sometimes we are held up. A LOT.

We also aren’t in your heads. If you hear something that’s not quite right, or you want different, we aren’t doing it on purpose to screw up your day.

And if you want to have a large amount of say in how EVERYTHING sounds, you need to be clear about that BEFORE you’ve received weeks worth of labor. Not after.

To summarize:

Pronunciation key (FOR THE LOVE OF SABRINA)
Timely Communication
Understanding

If you’ve got those covered, the production process will flow so much more smoothly!

Oh, and… Merry Christmas

– E