The narration assistant

The Narration Director is the assistant in the Narration Studio. Open it from the Agent tab on any stage. It answers about this book's narration and offers changes as cards. Nothing changes and nothing is charged until you press a card's button.

What it can see

• Where you are: the stage you're on, the passage you've selected, and the passage that's playing. "This passage" means the one you selected.
• Your script as it is now. Its counts are of the passages the listener will hear. Earlier takes, kept so you can undo a change for free, are never counted as part of your recording.
• Your narrator, cast, pronunciations and delivery style, and every voice your narrator offers.
• Who speaks in your book: how often each character is mentioned and given a line, and names that speak but aren't in your cast yet.
• The latest recording, check or delivery job, and which delivery files fail the audio spec and why.
• The same store rules ④ Release shows, with the date each one was checked.

What to ask on each stage

• ① Voice: cast the speakers, suggest a voice for anyone who has none, suggest a delivery style, fix pronunciations. It never replaces a voice you chose.
• ② Script: how a passage should be performed, or the auto-director for whole chapters. It never changes your text, and never touches a passage you directed.
• ③ Record: what's left to record, which passages failed or were flagged by the check, and the smallest recording that fixes them. It can offer to re-record just the lines that need it.
• ④ Release: where you can sell this audiobook, what your chosen stores need, and whether the files passed.

The suggestions above the message box change with the stage.

What it can offer

• Cast additions, pronunciation respellings, a delivery style, and voices for anyone who has none. Press Listen on the card to hear a voice first. The card also says how many recorded passages the change would need re-recording, and about what that costs.
• The auto-director for named chapters, priced on its card for each batch of up to 40 passages nobody has directed.
• A direction for one passage.
• A voice preview, a recording, a check or the delivery files. A recording's price is on its card before you press it.

A passage nobody has checked is reported as unchecked, never as passed.