How to Make an Audiobook for Audible: ACX Rules in Plain English

To make an audiobook for Audible, publish your book on Amazon first, record your narration as a clean, unprocessed track, master the files to ACX's audio specs, and upload them at acx.com. ACX is Audible's marketplace for audiobook creators, and its quality check comes before your book goes on sale.

Here's how to make an audiobook for Audible without the usual surprises. The tricky part isn't the upload. It's the audio itself, because ACX is strict about how it sounds and how it's saved. Here's the whole path in plain English.

Who should narrate my audiobook?

You have three options.

• You. For your own story or your business book, nobody sounds more believable than you. Listeners connect with the author's voice.
• A hired narrator. Through ACX, you can pay a narrator per finished hour or split royalties with them.
• Amazon's Virtual Voice. AI narration for eligible Kindle books. It's quick and free, but it isn't you, and listeners can tell.

We recommend your own voice if you're comfortable with it. It makes the book feel personal, and the recording sessions double as marketing material.

How to make an audiobook for Audible: what's the recording setup?

On video, so every session becomes content. If you're recording yourself, do it on camera in Let's Sit Down. Every session becomes clips, reels and launch content for your book, which means your audiobook work doubles as promotion. A good routine:

1. Work through your manuscript in sections of about 7 minutes per take.
2. Say the slate first ("Chapter One, take one"), pause a breath, then read.
3. If you mess up, pause and reread the whole sentence. Editing cuts the mistakes out later.
4. Keep the same room, mic and distance, about a fist away, every session.

Your room matters more than your mic. A closet full of clothes beats a fancy mic in a kitchen. Put your headphones on, silence your phone, and turn off the fridge and AC if you can.

Why does Audible need a clean, unprocessed track?

Because Audible rejects processed audio. Here's the catch. Video calls clean up your sound to save bandwidth, using noise suppression and echo cancellation. Audible rejects audio that has been processed that way. So the sound for Audible needs to be a clean track, recorded from your own microphone on your own device with no noise cleanup and no echo cancellation.

The video gives you content. The clean track gives you the Audible file. In practice, that means recording the video session and, at the same time, recording your mic locally with a USB microphone and a free recorder app. Don't rely on the video call's audio for Audible.

What are ACX's audio rules?

ACX wants consistent, quiet MP3 files. These are the specs ACX and Audible ask for. Check ACX's site for the current version before you submit, since requirements can change.

That list can look intimidating. The short version: quiet room, consistent recording, then mastering software or a service brings the levels into range. Build Until Publishing's Audio Booth is designed to do the mastering for you.

How do I upload my audiobook to ACX?

Your book must be live first, then follow these five steps.

1. Make sure your book is live on Amazon first. Our Amazon walkthrough covers that.
2. Sign in at ACX with the same Amazon account that holds your book's rights. Find your title and choose "I have this book in audio and want to sell it."
3. Choose your distribution. Exclusive to Audible pays a higher royalty than non-exclusive, which lets you sell elsewhere too. Check ACX's current rates on that screen.
4. Upload your mastered files, cover art and sample, then submit.
5. Wait for the quality check. It can take a few weeks.

Do I have to master the audio myself?

Not if you don't want to. Mastering means cleaning the files and bringing them to ACX's specs, and it's a separate job from recording. Build Until Publishing's Audio Booth is built to take it on, so you can focus on reading well. Whoever does it, run the finished files through ACX's checks before you submit, so a loudness or noise problem doesn't cost you weeks.

What should I do before I record?

Three things save the most rework.

• Finish and proof the book first. Changing a sentence after recording means re-recording it.
• Mark tricky names and terms so you pronounce them the same every time.
• Do a 5-minute test, run it through the specs and fix problems before you record all the chapters.

Audio is optional. Some authors skip it, and some add it months after launch. Picture books are too short for Audible, so read about children's picture books if that's your project.

Want to hear what your book sounds like in your own voice? Start free and you'll get your Voice profile and the Acquisitions Board's read on your idea. You can find our full audio guide at the audiobook page.