Audiobook sales revenue reached $2.43 billion in 2025. 58% of Americans have listened to an audiobook, an estimated 157 million people.

We’ve recorded and directed audiobooks for many publishing houses, including Penguin Random House, Hachette, MacMillan, Simon and Schuster, Blackstone, Scholastic, as well as independent self-publishing authors.

How Long Does it Take to Record an Audiobook
and How Much Does it Cost?

That is one of the most common questions authors ask us, and the honest answer is: it depends. Every audiobook production process is different, and authors frequently underestimate how long the process will take. Many online articles try to provide a simple formula for audiobook production. While those estimates can be helpful, they often fail to account for the biggest variable in the process: the author.

Some authors have public speaking or voiceover experience and can read confidently for long stretches with very few mistakes. Others may be reading professionally in front of a microphone for the first time, which can lead to more pauses, corrections, and retakes. Rewrites and revisions add time as well. We’ve also worked with authors for whom English is a second language. These projects often require additional recording time as the narrator works through pronunciation challenges and multiple takes. The result is that two books with the same word count can require dramatically different amounts of studio time.

A Real-World Example

Recently, we worked with an author who recorded an audiobook based on an 80,000-word manuscript. The project required approximately 27 hours of studio recording time and cost about $4,700 to complete. Would every 80,000-word book take 27 hours? Probably not. That’s why we hesitate to give authors a one-size-fits-all estimate.

How to Estimate

When authors ask how long their audiobook will take, we suggest a simple exercise:

• Select 10 pages from your manuscript.

• Read them aloud at a natural pace.

• Time yourself.

• Calculate the average time per page.

• Multiply by the total number of pages.

This won’t give you a perfect estimate, but it will provide a much more realistic starting point than relying on generic industry averages.

Should Authors Narrate Their Own Audiobooks?

Our answer is usually yes.

While professional narrators can certainly do a good job, they can be expensive. We have found that authors bring a level of authenticity that is difficult to replicate. They understand the intent behind every sentence, every story, and every emotional moment. Listeners often feel a stronger connection to the narrative when they hear the author’s own voice delivering the message. This is especially true for nonfiction books, where readers often want to hear directly from the expert, entrepreneur, or thought leader who wrote the book in the first place.

Audiobook Post-Production

Once the initial recording sessions are complete, the audio files and a PDF annotated by the engineer are submitted to the publisher for editing. Usually in a couple weeks, the publisher will send back a “pick-up pack”. This details mispronunciations, misreads, omissions, etc.
The author returns to the studio for a short pick-up session to record fixes. These fixes are incorporated into the original audio, and are resubmitted to the publisher for final mastering (noise-reduction and dynamic adjustments) in accordance with ACX specifications.
Frequently, when working with independent self-publishers, our studio handles the editing, mastering, and upload process in-house. As with the recording process, the amount of time it takes to edit and master an audiobook largely depends on the length of the book and the number or retakes.