Producing Affordable Audiobooks with AI and Humans in Australia and Beyond

December 29, 2025

There are all sorts of ways to record an audiobook, and new software, companies, and approaches are being developed all the time.

I know many fiction and non-fiction authors who are also taking very different rights pathways when it comes to audio. For example:

Straight to Audible: An exclusive deal with Audible to produce an audiobook version that is available on Audible for a set period before you’re able to sell the paperback and ebook rights to another publisher (or self-publish in print and ebook).
Bundled print, ebook, and audiobook rights: A publisher buys all rights and manages production across all formats on your behalf.
Print-only deal: With the author retaining the right to produce the audiobook.
Rights buy-backs: When authors buy back the audio rights from their publisher to produce their own audiobook.
Translations: Authors producing audiobooks for different language markets.
Indie authors / self-publishing: Authors retaining full creative control and creating and distributing their audiobooks themselves.

So, if you’re thinking of retaining or buying back your audiobook rights—or producing a new audiobook—what are your options?

Ways to Produce an Audiobook

The most common approaches include:

Fully outsourcing production (using human narrators or AI) to a studio
Fully outsourcing production (human narrators or AI) via a platform
Recording the audiobook in a studio and hiring a producer to prepare technically compliant files for distribution
Recording at home (ideally in a well-cushioned wardrobe for sound quality) or in a library studio, then outsourcing or DIY-ing the production using affordable or free online tools
Doing everything yourself

Audiobooks are one of the fastest-growing parts of publishing, but for a long time the cost of producing them has been a major hurdle for many publishers and authors. That’s now changing—very fast.

A Podcast Conversation on What’s Now Possible with Audiobooks

For this Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast episode, I interviewed Phil Marshall, co-founder of Spoken, a platform that helps authors create audiobooks from their existing works.

It was a fascinating discussion. Phil explained how authors can now use AI versions of their own voice, licensed voice actors’ voices, as well as AI-generated voices—making it possible to create both single- and multi-voice audiobook productions with far greater affordability and flexibility.

Editing Tone: A Game-Changer for Authors

One of the technical aspects that truly blew me away was the ability to edit the tone of an audiobook after recording if a sentence isn’t delivered quite right.

For example:

Text on the page:

“Oh. You’re back,” she said.

Audiobook narrator (wildly enthusiastic, game-show energy):

“Oh! You’re back!! 🎉😁”

Versus:

Narrator (cool, flat, ominously calm):

“Oh. You’re back.”

When the tone isn’t right, the author can record their own voice demonstrating the desired tone—and the AI adjusts the delivery while keeping it in the original narrator’s voice. Same words, same voice, completely different emotional meaning.

Backlists, Accessibility, and New Opportunities

We also talk about very practical, real-world uses—especially for authors with backlists. Books that may never have made it into audio because traditional narration was simply too expensive can now be revisited, opening up new income opportunities and helping authors reach readers who prefer to listen rather than read.

Not all authors are able to narrate their own books, and not all can afford human narrators. These new options significantly expand what’s possible.

What About Human Narrators?

It’s also natural to have questions about what this shift means for human narrators. Concerns about people losing work are real and valid. Importantly, there’s nothing stopping authors from continuing to use human narrators—or from licensing human voices, as is possible on the Spoken platform.

Rather than replacing human creativity, these tools have the potential to expand the audiobook ecosystem by making audio viable for many more books than ever before.

Listen to the Episode

If you’ve been curious about AI narration but unsure how it fits into professional publishing—or whether it’s right for your books—this episode offers a clear, balanced overview of what’s now possible.

🎧 Listen to the episode here

It’s one thing to record an audiobook, but how do you get it into people’s earbuds?

How to Distribute and Sell Your Audiobook?

Here’s a podcast I did with one global distributor of audiobooks, Author’s Republic that has lots of great tips and information about how to distribute your audiobook to platforms around the world!

If you need personalised guidance, I’m also available for 1:1 consulting on your book or audiobook project.

Hope this has been helpful – and happy writing AND narrating!