Audiobook edits: A reader asks, "How picky did you get?"

"The narrators's voices/tone/emphasis feels wrong. What can I do?"

Alle sez:

Because I am a theater snob as well as bossy as can be, I knew I had to swear off the back-seat editing, or risk creating a frustrated narrator when I needed an artistic partner—and I needed her in the front seat.

Melinda Cummings, my narrator

Writers are used to working alone. Even if we ask for feedback, it is most often our choice whether to adhere to the edit. See if you can think of your audiobook creation as more like making a movie.

I told Melinda that in writing the novel, I’d expressed my art. Now it was time for her to express hers.

There were plenty of times that the way Melinda delivered a line was radically different than I'd had it in my head for years and years, Yet there was nothing wrong with the way she did it. In fact, it brought something new and exciting to the work.

I went to her with only two or three moments that really needed to be different. And I delivered the news with a smile. My goal was to get us on the same team.

Now an audiobook:

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