So you’ve written a book, and now you want an audiobook version.

Excellent!

However, you find yourself asking a question: how long is this going to take?

Well, there are a lot of factors that go into production timelines, from length of the book (obviously) to the practices and experience of the narrator.

So, let’s dive in:

Length of Book

The most obvious factor is the length of the book itself – the word count, more specifically.

Obviously a 50,000 word manuscript is going to take less time to read than one that’s 250,000.

But how do you estimate the actual length of the audiobook?

Math!!

Yay!!

Calm down, we have calculators. The simplest way is to take the word count and divide it by 9300. That will tell you the approximate number of hours is in your book, because the average narrator reads approximately 9300 words every hour.

Your mileage may vary (I, for example, read at a slightly faster pace and typically hit about 9700 WPH), but this is a good rule of thumb for how long your FINISHED book will be.

Now, on to the actual PRODUCTION schedule…

Production

So there’s a common misconception that narrators READ audiobooks – which, in the truest form of the word, we do. 

HOWEVER

We do so much more than that – it’s called audiobook PRODUCTION for a reason. While it’s not a full-on movie, there are certainly elements that overlap. Rehearsal and preparation being the biggest in my experience.

Sure, you can have someone just simply READ your book – but the end result may not be what you’re used to hearing from established narrators.

If you want the whole enchilada, though, your narrator is going to need some time.

Here’s my typical strategy:

1. Read the book. Out loud. All the way through. 
2. Mark up the book (this is read #2) – notate character dialogue, tricky passages, etc.
3. Record 15 min sample for author review

Bearing in mind, that before EVERY recording session, it’s suuuper important to warm-up first. Whether it’s a walk+vocal warmups+hot tea, or whatever combo you want, this will ensure your voice doesn’t get damaged AND a consistent performance!

The preparation portion typically takes about a week to get through both readings and the 15 minute sample. So we’re at week 1 of production.

All said and done, for the production part, you’ll be doing roughly 2 hours of work per hour of finished audio (or every 9300 words!).

Industry advice says don’t record more than 4 hour stretches to avoid damaging your vocal cords, so at a max 2(ish) finished hours of audio recorded in one day.

So, let’s say our audiobook is 93,000 words, or 10 hours – at 2 hours of audio in a day, it would take a MINIMUM of 5 days to read read IF:

1. You had nothing else to do, and could dedicate 4 hours to it,
2. You don’t get sick, because this STOPS production entirely,
3. You have no questions for the author, OR they reply immediately to queries (hahaha)
4. A plethora of other things that can go wrong.

All of the above things can add weeks to the production process. Now we’re at 2 weeks production time.

Whew, that’s a lot! And we’re not done yet. On to POST-production… or, editing!

Editing

Editing/Mastering/Post-production is not everyone’s bread and butter. I don’t mind it (mostly), but some people outsource this part. If you’re REALLY fast at it, you’ll do a 1 to 1.5 ratio of hour of editing per hour of audio.

I’m not that fast. My average is 2.5 hours to 1 hour of audio (2 hours if I’m on a roll).

There are a lot of things that go into editing, but I’ll hit the highlights without getting too technical

1. Mistakes – obviously, cut those.
2. Breaths/background noises – they gotta go, too.
3. Pacing – making sure there’s an even flow of the text (the better you are in the initial record sesh, the less time this will take)
4. Noise floor – ensuring the hum is an acceptable level
5. Peaks – the highest volume in your audio
6. Track type – either mono or stereo (not both)
7. Coding – see this post for more info

Some of these are preferences, others are technical requirements of the large publishing players (ACX, Findaway Voices, etc).

Speaking of large publishing players, they’ll add another 10 or so days to your production time in the quality assurance stage. Longer, if the files aren’t up to par (I’ve never had a production fail QA, but I’m not cocky enough to say it won’t ever happen!!)

So editing and mastering will add AT MINIMUM 4 days to your time, and another 10 for QA.

Now we’re at 4 weeks! And that’s if NOTHING goes wrong!

All that being said, it’s going to be a minimum of 2 months until your book is ready, whether you’re doing it yourself or hiring it out. Because let’s be real: when’s the last time you did a project where everything worked all the time every time?

Never? That’s what I thought.

So give yourself (or your narrator) some grace, and go have some hot tea.

You’re gonna need it.

– E