The ultimate guide to publishing an audiobook
From manuscript to making money: Everything you need to know
If you’ve written and published a book, you’ve likely heard that you would also benefit from publishing your work as an audiobook. Expanding your audience is the best way to make more from your writing, and the reach of audiobooks is growing too rapidly to ignore: 51% of U.S. adults (so ~134 million people) have now listened to an audiobook, per the 2025 Audio Publishers Association Consumer Survey.
We talk with a lot of authors every day, and often the first thing we hear from those who haven’t yet published an audiobook is that getting started is the hardest part. It may seem like a daunting project, but it breaks down into a few up-front steps that can keep making you money for years to come.
We’re here to help demystify the process. By the end of this guide, you should have all the tools you need to start taking action.
Part 1: Preparing your manuscript for audio
Audiobook listeners experience your book very differently from print and ebook readers. Before diving into audiobook production, it's worth making sure your text translates well to audio. This step is often skipped, and it shows (but the good news is that it doesn't take long!).
Audit your content for visual elements
Go through your manuscript and flag anything that relies on the reader being able to see it: charts, tables, graphs, footnotes, URLs, and sidebars. Nonfiction authors tend to have more of these than fiction authors, so budget more prep time if your book is heavy on data or visual references.
For each instance, you have three options: describe it in plain language, cut it entirely, or direct listeners to an online resource (e.g., "You can view the full chart at [yourwebsite.com]").
Plan your chapter structure
Each chapter will become its own audio file, and no single file can exceed 120 minutes. For most books this isn't an issue, but if you have any particularly long chapters, plan how you'll split them.
Finally, identify the best 1–5 minute excerpt to use as your retail audio sample. This is what potential listeners will hear before deciding to purchase, so choose something that will capture your book's tone and hook people quickly.
Part 2: Choosing your narration approach
Once your manuscript is ready, the next decision is how to handle narration. There's no single right answer here! The best choice will depend on your budget, timeline, and the nature of your book.
Option A: Narrate it yourself
If you have the desire and the time to commit, self-narration is an option that sounds daunting but ends up working out well for a lot of authors. It's cost-free (aside from time and minimal equipment), and for certain types of books — like memoirs, personal development, and narrative nonfiction — hearing the author's own voice adds significant value that listeners appreciate. Plus, no one truly knows how to interpret your writing into voice like you do!
The tradeoff, of course, is time and technical effort. You can expect that a 60,000-word book will take roughly 6–8 total hours to record, and editing typically takes at least that same amount of time. If this is your first time, budget extra. With that said, self-narration often ends up with the most personal end product. Your listeners can tell when an audiobook is a labor of love!
Option B: Hire a professional narrator
A professional narrator brings experience, vocal range, and a studio-quality setup to your book. If you don't have the time or inclination to record yourself, or if you’re hoping to cast a voice with a specific vibe or energy, this is often the right move.
This is where real cost starts to come in: professional narrators typically charge between $250 and $400 per finished hour of audio. Again assuming a 60,000-word book with roughly 6–8 finished hours, that puts the total investment at $1,500–$3,200 on the low to mid end. Some narrators also offer royalty-share arrangements, where they take a percentage of sales in lieu of an upfront fee — which is worth exploring if budget is a constraint.
To find narrators, you can search freelance platforms like Reedsy or ACX's narrator marketplace. When auditioning candidates, send a 1–2 page sample from your book (not a generic passage) and listen for how well they capture the tone and pacing you have in mind. Trust your gut, as you'll be hearing this voice for the length of your entire book (and so will your listeners!).
Option C: AI narration
AI narration, often referred to as Digital Voice Narration or DVN, has improved dramatically in recent years, and Voices by INaudio accepts audiobooks narrated using approved partners: ElevenLabs, Spoken, or Google Play Books' digital voice. If budget is a major factor, you’re looking to translate across multiple languages, or if you have a large backlist to convert into audio, digital voice narration is a practical option worth considering.
A few things to keep in mind: ElevenLabs and Spoken are paid services (pricing varies by plan and word count), while Google Play Books' digital voice is free to create. Not all of Voices' retail distribution partners currently accept digital voice narration, so if reaching every platform matters to you, confirm retailer compatibility before committing to this route. Voices' support team can advise on which partners are DVN-friendly.
Part 3: Recording
If you're self-narrating, this will be the meatiest piece of the process. Recording a professional-sounding audiobook doesn't require a professional studio, but it does require some preparation. The goal is clean, consistent audio that needs minimal cleanup after the fact.
Set up your recording environment & equipment
The most important factor isn't your microphone — it's the room where you’re recording. Hard surfaces (so walls, floors, and ceilings) create echo and reverberation that make audio sound unprofessional and are difficult to remove in editing. On the flip side, soft surfaces absorb sound. A walk-in closet surrounded by hanging clothes is one of the best DIY recording booths you can find. If that's not available, a small room with carpet, curtains, and upholstered furniture will work. Avoid kitchens, bathrooms, and large open rooms.
Before each session, eliminate background noise: Turn off HVAC systems, close windows, silence your phone, and let anyone in the house know you're recording. Even sounds that the human ear barely picks up in real time — a refrigerator hum, footsteps across the house — will show up in your audio.
Equipment is actually much simpler and more affordable than many people expect. A quality USB condenser microphone (the Blue Yeti and Audio-Technica AT2020 USB are popular starting points) plugged directly into your computer will produce solid results. If you want to go a step further, an XLR microphone paired with an audio interface will offer more control and better sound quality.
Position your mic about 6–8 inches from your mouth, slightly off-axis to reduce “plosive sounds” (the "p" and "b" pops). A pop filter — a small mesh screen that clips onto your mic stand — helps smooth out the sound and costs very little.
Recording best practices
Record chapter by chapter without stopping when possible. Consistency of tone, pacing, and energy matters to listeners, and it's easier to maintain when you record a full chapter in one session rather than piecing it together across multiple sessions or days.
When you make a mistake mid-sentence, don't stop the recording. Instead: pause, leave a two- to three-second gap, then re-read the full sentence from the beginning. That gap will be visible in your audio waveform and easy to find during editing. Some narrators snap their fingers or clap after a mistake as an additional visual marker.
Announce the chapter title at the start of each file (e.g., "Chapter One," "The Beginning," however it appears in your book). This is required by most distribution platforms and helps listeners navigate.
Each chapter file should begin with 0.5–1 second of silence and end with the same (you can add this in editing if you forget during recording, but it's faster and easier to build the habit as you record).
Collaborating with your narrator
If you’re working with a narrator, your work during this portion of the process is largely to serve as a creative guide and provide feedback as needed. Discuss the feedback and re-record process ahead of time with your narrator so that expectations are aligned before billable work is done.
To help set up your narrator for success, it’s also helpful to pre-build a pronunciation guide: If your book includes unusual words, technical terms, foreign phrases, character names, or place names, create a simple reference document that spells out how each one should be pronounced.
Part 4: Editing and mastering your audiobook
Editing is where your raw recordings become a finished product. It's also where a lot of first-time audiobook producers underestimate how much time they need. Expect to spend at least as many hours editing as you did recording, or possibly more.
Recommended software
Audacity is free, widely used, and capable of everything you need for audiobook editing. If you want a more professional setup, Hindenburg Narrator is designed specifically for spoken-word audio and is worth the investment. Adobe Audition and Reaper are also solid options used by working producers.
Editing your recordings
Go through each recorded audio file and remove or replace: mistakes (using the clean re-reads you recorded), excessive mouth noise, microphone pops, long silences, and any background sounds that crept in. When cutting between two audio segments, make sure the edit point is clean — abrupt cuts are jarring to listeners. Leave natural breath sounds and room tone between sentences rather than cutting to complete silence, which sounds unnatural.
Mastering to technical specs
This is the step most beginners overlook, and it's the most common reason audiobook submissions get rejected. Every distribution platform requires that the files you upload meet specific technical standards. Here's what you need to hit if you’re distributing with Voices by INaudio:
- Format: MP3 or FLAC, 192 kbps or higher, constant bit rate
- Sample rate: 44.1 kHz
- RMS (average loudness): between -23 dB and -18 dB
- Peak amplitude: no higher than -3 dB
- Noise floor: below -60 dB
- Channels: Mono is preferred for single-narrator recordings
If these terms are unfamiliar, don't panic. Audacity and most other editors have built-in tools to measure and adjust all of these values. There are also free browser-based tools like Auphonic that can normalize your audio automatically. The key is to check every file before you upload.
Quality control
Before you submit anything, listen to your entire audiobook from start to finish. Follow along with your manuscript to catch errors, mispronunciations, and missing words. Check that volume levels, tone, and pacing feel consistent across all chapters. Having a second person listen — even just to a chapter or two — is one of the best ways to catch things you've gone “ear-blind” to after hours of editing.
Part 5: Creating your cover art
Your audiobook cover is often the first thing a potential listener experiences, and on most platforms it's displayed as a small square thumbnail. This is not the place to repurpose your print book cover as is; rather, you’ll want to make at least minor modifications so that your title looks clean and attractive on audiobook platforms.
Design options
If you already have a book cover you love, the easiest path is to have it adapted to a square format by a designer — this is usually an inexpensive job. If you're starting from scratch, Reedsy, 99designs, and Fiverr are all solid platforms for finding cover designers who have experience with audiobook formats. Canva also has audiobook cover templates if you prefer a DIY approach. For visibility purposes, you’re likely going to want to design your cover at a minimum of 2400 x 2400 pixels.
Whatever route you take, test your cover at small sizes before finalizing it. Shrink it to thumbnail size on both your computer and phone, and ask: Is the title readable? Does it still look professional? Does it give a potential listener a sense of the book’s energy? If the answer to any of those is no, it needs more work.
Part 6: Publishing
You've got finished audio files and cover art! Now it's time to get it out into the world, and that’s where we come in. Here's exactly how the publishing process works on Voices by INaudio.
Step 1: Create your free account
Head to voicesbyinaudio.com and sign up. There are no setup fees and no distribution fees — it costs nothing to create an account, upload your audiobook, or distribute it. The platform is open to all authors 18 and older, worldwide.
Step 2: Start a new project
Once you're logged in, click "Start New Project." You'll begin building your audiobook from here.
Step 3: Enter your metadata
This is your audiobook's identity on every platform it's distributed to, so take your time and get it right. You'll enter:
- Title and subtitle
- Author and narrator names
- Publisher name (this should be either your name, or the LLC you use for your book business)
- Book description (your ebook or print blurb is a good starting point; adapt it slightly for the audiobook context if needed)
- Genre and subgenre
- Keywords (think about how your target listeners search)
- Series information, if applicable
- Language
If you have multiple titles to upload, it’s crucial to make sure your metadata is consistent for better discoverability! Make sure to keep an eye on consistency for items like series titles and publisher name, and watch out for spelling errors.
Step 4: Upload your cover art
Upload your square cover image.
Step 5: Upload your audio files
Upload each chapter as a separate file, along with your opening credits, closing credits, and retail audio sample as individual files. Voices will assign your audiobook an ISBN at no cost.
Step 6: Set up royalty payments
Enter your payment details so Voices knows where to send your money. Authors keep 80% of royalties on all sales, with monthly payments and an earnings dashboard so you can track performance by platform.
Step 7: Choose your distribution partners
This is one of Voices' biggest advantages: you can distribute to 30+ retail and library platforms simultaneously, all from one upload. The network includes Spotify, Audible, Apple Books, library channels, educational platforms, and many more.
Since Voices is fully non-exclusive, you can opt out of any platform you want and retain all rights to your audiobook (though we recommend publishing as wide as you can to maximize your potential audience). You can also sell directly to your audience via your own website.
Step 8: Review and submit
Review all your metadata and distribution terms, then approve and submit for quality review. Liftoff complete!
Part 7: Growing your audience
Once your audiobook is live, there are a few things you can do right away to make sure people find it.
Announce it like a launch
Treat your audiobook's release as a genuine book launch, even if the print or ebook version has been out for a while. Send an email to your audience, post across your social channels, and update your website and author profiles to include the audiobook. Audiobook lovers who missed your book in print are a real potential audience — reach them!
If you worked with a professional narrator, it can also be valuable to reach their audience (many narrators have die-hard fans!). Reach out to your narrator to ask how they like to promote their projects, and make sure they have anything they could need – visuals, audio clips, promotional language, etc. – to post on their own social and content channels.
Use your audio sample as a promotional asset
The 1–5 minute retail sample you recorded isn't just for Audible and Apple Books. It's also a great social media clip, a website embed, or an email teaser. Let people hear your book before they commit to buying it. Audio is inherently engaging in a way that cover images and text descriptions aren't.
Monitor your performance
Log into your Voices dashboard regularly and review your sales data by platform. Over time, this tells you where your listeners are — which informs everything from where to focus your promotional energy to how to price future titles.