Hi,
So months ago before my novel launched I offered to do the audiobook recording with the help of an audio engineer friend of mine, but my publisher opted for one of these zero-fee upfront audiobook creation companies (I don't even know which one). Six months later, I've finally received the audio files and have been asked to go through them to flag mispronunciations, misreads, or other errors... I'm about half-way through.
My question is to others who have had their work contracted out in this way... how many errors is too many?
I actually stopped reviewing the files after about a chapter to check in with my publisher about what I should be flagging, because between improperly placed cuts that omit either the first word or first sound of many statements and the reader leaving out, misreading, or inserting new words into the text, there are between two and twelve errors per page. Usually, it's around five or six.
First of all, for me to take the time to flag all these is ridiculous. This seems like it should be a part of the audiobook production package, no? I understand the need for the author to review the files for the sake of mispronunciations, but to be asked to mark misreads and audio production errors? Shouldn't the reader or someone at the production company be ensuring accuracy to some degree? It's so disappointing. Often the reader will just change the wording of a sentence. The meaning doesn't actually change, but the words aren't the same as they are in the book. Why did I bother going back and forth with my editor so much if these things aren't important?
On one hand I want to say, "this is unacceptable," but it's already taken so long for them to produce anything at all, another part of me just wants to get it out.
Have any of you experienced this?
So months ago before my novel launched I offered to do the audiobook recording with the help of an audio engineer friend of mine, but my publisher opted for one of these zero-fee upfront audiobook creation companies (I don't even know which one). Six months later, I've finally received the audio files and have been asked to go through them to flag mispronunciations, misreads, or other errors... I'm about half-way through.
My question is to others who have had their work contracted out in this way... how many errors is too many?
I actually stopped reviewing the files after about a chapter to check in with my publisher about what I should be flagging, because between improperly placed cuts that omit either the first word or first sound of many statements and the reader leaving out, misreading, or inserting new words into the text, there are between two and twelve errors per page. Usually, it's around five or six.
First of all, for me to take the time to flag all these is ridiculous. This seems like it should be a part of the audiobook production package, no? I understand the need for the author to review the files for the sake of mispronunciations, but to be asked to mark misreads and audio production errors? Shouldn't the reader or someone at the production company be ensuring accuracy to some degree? It's so disappointing. Often the reader will just change the wording of a sentence. The meaning doesn't actually change, but the words aren't the same as they are in the book. Why did I bother going back and forth with my editor so much if these things aren't important?
On one hand I want to say, "this is unacceptable," but it's already taken so long for them to produce anything at all, another part of me just wants to get it out.
Have any of you experienced this?
