How To Make An Audiobook | April Doty, Audiobook Narrator

The market for audiobooks is booming. In 2023, publisher’s audiobook revenue grew to $2 billion, continuing a 12-year trend of year-on-year growth. If you’re a self-published author who wants entry to this market, I’ll show you the way.

There are 3 steps to reaching the ears of your new audiobook audience.

Production – records, edits, proofs and masters your audiobook. I’m a producer.
Distribution – makes your audio available to retailers, handles reporting and payments to you
Marketing – promotes your book to listeners through social media, advertising, blogs and more

Routes to market – the easiest choice

Some companies, like John Marshall Media and Author’s Republic offer a package of services to both produce and distribute your audiobook. For some authors, that’s perfect. Others want more involvement in production, as well as the chance to make independent decisions about distribution, so they can maximise royalties.

Routes to market – the more lucrative choice

As an Indie author, you already know that it’s more profitable in the long run to maintain full ownership of your work. Surveys from both ALLi and the Authors Guild reveal that self-published authors earn more than authors who are traditionally published. You value your independence and freedom of choice, and there are ways you can keep it.

It is possible to own your audiobook and all of its earning potential; simply pay a narrator directly to produce your book for you. Then you’ll have complete control over where it can be distributed.

Once you’ve produced your audiobook, choosing the right distribution partner(s) is important. The market for audiobook distribution is changing all the time. Each distributor will reach different retailers, and pay you a different royalty rate for each retailer.

Audiobook Production

How much does it cost to produce an audiobook

When you hire a professional narrator, you are often working with an entire production team behind the scenes — a voice actor with a home studio and special equipment, plus sometimes a proofer and an audio engineer. Together they work to bring your story to life and give you mastered audio that meets the requirements for all distribution platforms. The total cost starts at $250 per finished hour, but could be as high as $1,000 per finished hour (for famous narrators who can catapult the sales of your book).

To calculate the cost of your book, count the number of words. On average, the number of spoken words in an hour of audio is about 9,300. So if your book is 93,000 words, that’s about 10 hours. The cost of a professional narrator should start at $2,500 for your book.

How to record an audiobook for “free”

Pay by sharing your royalties

If you don’t have the money to produce an audiobook, and you won’t have money for the next 7 years, there is a solution for you. You can hire a narrator on ACX, Amazon’s platform for creators, to produce your audiobook on a “Royalty Share” contract. Beware though: if you hire a narrator through a Royalty Share contract, you are locked in for 7 years. During that time, Amazon keeps 60% of your royalties, you get 20% and your narrator gets 20%. You may not distribute your audiobook to any other retailer.

Beware of the free audiobook that no one wants

The worst idea is to use AI to produce your audiobook. I know you would never do this (your book is too good for that), but if you did make the mistake of producing an audiobook using Amazon’s Virtual Voice, you would also be locked into an exclusive distribution contract through Amazon. Also, your readers would hate it and your star rating would suffer. I won’t go on a tangent about AI art and why it will never work; you can read my ideas on that here.

Can I record my own audiobook?

Of course you can. I believe you can do anything if you really work hard at it. I must warn you though — the learning curve is steep. To learn more of what it involves, read my article “How to become an audiobook narrator“.

How to find the voice for your book

I’m a professional narrator, but I want you to find just the right narrator for your book. Here’s what I would consider if I were you.

The main character voice – Is it male or female, old or young? Would it be helpful if the story is told by someone who closely matches this profile, or is this flexible?
Range of other characters – What accents are needed? Can the narrator do those accents?
Who are your favorite narrators? Listen to audiobook samples in your genre. If you find a narrator who would be perfect for your book, don’t be afraid to look for them online and send them a message. Any narrator with a strong interest in producing your book would be happy to give you a 2-3 minute sample.
Reputation – Do readers in your genre favor particular narrator(s)? Does the narrator of your choice have a track record of working successfully with other authors or publishers?
Cost and availability – Rates differ and some narrators are booked 6 months in advance.

How to post an audition on ACX

In addition to being a gateway to distribute directly to Amazon, Audible and Apple Books, ACX is also a place to discover narrators. Any author with an e-book on Amazon (either published or listed for pre-order) can post an audition on ACX (even if you decide, after listening to auditions, not to use ACX to produce your audiobook).

Tips for attracting the best narrators

If you want to distribute your book outside of Amazon, Audible and Apple Books, choose the payment terms “pay by the finished hour” (so you’re not locked into one of those exclusive 7-year contracts)
If you want a professional narrator, choose to pay at least $200-$400 per finished hour.
Make sure that your cover stands out. Narrators (just like readers) will judge your book by its cover. Your cover is the most important investment you will make in your marketing. Line it up alongside others in your genre and show them to an objective observer. Which book would they buy? Which would they not buy? Why?
Choose the exact piece you want narrators to read in their audition, so you are comparing apples with apples. Make sure the piece contains dialogue, including the character voices and accents that are most important to you. Choose no more than 2-3 pages to share; indicate where the narrator should start and stop. (Auditions should be no more than 3 minutes). You are likely to be able to rule out many narrators based on the first 30 seconds (or less) of audio.
Provide background information, including character descriptions and name pronunciations that would be helpful for the narrator. Please keep it as brief and concise as possible.
Include warnings about content – religious content, sexual content, and trigger warnings. This will help you find a narrator that is an ideal match for you.
In your “notes from the rights holder”, indicate an audition deadline – 7 to 10 days is plenty of lead time to find your ideal narrator. Deadlines help actors plan their time and give your audition the attention it deserves. Imagine the disappointment of spending hours on an audition, only to find that it has closed before you could upload your audio. Every narrator has experienced this and it is very disappointing indeed.

Where else can you audition narrators?

ACX is the best self-serve portal for posting auditions and finding narrators in the wild. If you aren’t confident to work with a narrator directly, and if your budget can stretch, you can pay a production company to do the heavy lifting. They will recommend narrators from their roster, gather auditions, deal with contracts, and coordinate the work of all the actors and engineers involved in the production. This can be especially helpful if you are working with more than one narrator. There are many production companies; I am on the rosters of Curated Audio, Deyan Audio Services, Scribe Media, BeeAudio and John Marshall Media.

How long does it take to record an audiobook?

Recording an audiobook is a multi-step process. If the narrator is immediately available to start, it can take anywhere between a few weeks and a few months.

Step 1. Prepping the Audiobook

The narrator reads the book, slowly and carefully, as a film actor would read a script for the first time. I look up words that I’m not 100% sure how to pronounce, and mark the book in ways that help me make fewer mistakes when recording. I take extensive notes about characters and highlight each character’s dialogue in a different color. I ask you for character name pronunciations, and invite you to tell me more about characters that I wouldn’t know from reading the book (perhaps secrets that are revealed later in the series). Sometimes I “cast” the book in my head, or make pinterest boards of the setting or characters as I imagine them.

Step 2. 15-Minute Sample

When we work directly with authors (instead of through publishers), we provide the author with a sample of what the book will sound like. We want to make sure you are happy with the pace, tone and the key character voices. Usually we perform the first 15 minutes of the book, but if a very important character appears later in the book, we might include a sample of their voice too. Once you approve the 15-minute sample, the narrator completes the project. You will not hear the book again until it is finished; at that point, only minor corrections can be made, like mispronunciations or missing content. Be sure that you express all your wishes for acting choices at the 15-minute sampling stage.

Step 3. Recording

The narrator records the book in the studio. There’s a lot of stopping and starting. (When we make a mistake, or the neighbor turns on their leaf blower, or our stomach starts growling into the mic). Most professional narrators take 2-4 hours to record 1 hour of audio.

Step 4. Proofing and Editing

A person who is gifted at catching errors will listen to the book and indicate where mistakes have been made (missing text, stumbles, words that are mispronounced, or pronounced inconsistently). Sometimes the proofer is the audio editor, so as they listen to the book, they remove extraneous sounds from the recording, or optimise pacing where needed.

Step 5. Pickups

The narrator will re-record sections of audio to fix all the errors caught by the proofer.

Step 6. Author Review

When we work directly with authors (instead of with publishers), this is the stage at which you get to hear the book and ask for corrections. There should be very few, because you have already collaborated with the narrator at the 15-minute sample stage. Also, the book has already been through a round of corrections.

Step 7. Mastering

An audio engineer fine-tunes the audio. Breaths that are too big are minimised. Hard ‘P’ sounds and annoying mouth clicks are removed. Parts that are way too loud or soft are gently compressed or expanded until it all sounds smooth. All the individual chapter files are checked to ensure they meet the technical requirements of distribution platforms.

Step 8. It’s YOURS

Finally, you receive the audio files. The audiobook is yours forever, to distribute as you choose.

How do I get an audiobook cover?

When you provide your audio files to a distributor, you will need to upload a square version of your book cover. If you haven’t got one, ask your book cover designer if you can purchase one. Don’t take shortcuts (like stretching your cover, or leaving blank vertical bands at the sides – it makes your audiobook look like an afterthought). Your audiobook cover is just as important as you book cover; it needs to stand out to listeners browsing the app for their next audiobook.

Audiobook Distribution

How to get your book on Audible, Amazon, and Apple Books

In the US, Audible is by far the most dominant audiobook platform. But what if your readers don’t use Audible? They might use Libro, or Google Play or Downpour or Hoopla or Kobo or Chirp. Do you want your audiobook to be available in all those places? If you’ve published an e-book, you already know the trade-offs in configuring your relationship with Amazon — exclusivity gives you higher profits, but it also means you can’t publish anywhere else.

Go directly through ACX to maximise royalties

ACX is the gateway to Amazon, Audible, and Apple Books; creating an account on ACX and uploading your audio directly will get you the best possible royalty rate for those platforms. Other audiobook distributors, like Findaway Voices by Spotify, can get your book on Amazon, Audible and Apple Books, but they will take an additional cut for those retailers. When you choose a distributor, tick the box to “opt out” of Amazon, Audible, and Apple Books – distribute directly there instead, so you can earn the best rate. Let your distributor reach those retailers that are out of reach for you (which are most of them).

Go exclusive through ACX for 90 days

It won’t be right for everyone, but you may consider launching your book on ACX exclusively for the first 90 days. Why? Because if you launch your audiobook through ACX on an exclusive contract (which you can change to non-exclusive after 90 days), you will earn more from your sales on Audible, Amazon and Apple Books in those first 90 days (40% instead of 25%). Plus, you’ll get some free promo codes for your audiobooks, which you can give away to book bloggers, your fans, and any others that will help you with your audiobook launch. You will also be able to earn bonuses from the bounty referral program. Once 90 days have passed, you can change your distribution option from exclusive to non-exclusive (earning 25% instead of 40%), so you can make your book available widely, everywhere audiobooks are sold.

How do you distribute your audiobook everywhere audiobooks are sold

To make your book available as widely as possible, you will need to use another distributor, like Findaway Voices, or one of the other companies listed later in this article. A distributor can make your book instantly available to dozens of retailers. Remember though, whenever a distributor stands in between you and the retailer, you lose money. That’s why you want to take advantage of the growing number of retailers that allow you to distribute directly through them. You will want to tick the box to “opt out” of those retailers with your distributor, so you can upload directly to the retailer and keep the highest possible royalty for yourself. The retailers that allow you to distribute directly currently include Kobo, Storytel and Google Play.

The market for audiobook distribution is complicated, and changing all the time. It’s important to shop around and ask questions.

Points to keep in mind:

Everyone who plays a role in selling your book will take a share of the money earned. If a book retails at $12, the retailer might keep $6 and pass the rest to the distributor. The distributor has promised to give you 80%, but they mean 80% of the $6 that they received. They keep $1 and give you $5.
Sometimes smaller distributors will funnel your book through a big distributor in order to reach certain retailers, ultimately reducing your royalties for that retailer. If you know a retailer you definitely want to reach, check the retailers website to see which distributors partner with them. For example, this is what Chirp says.
Ask about sales reporting, payment frequency and thresholds, and whether they pay into a bank account, or just PayPal (an expensive option)
Ask if you can “opt out” of distributing to certain retailers, so you can distribute directly to all the retailers that allow it.
Do they provide any marketing services?
Do you receive promo codes to give away free copies of your book?

Audiobook distributors to research:

Audiobook Marketing

For most authors, marketing is their least favorite thing. I get it. I spent 20 years in communications and marketing before I became an audiobook narrator. But the financial success and longevity of an author relies on their marketing efforts. People need to know about your book before they can tell all their friends how much they love it.

Make sure you are ready to execute your marketing plan before you launch, so your audiobook gets the attention it deserves. You can learn from the most recent experiences of other Indie authors by joining Facebook Groups like:

And listening to podcasts like Novel Marketing.

I’m learning all I can about successful audiobook marketing strategies, so I can support authors I work with, as well as my truly marvellous sister Laura Linn, who writes historical romance (go read her books)! For these reasons, I’ll soon be writing about audiobook marketing…but not yet. (This post is already long, and you were probably tired of reading anyway…)