Keep Audiobook Pickup IDs Stable Across Correction Rounds

A pickup ID identifies a requested correction. Its position on a spreadsheet can change whenever somebody filters, sorts or removes completed rows. Use a stable ID that survives those operations.

Keep identity separate from position

Record project, chapter, slate ID, source timestamp and correction note in separate fields. Preserve the original ID when requesting another take. Numbering each filtered sheet from one again can make a returned file point to the wrong request.

Pozotron's export documentation explicitly supports retaining consistent slate numbers and choosing chapter-relative or book-relative timestamps. Agree on those settings before exchanging reports. A timestamp without its reference frame can be ambiguous.

Label the returned take

An agreed filename such as CH03-014-take2.wav separates the request from the take number. Multiple takes are not automatically errors, but the editor needs to know which has been accepted. Preserve that decision beside the request instead of relying on whichever file happens to sort last.

If the narrator delivers one long recording containing several slates, a filename checker cannot identify every correction inside it. Use your normal listening and editing process or an explicit manually reviewed segment manifest.

Check presence and content separately

A professional proofing service offers timestamped pickup lists in Excel or Google Sheets, showing that file-based handoffs remain a real workflow.

SlateReturn is a planned $19 one-time checker for separate-file deliveries. It would compare request IDs with filenames, not determine whether the line was read correctly. It is not available yet.