The Expense Behind Your Audiobook Creation
Why does it cost so much to record an audiobook?
People have asked me why does it cost so much for a narrator to record my audiobook. Some have complained that reading out loud is all that a narrator does. That’s not true.
When you decide to have your book narrated by a professional narrator, you are paying for their talent, time, and equipment. Sure, you can have anyone just read the words on the page, but it will just sound like they are reading verbatim.
First, let’s talk about talent. Your narrator is an actor. They bring out your writing to it’s best. If it is a fiction piece that they are narrating, they are acting out the scenes. For non-fiction, the narrator still has to make sure that the listener isn’t falling asleep while listening to your book.
Second, it takes a lot of time to record an audiobook. For every hour of audio, it can take 4–6 hours to produce. This includes prep time, recording time, and editing. The narrator has to read your book from start to finish and then mark up the document so that they know how to pronounce everything and notes for how to act during certain scenes. If your book is highly technical, then the prep time will be even longer.
Then there is recording time. No matter how experience the narrator is, they will not get every line…
