Audiobook production
Your book, read aloud properly
Script preparation, narrator casting, recording, editing and mastering to the technical standard retailers require, so your audiobook is accepted first time and sounds like it belongs.
Why audio
A format your readers use differently
Audiobooks are not a smaller version of your book. They are consumed in a different context entirely (driving, walking, commuting, cooking) by people who would not otherwise have found time to read it at all.
For Australian authors the practical appeal is reach. Audio listeners tend to be loyal to the format, and a title without an audio edition is invisible to them regardless of how well the ebook is selling.
It is also the most technically unforgiving format we produce. Retailers reject files for measurable faults (peak levels, noise floor, room tone, spacing) and those rejections have nothing to do with how good the narration is.
Manuscript assessment
Not every book works in audio
We assess the manuscript before quoting, because some books need adaptation and a few genuinely should not be produced in audio at all.
Works well in audio
- Fiction with a strong narrative voice
- Memoir and life writing
- Business and self-development titles
- History and long-form non-fiction
Needs adaptation first
- Books relying on tables, charts or diagrams
- Heavy footnoting or academic referencing
- Illustrated and picture books
- Workbooks with exercises the listener must write
Narration
Choosing the voice that carries the book
The single biggest decision in an audiobook, and the one listeners judge within ninety seconds.
A professional narrator
The default, and usually the right call. You hear auditions from shortlisted narrators reading a passage from your actual manuscript, not a generic showreel, and you choose. Accent, age, warmth and pace are all part of the brief.
Author narration
Powerful for memoir and business books, where the author's own voice is part of the authority. It is harder than it sounds: sustained narration is a technical skill, and a full-length book takes many hours in a booth. We will be honest with you after a test recording about whether it is working.
Multi-voice casting
For books with substantial dialogue between distinct characters, or dual-narrator structures. Costs more and takes longer to schedule, but for the right book it is transformative.
Pronunciation guide
Before recording, we build a list covering character names, place names, technical terms and anything Australian a narrator might mispronounce. Fixing pronunciation after the fact means re-recording, so this list earns its keep.
Production process
From final text to finished masters
Typically eight to sixteen weeks. Recording is the shortest part; scheduling and post-production take the time.
Script preparation
The manuscript is marked up for audio: front matter trimmed to what works aloud, headings and section breaks noted, and anything visual either adapted or flagged for the companion PDF.
Casting
You hear auditions from shortlisted narrators reading from your book, and choose. We brief the narrator on tone, pace and pronunciation.
Test recording
The first fifteen minutes are recorded and sent to you before the full session is booked. Catching a tonal mismatch here costs nothing; catching it at chapter thirty costs the whole recording.
Recording
Full narration in a treated studio environment, with a director or a punch-and-roll workflow so errors are corrected in the moment rather than left for post.
Editing
Retakes selected, breaths and mouth noise cleaned, pacing evened, and room tone matched across sessions so no join is audible.
Mastering
Levels, peak, noise floor and file structure brought to retail specification, with each chapter as a separate correctly-tagged file.
Proof listen
A full listen against the text to catch dropped words, repeated lines and misreads. You receive the files to approve before anything is delivered to a retailer.
Technical standards
The specifications that get files rejected
Audio retailers apply automated checks. These are the measurements that decide whether your upload is accepted, and they are not negotiable.
- Peak level within the required ceiling
- Overall loudness inside the specified RMS range
- Noise floor below the stated threshold
- Consistent room tone with no audible session joins
- Correct opening and closing credits
- Head and tail silence within tolerance on every file
- One file per chapter, correctly named and tagged
You receive the mastered retail files and the archival masters. Both are yours.
Distribution
Getting the audiobook on sale
Audiobook distribution works through aggregators and retail platforms, each with their own terms on exclusivity, royalty rate and territory.
We prepare files to retail specification and support you through the upload and approval process. We do not claim guaranteed distribution to any particular platform: acceptance, available territories and royalty terms are set by each retailer and can change. We will talk you through the current options and the exclusivity trade-offs before you commit.
Questions
Audiobook questions, answered
A reasonable rule of thumb is roughly 9,300 finished words per hour of audio, so an 80,000-word book runs to about eight and a half hours. Finished hours are what production is usually priced against, so your word count gives a solid early estimate.
Yes, and for memoir and business books it can be the stronger choice. Be realistic about the commitment: expect roughly three to four hours in the booth for every finished hour of audio, and it is genuinely tiring. We do a test recording first and will tell you honestly whether it is working.
Some retailers now accept synthetic narration and others do not, and listener reaction is mixed, particularly in fiction, where performance carries a great deal. We can talk through the current landscape, but for most titles a human narrator remains the better investment.
It is priced per finished hour, which depends on your word count, narrator choice and whether multi-voice casting is involved. Author narration reduces the narrator fee but not the editing and mastering. We quote after assessing the manuscript.
Not necessarily, but the text must be final. Any change after recording means re-recording and re-mastering that section, so audio should follow proofreading rather than run alongside it.
Visual material is either adapted into narration or supplied as a companion PDF that listeners can download. We identify which parts need handling during the manuscript assessment.
You do. You receive the mastered retail files and the archival masters, and the narrator is engaged on a work-for-hire basis with no ongoing claim.
Continue
Services that pair with audio
Most authors combine two or three services. Tell us where your manuscript is and we will recommend only what it needs.
Get started
Send the manuscript and we will assess it for audio
Tell us your word count and whether you are considering narrating it yourself. We will assess suitability, estimate the finished running time and quote the production.
- Manuscript assessed for audio suitability
- Narrator auditions read from your actual book
- Test recording before the full session
- Retail-specification masters, and you keep them
Prefer to talk it through? +61 2 8531 1369 · info@harbourbridgepress.com