Step one: the text pass, not a rewrite

Read the manuscript aloud end to end and mark only what fails in the mouth: tongue-twisters, repeated attributions, ambiguous dialogue tags.

Do not rewrite the prose into a screenplay. A video book keeps your words; a screenplay replaces them.

Build a pronunciation roll for names, places and invented words before anyone steps to a microphone. Fixing pronunciation afterwards costs more than any other correction.

Step two: the cast

Decide whether the narrator carries all dialogue or characters get their own voices. Separate voices turn dialogue into scene; one voice keeps the book intimate.

Two to four voices covers most novels. Larger ensembles need a director and a consistency sheet, or characters drift between chapters.

Here voices are priced as arithmetic: 1% of the word count for every 2 voices, blocks rounded up.

Step three: narration, directed

Record in a treated or soft-furnished space, close to the microphone, at consistent distance and level, one chapter per session block.

Direct for meaning rather than beauty. A performance that understands the sentence beats one that merely sounds pleasant.

Keep a take log while recording. Editing is cheap when the log is honest and expensive when it is not.

Step four: score and sound

Choose the music before cutting picture, then cut to its movement. A chosen, cut and mixed score here is a flat $1,500 — selection, editing and mix, not original composition.

Sound effects are priced at 1% of the word count for every 5 effects. Use them where the world must be heard, not everywhere it could be.

Mix to a single loudness target across the whole edition so no chapter forces a viewer to the volume control.

Step five: the visual grammar

Choose one visual language and hold it for the whole book: palette, typography, camera behaviour, and how chapter breaks appear.

Cut picture to the narration, never the reverse. The sentence sets the rhythm; the image obeys it.

Deliver in chapters rather than one monolithic file, so a viewer can return to their place — and so you hold dozens of postable pieces.

Step six: runtime, cost and delivery

The house runtime law is 155 words to one finished minute: 50,000 words runs about 5h 23m, and 90,000 words about 9h 41m.

Base production is 12% of word count for a film book and 7.000000000000001% for an audio book — $10,800 for a 90,000-word film book, before voices, effects or score.

Deliver 1080p or higher, captioned, with a matching audio-only edition mastered from the same narration.

The order of the work

1. 01Pass the text aloudRead the whole manuscript aloud, mark only what fails in the mouth, and build a pronunciation roll.
2. 02Cast the voicesDecide narrator-only or an ensemble, and fix each character to one voice for the whole book.
3. 03Record directed narrationRecord chapter by chapter at consistent level and distance, keeping an honest take log.
4. 04Choose and cut the scorePick licensed music first, mark its movement, and place sound design only where the world must be heard.
5. 05Set the visual grammarLock palette, typography, camera behaviour and chapter breaks, then cut picture to the narration.
6. 06Master and deliverMix to one loudness target, export captioned chapters at 1080p or better, and master the matching audio edition.

Asked and answered

Can I make a video book myself?

The narration and a chapter or two are achievable alone. A full novel is many hours of finished picture, which is why most authors commission the build.

How long does a video book take to produce?

Weeks for a novel, driven by narration hours and the picture edit rather than by the length of the text alone.

Do I need to rewrite my book first?

No. A video book performs your prose as written; only lines that fail when spoken aloud are adjusted.

Does the audio edition come from the same recording?

Yes. The audio book is mastered from the same directed narration, so both editions stay in agreement.