Settle the text before recording
Audiobook production creates a narrated edition from an approved text. Begin with the manuscript version, chapter order and intended listeners. Recording a changing draft creates avoidable correction work and can leave the audio inconsistent with the print or ebook edition.
Prepare pronunciation notes for names and specialist terms. Identify tables, illustrations, footnotes and references such as “see below” that need an agreed approach for listeners. An audio script may need adaptation; record those decisions rather than leaving the narrator to guess.
Choose a voice through a representative sample
Decide whether the author or another narrator suits the material and the desired listening experience. Review a sample that includes the book's real challenges: dialogue, an explanation, a reflective passage or unfamiliar names.
Listen for clarity, pacing, pronunciation and a consistent point of view. Agree how feedback is approved and how narration decisions apply to later chapters. The production proposal should identify narrator selection or coordination, recording arrangements and any responsibilities held by a separate narrator or studio.
Name the production and correction stages
A useful scope separates recording, editing, corrections and mastering. Editing removes or repairs agreed recording issues. Corrections, sometimes called pickups, replace passages that need to be recorded again. Mastering prepares the audio for the destination's technical requirements.
Keep a correction log with chapter, location and the required change. Distinguish a recording error from a new author rewrite. Confirm who checks the corrected passage in context, rather than approving a replacement file without hearing the chapter around it.
Confirm rights, files and distribution separately
Discuss audio rights, narrator permissions, music or other assets and final delivery in the agreement. Identify the destination channels, account operator and permitted distribution arrangements before selecting a production path. Synthetic narration needs a separate decision about permissions and destination eligibility.
Check the selected destination's current instructions, including ACX's submission requirements where applicable. Platform acceptance is a separate step from producing the files. No narration style or production process guarantees listener numbers.
Request a scope for the actual book
Share the approved word count, genre, narration preference, technical or foreign-language terms, visual material and planned channels. Manuscript length, narration arrangements, recording corrections, mastering and distribution responsibilities shape the proposal.
Ask which chapter files, samples, quality checks and final exports are included, and which narrator or studio services are separate. Contact for pricing. Audiobook production should be explicitly scoped rather than assumed to be part of a print publishing package.