What should an audiobook retail sample be?
A retail sample is one to five minutes of finished audio cut from the book itself — not a trailer, not a summary, not the copyright page. Cut it from a passage with a voice and a hook inside the first thirty seconds, master it to the same loudness as the book, and lead with story rather than credits.
Work it out yourself, free
The Reading Room →Hear the house's voice registers on fixed lines, then pick the cast your own sample would be read in.
Where to cut it from
The best sample is usually not chapter one, sentence one. It is the first place in your book where a person wants something and something stands in the way — often a page or two in. Start there, and the listener meets the story rather than the scenery.
Cut on a natural breath and end on a small unresolved beat. A sample that ends mid-sentence sounds broken; a sample that ends after everything is settled gives no reason to buy.
If the book has more than one voice, choose a passage where at least two of them speak. A sample of narration alone hides the thing a multi-voice production is being bought for.
What to leave out
No front matter. Not the title page read aloud, not the copyright notice, not the dedication. Storefronts show the title already; the sample's only job is to prove the reading.
No music bed under dialogue unless the finished book has one — a sample that promises a score the book does not deliver is a complaint waiting to be written.
No production credits at the head. If credits belong anywhere, they belong at the tail, and only if the storefront allows them.
The specs
Cut the sample from the finished master, not from a rough. Same loudness target, same processing chain, same room. A sample mastered differently from the book is a small lie the listener discovers on chapter one.
One to five minutes is the common window; two to three minutes reads best. Deliver in the same format as the edition it advertises, and keep the WAV so a new sample can be cut later without re-recording anything.
Asked and answered
- Should the sample be the same as my book trailer audio?
- No. A trailer is built to be watched and cut for pace; a retail sample is unedited finished narration. They do different work and should be made separately.
- How many samples should I have?
- One for the storefront, and often a second, shorter one for social. The short one can be cut from the same passage.
- Does a film book come with a sample?
- The matching audio edition rides with every film book, and a retail sample is cut from its master as part of finishing.
Also asked
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