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Producing, editing and publishing an audio book in Australia

Sally-Anne Watson Kane . 10 Dec 2023 . No Comments

This article is relevant to writers, editors and self-publishers seeking to create an audio book of their e-book or hardcopy book. 

Who can narrate and produce your audio book, in Australia?

The end-user – the person who will be listening to your audio book via an audio book platform – may have the option to download either high quality (which is a larger file) or low quality (which is a smaller file). Therefore, it is essential that your audio book recording is of very high quality, to allow for any downgrades in quality at the end-user stage.

Any professional recording artist will be recording your audio book in a studio.

Some recording artists do the recording only, and you need to get someone else to edit and produce your audio book. Others can narrate, edit and produce, even upload, the audio book for you.

AJ Collins narrates and produces audio books, including uploading to an audio book publishing platform. For more information, go to: AJ Collins narration of audio books.

Gabi Plumm provides narration services including recording and editing.

Australian e-book publisher offers a service whereby they record a book read by a professional recording artist. Go to Australian e-book publisher – audio books.

What to do before hiring a recording artist

Obtain a quote or estimate from a professional recording artist/editor. Note that the recording will need to be first narrated and recorded, and then carefully edited, by the recording artist/editor.

Ideally, get the recording artist/editor to do a test run of half a chapter or so,  before hiring them, to make sure their voice and style of narration is a good fit for your book. If it isn’t, try a different recording artist.

Before proceeding to sign a contract, ensure it states the cost (or an estimate of the cost), and  that the recording artist/editor must give you the opportunity to listen to the recording when it is completed, and give them any further instructions for finalising the recording. They should also give you the  opportunity to advise which short section you want to use as a trailer.

Note: an audiobook takes between seven and ten hours of recording and production work, per hour of audio, to produce an audio book ready for uploading. Bear this in mind when you receive your quote or estimate.

Uploading to a publisher platform

Once the recording has been finalised, it is essential that you listen to the whole audio book from start to finish, to give you the opportunity to pick up any errors or issues and give your feedback to the recording artist/editor.

Once the audio recording of your book has been recorded and edited to a high level, it needs to be uploaded to a publisher, or distributor, to make it accessible to the public. That is, it needs to be published.

Some publishers and/or distributors that are accessible in Australia are:

DIY recording (not recommended)

If you have a good reading voice, or you have a friend or family member with a good reading voice, you could try doing the narrating and recording yourself, instead of hiring a professional to do it.

Some libraries (for example, the Victorian State Library) offer free recording facilities that you can book in two-hour slots – or you could hire a couple of hours in a professional recording studio.

However, be aware that if you do the narrating and recording yourself:

  • this DIY method is likely to result in a far less professional-sounding audio book, than hiring a professional to do the recording.
  • after recording, you will need to hand the recordings over to a professional recording editor to edit your audio book recording, and then someone will need to upload your recording to an audio book publishing platform.

For more information about producing audio books, go to:

Thanks to AJ Collins, and Gabi Plumm, for providing the information upon which this article is based.

Image: Thank you to WOCinTechChat for permission to use this image.

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