Give Your Book a Voice
Media Writing Services Audiobook
You have a powerful story to tell, but what good is that if your message isn’t accessible by the people who need it most?
Recording an audiobook gives your audience another dynamic way to interact with your content. That’s where Media Writing Services Audiobooks comes in. Our in-house team works with you through the entire audiobook creation process—recording, post-production, and distribution—with the same world-class approach we use in our publishing services.
What’s Included in the Audiobook Service?
The Media Writing Services Audiobook service includes everything you need to either be paired with a professional narrator or coached on how to narrate it yourself, record, produce, and distribute it to the world.
Recording
- Tell us who your narrator is—the voice you hear when you imagine your book being read to millions of people.
- If you choose to narrate yourself, we’ll personally prepare you for the process, ensuring you give the best performance possible for your book.
- The average audiobook is recorded over 2-5 sessions but could vary based on the length of your book. This process typically takes 1-2 weeks.
Post-Production
- Each audiobook goes through a detailed post-production process handled by 2 engineers: an editor & mastering engineer, and a quality control & spot check engineer.
- Our expert team ensures audiobook files are prepared in accordance with distribution specifications.
- We’ll be in contact with you throughout the process so you’re never left in the dark about what’s happening as we produce your audiobook
Distribution
- Distribution is handled by our friends at Author’s Republic for large-scale distribution on over 50 platforms including Amazon, Audible, Apple Books, Apple Music, and Spotify.
- Sales from all platforms are tracked in one easy-to-use dashboard.
Optional Add-Ons
Distribution Only—$1,500
For Authors who’ve already produced an Audiobook version of their book and have ready-to-upload audiobook files aligned with the publishing standards. Media Writing Services will edit your cover for audiobook specs, set up distribution with Author’s Republic, and upload all files. Once the upload is complete, we will ensure accuracy and integrity across all platforms.
How the Media Writing Services Audiobook Process Works
We have a proven process to source the best possible narrator to be the voice of your book, then record, produce, and distribute your audiobook on all popular platforms where audiobooks are sold.
Preparation
- Your audiobook journey starts by telling us precisely who your narrator is. The more specific you can be, the better. We’re networked with thousands of narrators and we’ll find one that fits your voice and has experience in your industry.
- If you choose to narrate yourself, our audiobook producer will plan your recording sessions around your busy schedule.
- Prior to beginning the recording process, we’ll use Pozotron to flag words in the manuscript that might cause pronunciation difficulties during narration. Each of these words is then paired with a recorded pronunciation which is referenced throughout recording and post-production.
Recording
- The first day is spent becoming familiar with the recording studio, settling into a comfort zone, and perfecting the voice for your book.
- A director sits in throughout the reading to make make sure narration is hitting its marks, pronunciation is accurate, and the pacing is good.
- The director’s job is to pull the best performance out of the narrator possible. We work with the best in the business in order to produce the best results.
Post Production
- An editing engineer listens to the recording and adjusts the pacing if needed. They’ll remove any background pops, clicks, or distracting noises.
- From here, a QC engineer takes over. They serve as a second fail-safe for your book, making sure nothing made it past the editing engineer. The goal is to make sure any edits made to your recording are seamless and inaudible.
- When post-production is complete, you’ll have a chance to review the audiobook yourself. If it’s determined additional pickups are needed we’ll schedule recordings and re-master those as well.
Launch
- Your audio files are uploaded and begin the review process. Once approved, your audiobook is sent to retailers, and it typically goes live within 5 weeks.
- About 2 months after your audiobook goes live, you’ll be able to check sales reports for each platform.
Who Should Publish an Audiobook?
WHO SHOULD
- Authors who have published a non-fiction or fiction book
- Authors hoping to extend their reach to the largest audience possible
- Authors who are comfortable behind the mic, telling their own story, or want to hire a professional narrator
- Authors who want to stay on the cutting edge of technology and accessibility
WHO SHOULD NOT
- If your book is largely image and graphics-based (like a cookbook)
- If you are only looking for an audiobook marketing service
- Truthfully, we recommend that all non-fiction or fiction authors publish an audiobook along with their physical and eBook versions of their books. After all, why would you choose not to reach the 45%+ of your readers who prefer audiobooks over physical?
Frequently Asked Questions
Dividing the word count by 9,000 will give you an estimate on the final running time of the book. For example, a typical 50,000 word manuscript (200 book pages) will be roughly 5.5 hours of finished audio.
Media Writing Services can deliver a retail-ready audiobook within 2-3 months from signing your agreement.
A professional narrator will record close to a 2:1 ratio. This means that for every 2 hours they spend recording, 1 hour of audio will be used. Authors or newer narrators typically record at a 3:1 ratio which extends the recording time.
Long-form narration can be a strenuous task. To prepare, spend as much time as possible reading your manuscript out loud, restarting sentences when you make a mistake.
You can also use annotation software to give yourself subtle reminders to breathe and highlight words you’re having trouble with.
While many Authors love the idea of using their own voice to record their book, in most cases, we highly recommend working with one of our professional narrators to ensure your audiobook meets all the required audio standards and is just as enjoyable to listen to as it is to read.
The perfect Audiobook starts with the perfect narrator.
You tell us exactly what that voice sounds like. Whether it’s a deep Scottish accent or a high-energy falsetto, we’ll find the narrator who matches that voice. We’ll record, produce, and distribute the book for you, all in-house. All one team. We take the hassle out of recording your audiobook and provide you with a professionally produced audiobook ready for the world.
We help you take your success to the next level.
Get a free copy of our book,
The Media Writing Services Method.
We've worked with over 2,000 authors in 8 years.