The ultimate question: am I ready? There are a few things to consider and make sure are completed prior to going down the route of having your book produced as an audiobook. You need to consider your own timeline for physical/e-book release of your story. Do you want the audiobook to release alongside the print versions, or some months later? Ultimately though, if you can confirm the below then you can confidently say you are ready to make an audiobook:

• Your manuscript is done - It's gone through your beta readers, editors, and your final review. If you wanted to you could publish the book as is and be happy.

There is no wrong answer to this honestly. You can start looking for a narrator as soon as you have decided you want an audiobook produced. Curating a list of narrators you like or certain styles you enjoy is a great way to make a shortlist for you to work off of when it becomes time to cast a narrator. Most voice actors will have samples/demos of their work on their websites or social media, which are great for authors to get an idea of a narrator's voice and style. It is important though to remember that we are still actors, so a sample from another book is but a brief example of what a narrator can do.

 If you are ready to cast or begin production, then holding auditions or requesting potential narrators to provide sample reads is a perfect next step. 

This may very much vary from narrator to narrator, but the quick answer is no. If you are working through a production company like Podium or Soundbooth Theater, there is an expectation that your manuscript is done. Personally, I am of the same standing that your book should be done and ready to publish by the time a narrator starts recording. Making edits during production ultimately impact the project in several ways:

• Project production delays as work needs to be redone

• Additional fees/charges for new recordings or sections need redone due to changes

Therefore, please have your manuscript in its final draft prior to commissioning an audiobook.

Another million dollar question. There is no silver bullet answer to this, but I will do my best to explain some of the budgetary ranges and what the average is in the industry. A great rule of thumb is every 10k words of a manuscript will be 1 hour of finished audio. So a 100k manuscript could be estimated to be around 10 finished hours. Your word count is what narrators will use to as a basis for estimating your project cost. For the purposes of this question, most of the answers below are going to use ACX (Amazon/Audible) as a point of reference for rates/payments. 

There are several ways to pay for an audiobook:

• Paid Per Finished Hour (PFH) - This is by far the most common way for narrators to charge for their work. PFH is a rate that is charged based on the final listen time of the audiobook. So if the final version of the audiobook is 8 hours, then the narrator would be paid at their PFH rate * 8. This is not an hourly rate, you as the author do not pay the narrator for how many hours they work on the book, just the final product. The average currently in the industry for experienced narrators is between $200-$250/PFH. On ACX you will set a Project Budget which uses PFH ranges. Those ranges are:

  • • • • $50-$100/PFH

        • $100-$200/PFH

        • $200-$400/PFH

        • $400-$1000/PFH

• Royalty Share - The narrator is not paid at a PFH, and instead, royalty shares are split between them and the author 50/50. This is common when budget is limited. If you are on a shoestring budget but still want an audiobook produced, this may be the route for you. However, I would encourage you to evaluate a lower PFH rate instead. There is a narrator out there that is within your budget. I promise you.

• Royalty Share Plus - The best way I have found to describe this is Royalty Share but with a PFH rate as well. It's a hybrid model. The PFH rate of the narrator is often reduced or discounted in exchange to sharing royalties of the audiobook sales. This area is most likely negotiable, unless it isn't on specific platforms, so finding what is agreeable between you and the narrator is important.

• Flat Rate - The narrator charges a flat rate for their work to produce the audiobook. There are some platforms out there where doing a PFH rate just isn't possible, so a narrator may fallback onto a flat rate. Every narrator will calculate their flat rate differently. For example, my flat rate is a calculation based on the word count of the final manuscript, the length of time it will take to produce, if there are any unique requests that I must adhere to, and finally my normal PFH rate.

This is going to vary if you're working with a production company/platform, or a freelance narrator, and several things are taken into account. The first and most important being your final word count. Narrators will use that to estimate how long it will take to record, proof, edit, and finalize the audiobook. Once that's estimated, the timeline then depends on the narrator's workflow and/or if they're balancing other projects. Some narrators split their time between narration and other voice acting gigs, while also be doing all the editing and audio engineering themselves. Other narrators may instead contract a studio to do the editing for them. And some may only work on one project at a given time.  So the timeline of producing an audio book depends on your manuscript's final word count, and how the audiobook fits in with the narrator's currently project management. 

Because of that, if you have a deadline that you have to keep, then it is very important you provide that upfront during initial discussions and prior to the narrator starting to record. Discussing with your narrator and understanding their workflow, what's feasible, and what you can expect is perhaps the most important thing in this whole process.

But Bryan you didn't actually answer the question! 

Fine! From my personal experience, I have been able to complete audiobooks that sat between 50k-80k words in around 2-3 months. Recording is the quickest part of the job. It's the editing that takes the longest. Roughly every 10k words is about an hour of finished audio. Yet that also depends on the complexity of the project. The more sound effects/music you request, or adding a second narrator or full cast, the longer it takes.

I will answer this purely from my own perspective, as I can't speak for how production companies handle their process. Once I begin production this is usually how I operate:

• Record the first two chapters: typically the prologue (if there is one) and chapter 1

• Proof and edit this recording, master it as if it was the final versions (meeting ACX standards)

• Provide those recordings to the author for review and approval

  • The purpose of this is for the author to listen to my style, cadence, and character voices and have them give them a 'green light' for me to continue with the rest of the audiobook. If they hear something that is show-stopper (bad audio quality, character voice that doesn't work, cadence/pace doesn't work, etc), then we can flag it and work it out before I record for 8 hours and find out the author does not like how I am narrating.

• Once the green light is given, I will record the rest of the book in its entirety

• Proofing/editing audio

• Once chapters get to their initial final version, I provide them to the author for review

  • The author may make edit requests/notes within reason, such as "the audio here seems to splice oddly" or "sorry, I found a typo while listening, it should be X"

• If edits are required, then I will record new audio where needed and re-edit

• Final audio will be provided to the author and an invoice for final payment will be sent

Some do, some don't. Many narrators may settle into a genre they enjoy or find success in. Though there is no hard and fast rule that narrators stick to only a few genres.

There are absolutely narrators for spicy books. Some narrators operate exclusively in this area. That being said, some narrators may not want to narrate this, (or other content that may discuss anything that could fall within a Content Warning page) so it is important to clearly state what content and themes of your story has.

No, not every narrator/voice actor can do accents or dialects. Accents are specific skills within the industry, and just because a narrator can do one accent does not mean they can do all. Accents take a lot of practice, so if you need a character or the entire narration to be in an particular accent then make sure that is clear to the narrator. In fact I suggest making it part of a sample read or an audition.

Some actors do have accent/dialect sample reels (such as myself https://youtu.be/FJgtALiFI9o 👀), which may give you a good idea of range and abilities. Again though, these are merely quick glimpses and do not fully encapsulate what an actor can do. When in doubt, ask for a sample read or an audition.

We're everywhere! If you are looking to post an audition and have narrators find you, then you will want to look at platforms like ACX, Casting Call Club, or Backstage. These are by no means all the places you can post an audiobook audition, but do be aware that some sites are Pay to Play. Many in the indie space take to social media to post their auditions as well.

If you want just look for narrators and not post an audition, then there is no really one-stop shop for such a thing. You can go through certain hashtags on social media (#voiceactor #audiobooknarrator) and see if posts from narrators come up to discover them. One of your best options though would be to go to Audible (or your audiobook platform of choice), and listen to samples from genres you like or that apply to your book (perhaps your comp titles). Find the narrator that did those titles and research if they have a website or social media to find more about them.

I am a huge advocate for auditions for audiobooks, even when someone contacts me directly and is set on me as the narrator. Always always always do an audition, or ask for a sample read. An audition is a great opportunity to see how you will work with a narrator and also make sure their voice will actually fit your story.

As for the structure, you will want to pick several excerpts from the book. Not the whole book. Not a whole chapter. Find passages that highlight different moments of the story, pivotal emotions, character dialogue, a variety of things to truly capture how a narrator will do with the copy. I would pick excerpts like the below:

• Long passage of narration - This is the voice the listener will hear 75%+ of the time, it must be engaging and be able to adapt to crucial story beats

• Character dialogue - If you have a lot of characters, and it's very important that they have distinctive voices, then you will want to hear them beforehand. Make sure the main character stands out and won't be confused for other characters. Also character emotions and accents (if they are important to you) can be captured here. If an accent is important to a character then you may want to use dialogue with that character and emphasize in the audition that the accent is needed.

Yes, this is something that many audiobooks do. If you are casting through a platform then this should be something you can mark so narrators know that is what you are looking for. If you work with a narrator directly, then it is worth discussing with them what the dual narration looks like. A narrator may already work with another narrator for such projects, in which case you may want to hear samples of them as well. Otherwise you as the author will need to contract another narrator separately. Consider these questions:

• Do the narrators narrate everything in their POV chapter, or do minor characters need to be assigned their own narrator to keep a consistent voice?

• Will one of the narrators do all the editing/mastering, or will you as the author contract an audio engineering for the work?

Dramatizations are a highly produced version of the original book. They are less of an audiobook and are probably more akin to an audiodrama. There are multiple actors cast for roles, there is music, soundscapes, and sometimes the narration is removed. This is a huge production and very expensive. I would not encourage debut authors go down this path. 

But they are fun!

Full cast audiobooks are another huge production, albeit this is dependent on how many characters are in the book. These can get expensive too, as this is more work on the audio engineer to edit, and there are a lot more logistics involved with scheduling and recording. This is not impossible to do, but the timeline for them, especially if working with freelance narrators (and you are coordinating the whole thing), is really long. Something like this it is probably best to seek out a studio or production company.

Depending on who you are working with, the answer is yes with a few caveats. Large edits requests such as removing entire paragraphs or dialogue after recording and editing is largely frowned upon. This is something that should have been removed when the manuscript was going through its own edits prior to audiobook production. The manuscript should be final as if it's ready to publish the day you seek out a narrator for an audiobook.

Otherwise, acceptable edit requests would be small changes such as a typo, the wrong character speaking, altering a sentence to remove unintentional tongue twisters, etc.. My #1 recommendation for authors during the drafting and/or editing of their manuscript is to read your book out loud. You will catch so many things that you ordinarily wouldn't when reading normally.

As soon as you have a good estimate of what your final word count will be you can start gathering quotes. When in doubt, over estimate and round up your word count (i.e. rounding up a current 147k manuscript to 150k). The narrator should provide you a quote based on the word count and any details/requests you may have that could affect how the book is recorded. The quote is typically good only for the provided word count, and if it were to change significantly then a new quote will be determined. A narrator may also make a quote only valid for a certain period of time.