One of the biggest differences between amateur and professional audiobook production is the recording workflow itself. Many first-time audiobook narrators use what’s called “roll recording.” They record continuously, make mistakes, stop, back up, re-record lines, leave long pauses, clap their hands, or create verbal markers to help identify errors later during editing. While this approach works, it usually creates far more editing work than necessary. Professional audiobook p

Artificial intelligence is everywhere right now — including in audiobooks. AI narration platforms promise fast turnaround, low cost, and instant audiobook production. For authors trying to reach the growing audiobook market, it can sound tempting. But many authors are starting to ask an important question: Is AI narration actually hurting audiobook sales and listener retention? The short answer is: sometimes, yes. And the reason has less to do with technology and more to do w

You finish recording your audiobook. Everything sounds fine. Then you listen back—or worse, upload to ACX—and suddenly: There are clicks you never noticed Strange pops appear between words Random glitches show up in the audio What happened? These Problems Often Don’t Happen During Recording Most people assume clicks and pops come from: Mouth noise Bad mic technique Background noise Sometimes they do. But just as often, these issues are introduced after the recording is done.

If you’ve started recording your own audiobook, you may have noticed something frustrating: One day your voice sounds warm and full.The next day it sounds thin. In one chapter you sound close and intimate. In another, distant or hollow. And when you listen back to the whole book, it doesn’t sound like one continuous performance—it sounds like it was recorded in pieces. You’re not imagining it. This is one of the most common problems I see when working with author-narrated aud

If your audiobook sounds thin, boxy, or like it was recorded inside a tin can, you’re not imagining it—and you’re definitely not the only one. I hear this a lot from authors who’ve done everything “right.” They’ve bought a good microphone, found a quiet space, and spent time editing, but the final result still doesn’t sound the way they expected. What’s happening here usually has more to do with the recording environment than the microphone itself. When you record in a room w

If ACX keeps rejecting your audiobook files, it’s usually not because your narration is bad—it’s because of very specific technical issues like noise floor, peak levels, or inconsistent audio. The frustrating part is that these problems are not always obvious, even after hours of editing. Many authors come to me after spending days trying to fix one chapter, only to have their files rejected again. Why this happens ACX has strict technical requirements and it can be hard to k