Update on The Red Poet Audiobook
April 17, 2023 7 Comments
BAD NEWS TRIGGER WARNING
As I’ve mentioned in posts up-to and after the release of The Red Poet, our amazing audiobook narrator Adam Gold has had some real life issues pop up and this has delayed him being able to work on the audiobook. Up until today, I thought he was delayed to get to The Red Poet and The Queen’s Consort (Book 5) until late 2023 / early 2024. This was our last correspondence on the issues. However, Adam let me know today that because of damage to his vocal cords and a need to reduce his vocal schedule, he will not be able to record The Red Poet until May 2026 and The Queen’s Consort would likely be June or July 2026, by implication.
Because of this, I need to make a hard decision: either wait until mid-2026 to start on recording the The Red Poet and any future book in the series, or recast a narrator and likely redo the entire series with new voices. What do you, dear reader, think about this?
There are other updates that I will try to post in the upcoming couple of months. I’ve been working on a browser-based game where you get to train at a magical university that is being revealed in The Queen’s Consort. There are 80+ people who have tried the game so far, but I need to make some optimizations and implement some of the world boss battles with Orcus, Demogorgon, etc. before I release more information on joining. There is ongoing progress toward the 5th book in general.
But there is also this unfortunate news from Adam. I think we have to move on to a different narrator, and that will be a time-consuming process. Again, let me know what you guys think about this. There’s no easy answer.
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Adam is an amazing narrator, you would be hard pressed to find a replacement for him. Hopefully he is able to recover.
But I’m terms of getting these out to us readers/listeners then it would have to be done sadly, although would a redo of the series be necessary?
Great question. I am reaching out to two industry professional firms that I met at a recent author conference. They both do very popular books in fantasy, including epic fantasy and litrpg. Adam has apologized profusely about his turn of events, but as I’ve told him, he needs to focus on his health. As you have said, Adam is an amazing narrator. Hard to replace (and neither he nor I wanted this to be an outcome)
Love the series, read the first three books in a row shortly after the third book released, but it has been a long enough I bought the audio books to refresh my memory before reading the fourth and I fell in love with Adam’s voice! I think Adam’s work for your series has been spectacular. Specifically his work in book three with the Visanth accents. I am very sad to hear what he has been going through and I hope he has a speedy recovery.
I think there are two ways you can go about this. One, I think the answer you might want could be tied to your release schedule for the rest of the series. Where will we be in the series by 2026? If you think your series would be finished by then, I would consider casting another narrator for just the newer books. But if we’re only on 5 or 6 out of 7, I don’t see the harm in waiting.
Two, you cast a new narrator for now, and if Adam is better before the series is over, you can let him finish the series.
This is a very hard decision and I don’t envy your position. I wish you and Adam all the best!
Thanks for reading and listening to the series! I would love to try out multiple paths, but audiobook narration can be very expensive. Each of these is likely to cost north of 6k. There’s so much work that goes into a finished hour of these, and if an ensemble agrees to record, it can be more. I’ve reached out to a couple professional studios. I’ll see what is possible and if there is any movement, I’ll let everyone know! Thanks again for reading and listening!
Adam Gold’s narration is what got me hooked onto the series and would love to not see him disappear from narration of the audio books! Personally, I do not know if it would feel the same without Adam Gold.
I can totally see why other options are/were being looked at (with it costing that much money) but if you do decide to change narrators I would love a recast of the books with Adam Gold to finish the series whenever he gets to feeling better; hopefully a very speedy recovery!!! He feels like the perfect person for the job and would not feel complete without him for the journey.
Either way I’ll be buying all the books and audio books whenever they release and wish you the best on trying to figure out this difficult situation. Sending much love for you and Adam in these times!
Thanks for sharing your opinion and thoughts on Adam Gold, the audio books, and what brought you to the series. I’ve posted an update on the two options I’m considering. Feel free to share your vote there. https://rex-jameson.com/2023/07/06/the-red-poet-audiobook-and-beyond/
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