A narrator handoff style sheet records the decisions another producer needs to continue a longform project consistently. It should be short enough to use during editing and specific enough to resolve recurring questions. Link it to approved examples and the correct manuscript edition so it becomes a working reference rather than a folder of general preferences.
Identify the source and the production scope
Begin with the title, edition, approved manuscript filename, revision date, and responsible editor. State whether the project is a faithful reading or an authorized adaptation, and identify who can approve changes to the words.
List the expected deliverables: chapters, opening and closing material, notes, companion text, and any preview. Include the intended distribution destination and a reminder to check its current acceptance rules for the chosen narration method.
Record which parts are complete and which remain in production. A new contributor should not have to infer approval from filenames containing “final.” Use an explicit status and the revision that was approved.
The NLS narration specifications illustrate how detailed narration requirements can be project-specific. Your handoff should identify the requirements that actually govern this project instead of borrowing an entire unrelated standard.
Capture voices and pronunciation decisions
List the narrator and any character or section assignments with the available voice identifiers. Include a short approved audio reference for each principal role, plus one example showing the voices together in a scene.
Describe roles through the text and production decisions, not vague personality adjectives alone. A note such as “letters are read by their author character; surrounding prose stays with the narrator” resolves an actual assignment question.
Link the pronunciation glossary rather than duplicating a large term list in several documents. State which glossary revision is current and who approves unresolved entries.
Keep normal spellings, pronunciation notes, and generation workarounds in separate fields. A successor needs to know whether an unusual spelling belongs in the published text or exists only to obtain a particular spoken result.
Define structural conventions with examples
Document how to speak chapter numbers, titles, dates, and viewpoint labels. Attach an example from the approved chapter-opening workflow. A sample makes the intended spacing and relationship to the first paragraph much easier to assess.
Explain how the production treats scene breaks, footnotes, endnotes, sidebars, lists, and tables. Record any authorized omissions or relocations with their editorial approval. Do not bury substantive adaptation decisions in an audio editor's personal notes.
Specify how quoted letters, internal thoughts, and dialogue tags are assigned. If a convention has exceptions, list the exact scenes affected and explain the reason. “Use judgment” is not enough when two plausible interpretations would produce different casts.
Include a small set of unacceptable defects, such as missing headings or inconsistent proper names, alongside the process for reporting them. Keep technical export settings in their own section so content decisions remain easy to find.
Make the handoff usable for the next revision
Provide the file manifest, folder structure, and a sample correction record. Use the pickup-note template to show how text locations, timestamps, and replacement passages are connected.
Ask someone unfamiliar with the production to locate an approved chapter, find a pronunciation decision, and identify the correct voice for a quoted passage. If they cannot do those tasks from the handoff, add the missing information rather than explaining it only in a meeting.
Version the sheet and record changes that affect existing audio. A new convention should trigger a decision about earlier chapters so the project does not drift into two incompatible styles.
Create representative samples in the voice studio, download the approved versions, and link them from the sheet. The handoff is ready when another producer can make a small authorized correction and explain exactly which text, voice, pronunciation, and structural rules they followed.
