An audiobook is a separate production rather than a version of the ebook. It has its own cost, its own equipment or studio, its own narrator decision, and its own distribution, and none of it reuses the files that made the print book or the ebook. It is also the edition most likely to reach a reader through a library app rather than a purchase.
This guide gathers our posts on audiobooks in one place: what the format involves, what a production service does, what recording at home requires, and how audiobooks reach libraries. Each post answers a single question and stands on its own, so start wherever your question sits rather than at the top. We add to the guide as we cover more ground, so it is worth bookmarking.
One caveat: audiobook distribution and lending payments differ sharply by country, and a rule that holds in the US may not hold in the UK, Canada or Australia. Where a post names a scheme, check it covers the country you publish from.
Making one
- What the format involves: what producing an audiobook actually requires of you.
- What a production service does: the work it takes on, and what it leaves with you.
- Recording at home: the software and equipment, and what each one is for.
Where it goes afterwards
- Into library apps: how self-published audiobooks reach Libby, hoopla and the rest.
- Lending payments: whether audiobook borrowing earns anything, country by country.