Frequently Asked Questions

Unless you’re an audio producer, an expert in digital publishing and promotion, it’s not really a great idea. It’s the same reason you go to see an auto mechanic instead of working on your car’s engine. While it’s possible, that journey is fraught with challenges and potential major mishaps. For production, each platform has specific audio requirements—everything from file size, encoding, and bit rates to maintaining consistent ambiance levels during separate reads. And proofing your own work is difficult to do. Plus, you’ll need to upload your audiobook with previously published eBook or print editions, which can be cumbersome, with limited avenues for quick resolution at these large corporations. Go ahead and try calling someone at Apple or Amazon! Just know that if issues arise with royalty payments, our Cloverly Audio team provides a dedicated point of contact to assist you promptly.

So, if you are truly a multi-talented producer, editor, and marketing renaissance person, you can produce an audiobook on your own..

To convert your print or eBook into an audiobook, simply provide us with a PDF or Microsoft Word document of the final published version. We’ll match the narration with your chosen voice talent to ensure your audiobook cover aligns with the existing print or eBook edition. We make it simple!

 Audiobooks typically cost two to three times more than their eBook counterparts and are priced based on their total length:

• Less than 1 hour: under $7.
• 1 to 3 hours: $7 to $10.
• 3 to 5 hours: $10 to $20.
• 5 to 10 hours: $15 to $25.
• 10 to 20 hours: $20 to $30.
• Over 20 hours: $25 to $35.

While we use these general pricing guidelines for your audiobook, please note that retailers such as Amazon, Apple, and Audible reserve the right to adjust our suggested retail prices as they see fit. The best thing about audiobook premium pricing is that you, the author, get a bigger chunk of money per book sold compared to print or eBook.

Cloverly Audio has a huge stable of talented voice actors (narrators). We include a narrator in every audiobook we produce for authors. That means we have talent who can voice almost any book, regardless of your story’s setting, character dialects, or accents. Once you complete our Voice Survey, we’ll send you three narrator samples that should dovetail nicely with your book’s overall “voice.”

Cloverly Audio takes great pride in producing quality audiobooks. That includes using the best voice-over talent available. We know some authors feel very close to their story and want to do their own narration. But Cloverly Audio offers one professional package with voice talent included. Ninety-nine percent of the time, an author doesn’t have the ability, stamina, know-how, or equipment to voice a book as well as our professionals. So the short answer is, if you want to work with the best in the business, please talk to us. But if you want to narrate your own story, we wish you much success.

We offer an “all-in” audiobook service. Our in-house team works with authors through the entire audiobook creation process: pre-production, voice-acting/narration, post-production, distribution, and marketing.

That said, the answer is primarily rooted in the number of words your book contains. While there is always a base price for the full-service production, the larger costs include studio, voice actor, and editor time. Obviously, the more time spent narrating your book, the more the audiobook should cost. However, we understand cost is a consideration and thus have created word count packages that flatten the pricing structure that other audiobook production companies charge.

If your book is written and published in another language, we may be able to help. We do have Spanish-speaking narrators. Other foreign languages may be accessible based on the scope of your book and the availability of our narrators.

The vocal prowess to render each character in an audiobook uniquely and convincingly is challenging, if not impossible, even for the most seasoned Hollywood actor. Cloverly Audio provides one talented voice actor who will provide distinct character development for up to three principals within your story. Your book must lay out distinguishing features of each of these three characters for your voice actor to develop. Too many voices and strange dialects can overwhelm a listener. Our actors can breathe life into your book with just simple inflections and nuance. Oftentimes, it’s best to play the characters straight with a unifying voice.

For best results, authors should provide a detailed summary of the main character(s) in the book (up to three), including their personality traits, preferred pitch, whether they prefer a high or low voice, and the speed and cadence of their speech patterns. The voice actor will create additional characterizations for all other characters in the book based on their own interpretation, skills, and judgment, and these portrayals will be final and not subject to change.

Single-narrator audiobooks are overwhelmingly the most common format, and for projects requiring both male and female dialogue, we select narrators who excel at portraying up to three distinct character voices effectively. It’s generally not advisable, nor conducive to a pleasant listening experience, to switch between male and female narrators unless the manuscript is structured like a script, which is uncommon for most books. Cloverly Audio provides affordable, efficient, and polished audiobooks with a single voice actor cast.

To convert your print or eBook into an audiobook, simply provide us with a PDF or Microsoft Word document of the final published version of your book. We’ll match the narration with your chosen voice talent, ensuring your audiobook cover aligns with the existing print or eBook edition. We then work with Apple and Amazon to tie all your published properties together in one listing.

Yes! Assuming you already have your published book rights, it passes to the audiobook. Your original work remains with you, the author, in perpetuity.

We understand that writing and publishing a book is an investment in time, labor, and money. To help authors bring their life’s dream to reality, we accommodate various payment options, including major credit cards and installment plans, with an initial deposit required.

Typically, narration is performed at the rate of about 6,500–8,000 words per hour. Accordingly, if you have a 60,000-word book, your finished audiobook will likely have a run-time length between 7 and 8 hours. This can vary depending on the storyline, characters, genre, and the written word itself. Note that while this may be how long the end product is, the process of narrating and producing this can be 5 to 10 times as long.

There are so many variables involved in producing a finished audiobook, and not the least of it is your responsiveness and timeliness with approvals throughout the process. Beyond that, the length of your book can dramatically affect the timeline, because it’s not just about the time the voice actor spends in the studio with multiple takes, but the time he or she uses to become familiar with the work, the producer’s time in the studio, as well as the editor who must ensure quality throughout the entire audiobook. In short, this isn’t a 2-month process, and there are a lot of external factors along with our own that can affect completion (even narrators get sick!). Typically, we say 6–8 months is reasonable for most audiobooks. Your mileage may vary!