The five trades inside a production

Casting: matching a voice to the book rather than to a rate card. A wrong voice cannot be edited right, and it is the single most common regret an independent author reports.

Direction: someone in the room whose only job is the performance — pacing, character separation, and the emotional shape of a chapter. On a marketplace this is usually nobody's job.

Editing and mastering: breath and noise removal, chapter assembly, loudness to the storefront's stated range, and files named in playing order. This is where a filing is accepted or returned.

What an independent author should insist on

Masters delivered to you, in full, at retail specification. Whoever holds the files holds the book, in every future storefront and every future format.

No exclusivity. An exclusive term raises one royalty rate and closes every other door for the length of it.

A price you can check before the conversation. A per-finished-hour quote cannot be verified until someone else has estimated your runtime; a percentage of word count can be worked out in your own kitchen.

What it costs, worked out

Base production is 7.000000000000001% of the word count. 50,000 words is $3,500. 90,000 words is $6,300. 150,000 words is $10,500.

Add-ons are drawn off the same count, never off the base price: 1% for every 2 voices, 1% for every 5 sound effects, blocks rounding up, and a flat $1,500 for a chosen, cut and mixed score.

A 50% deposit begins the build and the balance falls due on delivery. There is no retainer and no subscription.

How long the whole thing takes

Reckon in weeks, not days: casting and approval, then recording, then edit and master, then the storefront's own review queue, which no producer controls.

Finished runtime is close to one minute per thousand words, so a 90,000-word novel lands near ninety minutes of finished audio.

Asked and answered

Is professional audiobook production worth it for a self-published author?

It is worth it when the book has a series, a cast or a backlist behind it, because production quality compounds across every future title. For a single standalone with no list, a royalty-share marketplace is a defensible start.

Do I keep the rights to my audiobook?

You should, and here you do — commissioned production delivers the masters to you outright, with no royalty split and no exclusivity.

How much does audiobook production cost for indie authors?

7.000000000000001% of your manuscript's word count for base production — $6,300 for a 90,000-word novel — before voices, effects or score.