The submission process

VoiceMap’s submission and review process is meant to help you get the basics right and develop a high-quality product. Most people don’t have experience writing or creating a self-guided audio tour so it helps to have one of VoiceMap’s experienced editors looking over your shoulder, lending a guiding hand whenever it’s needed. They’ll make sure that you’ve timed everything well, and suggest changes that make your script easy on the ear and your directions easy to follow. They won’t re-write your entire tour and as an open platform, you’re responsible for the facts and opinions you include in your story.

The editing process has a number of steps that take you from a map to a published walk.

The list of locations to the left of the map provides an easy way for you to keep track of your progress. Just look at the screenshot below. Every location has a number on the left-hand side reflecting that location’s position within the sequence. Each location also has a unique name and below that is a word count, a comment count and the date the location was last updated. Underneath that, you’ll see the first line of the script linked to that location.

Understanding your tour’s progress status #

In this image:

• The first location is new and hasn’t been submitted to a VoiceMap editor for review.
• The second location has been submitted. Once the location has been submitted, you won’t be able to make any further changes until your editor returns the location to you.
• The third location was returned by the publisher as changes were needed to the location. (You can see that this location has 1 comment which will have the feedback from the editor).
• The fourth location was approved by the editor. This means that no further changes are needed.
• The fifth location shows that the tour’s final audio has been uploaded.
• When each location reaches the progress status of Audio Uploaded, it usually indicates that a tour is ready for publishing.

Step by step guide #

1. Start writing, by clicking on the pencil icon next to the location’s title. This will take you to the Your Script tab in Mapmaker.
2. Scroll down until you see the script box. It’s underneath the heading Script and a blue bar showing your word count.
3. Enter your script into the text field. As you do this, the bar showing your word count will go up and if you go over the word count, it’ll change from blue to red.
4. As you work on your scripts, save them using the Save Location button in the top right-hand corner of the screen. This will save your work so you can come back and finish it later.
5. When you’re happy with your script, click on the Submit Location button, also in the top right-hand corner, to send the script to your editor for a review. They’ll take a look and either approve the location’s script or, if necessary, suggest changes and return the script to you. They might also leave comments.
6. When your editor is done, you’ll receive an email saying that your script has either been approved or returned.
7. You can see the changes your editor made to your script by selecting the Show Edits button above the script box and to the right-hand side.
8. You can see the progress of your script and where it is in the process by looking at the progress field under the location’s title in the list on the left. Even if all the scripts have been approved, don’t record the audio just yet. Wait until you receive an email requesting a sample recording from your editor.
9. If there are any problems with the sample recording, your editor will help you to resolve them. If the quality is good, you can record the entire script and send the audio files to your us for uploading.

Undoing a submission #

If you submit a location by accident, you can always click on the Undo button in the top right-hand corner to enable editing again. You’ll be able to do this throughout the script writing stage but once a location is Approved you won’t be able to undo a submission anymore.

You also won’t be able to make changes if your editor is busy reviewing your tour. If they’re busy with your tour, you’ll see a pop-up box that says Your tour is currently being edited as pictured below.