Pick the voice, hear it on your text
Choose a narrator, get a sample built from your own pages, and approve it before production starts.
Recording an audiobook yourself is possible with a treated room, a good microphone and patience for editing - but it is real studio work, session after session. Audiobookery gets you a produced audiobook without the equipment: pick a voice, approve a sample from your own pages, and let production handle the rest.
You need a room quiet enough for a consistent noise floor, a USB or XLR microphone, and editing software to cut breaths, retakes and room tone. ACX's technical spec sets exact noise floor, peak and RMS levels per file - easy to miss on a first attempt, which often means re-recording or re-editing entire chapters. Most first-time authors spend several weeks on a full-length novel between sessions, edits and proofing passes, on top of the time it took to write the book. Reading your own dialogue out loud for hours is also a different skill from writing it, and pacing tends to drift over a long session.
Choose a narrator, get a sample built from your own pages, and approve it before production starts.
Chapters detected, numbers and abbreviations rewritten to be spoken - no manual script marking.
From the Creator plan, distinct voices for each character - hard to pull off recording solo.
Noise floor, peaks and levels set automatically, chapter by chapter, to ACX and KDP spec.
No manual file splitting or naming - a finished book plus a store-ready package.
You own the master files and set your own price, just like a self-recorded book.
Want to hear the result first? Listen to Studio and Premium samples, then check pricing.
| What matters | Record it yourself | Hire a narrator | Audiobookery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equipment needed | Mic, treated room, software | None | None |
| Typical cost per book | Gear only, your time | $2,000-4,000 | From $129, or $29/month |
| Time to finished file | Weeks, around your schedule | 6-12 weeks | About an hour once approved |
| Meets retail spec on the first try | Often needs redoing | Usually | Always |
| Multi-voice cast | One voice: yours | Extra narrators to hire | Included from Creator |
A subscription gives you 500 pages of finished audiobook every month, for as many books as you like, on a 12-month commitment with two months free when billed yearly. Publishing once? Pay $129 for a single audiobook, no commitment. A page is 275 words, and we never count your books, unlike a per-finished-hour studio quote that changes with your pace and pauses.
Most self-recorded audiobooks start with the same short list: a USB or XLR microphone with an interface, a pop filter, closed-back headphones, and recording software. The room matters more than the mic. A closet full of clothes, blankets hung over hard walls, or a mattress propped against a window can quiet an ordinary bedroom enough for a usable noise floor. A proper treated booth is not required to start, but a room with an air conditioner, a computer fan or street noise nearby usually is not quiet enough, and it shows up in every take.
Recording is the fast part. Editing is where the hours go: trimming breath sounds and mouth clicks, matching room tone across sessions recorded days apart, cutting a retake into the right spot without an audible seam, and setting 1 to 5 seconds of room-tone silence at the head and tail of each chapter file - ACX's own recommended range. One misread word usually means listening back through the whole paragraph to find a clean punch-in point, not just re-reading a single line.
When to delegate: a full-length novel runs 8 to 10 finished hours, and each of those hours still needs its own recording pass and its own editing pass before it is close to done. That is the point where the math tends to catch up with authors who also have a book to finish writing or promoting, and where handing narration and mastering to a production service starts to save more time than it costs.
A quiet, acoustically treated room, a decent USB or XLR microphone, recording and editing software, and time - a full-length novel takes most self-recording authors several weeks between sessions, editing and retakes.
ACX asks for specific noise floor, peak and RMS levels and a consistent room tone between takes - details that trip up most first-time home recordings and often mean re-editing the whole file.
There is no microphone or editing to learn. You pick a voice, approve a sample recorded from your own pages, and we handle narration, mastering and retail spec for you.
Most authors choose one path per book for a consistent voice, but nothing stops you from producing a full book with us after testing a chapter yourself.
Yes. Whether you record it yourself or have us produce it, you own the master files and set your own retail price.
Or compare with a full production service and see the converter approach.