'I gave this dumpster fire the professional treatment': Voice-over artist reads entire badly-edited book for client, book still gets approved for release

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jun 7, 2024 5:00 PM EDT

This voice-over artist is clearly a professional. When they noticed typos in a book they were going to read aloud for a client, they fixed the typos for him. Sounds simple, right? That was a kind thing for u/pumaFGT to do, actually. They were taking on more work than they needed to for no extra charge. Too bad their client was annoyed at the way the book turned out…

This voice-over artist usually creates ads, but they took a chance on this project. When you work with clients, most will be reasonable people, but you'll always have a handful of wacky people who don't respect your work or demand things in unsuitable time frames. In the comments, people thought the story was hilarious, and were dying to know what happened with the finished project. You'll have to keep reading for yourself to get the full story, check it out below! 

Up next, these people revealed the baffling reasons they got in trouble, like one person who shared that, "In driver's education I was yelled at by the instructor for going 61 in a 60."

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10357617152
    via Emmanuel Ikwuegbu on Unsplash
  • 02
    You want me to read it exactly as it's written? I'll read it_exactly_ as it's written.
    via u/pumaFGT
  • 03
    Hey, Malicious Compliance. I'm a voice over artist by profession. I primarily deal with advertisements and educational content (ESL courses, for example) but I do cheap audiobooks on the side to hone my skills. These usually pay next to nothing because they're short and low quality, but it's a perfect grounds to practice my vocal skills and discipline on comparatively longer projects.
    via u/pumaFGT
  • 04
    Enter Client X. I accepted their offer to produce their book after auditioning. It's about forty minutes long. I'll be lucky to make fifty bucks off of it. I can get this type of book done in a single day of work. Short, low quality Audiobooks often have egregious spelling and grammar errors because the people who write them don't feel the need (or don't want to pay the money) to hire an editor. It's usually simple
    via u/pumaFGT
  • 05
    enough to speak the line the way it's intended to be written (and the intent is usually clear). The way it works is that for any audiobook, you produce fifteen minutes of finished audio, and upload it for the client to approve. Once the initial segment is approved, you can upload the rest of the work for a final approval. I produced and
    via u/pumaFGT
  • 06
    uploaded the first fifteen minutes of Client X's book. Like many others, his book was riddled with pretty nasty grammatical errors (and repeated words), so I smoothed it over. Client X didn't like that. Client X demanded I re- record the sample but exactly as it's written.
    via u/pumaFGT
  • 07
    So that's exactly what I did. For the entire thing. The entire horrible thing. Every doubled word. Every run-on sentence. Every typo. I emphasized every erroneous comma and terrible use of quotations. I emphasized every italicized phrase whether it made sense or not. The end result is hot, steaming garbage that sounds like butter, in a language that's close-to-but- not-quite English. If you weren't
    via u/pumaFGT
  • 08
    listening actively you wouldn't realize anything was wrong. I gave this dumpster fire the professional treatment, like I'd give any of my to-broadcast advertisements. This entire book sounds like a rough draft of a high school essay translated into Chinese and back to English with no touch-ups.
    via u/pumaFGT
  • 09
    Client X hasn't approved the final submission yet, but I can't wait to hear his feedback.
    via u/pumaFGT
  • 10
    EDIT: It got approved. It got approved and it's going to sale. I can't believe this. This is going to be a disaster. PM me and I'll let you know when it's out.
    via u/pumaFGT
  • 11
    EDIT2: It's out! Information on r/DumpsterFireAudiobook in a stickied post.
    via u/pumaFGT
  • 12
    ero_senin05 Plot twist: Client X is creating a voice over artist training course and he's going to use your example of how a bad artist sounds
    via u/ero_senin05
  • 13
    wertercatt DM me the purchase link when it gets released, I gotta hear this glory.
    via u/wertercatt
  • 14
    ChiefPyroManiac Make sure you charge him if he wants you to smooth it over back to how you originally did it.
    via u/ChiefPyroManiac
  • 15
    megapleb You get paid in advance? As much as I appreciate and understand the malicious compliance, you may cost yourself a paycheck.
    via u/megapleb
  • 16
    dream_weaver35 Can I just say, you have an incredible voice!
    via u/dream_weaver35
  • 17
    MechStar101 I hope you get a good reaction out of the the issue here!
    via u/MechStar101
  • 18
    legice I really want to hear this! Im expecting a dumpster fire and it better be a good one!
    via u/legice

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