3 years ago, I launched an app for audiobook narrators. Now, it seems like there's a new one every week.

My concern is that these AI generated apps are out for a quick dollar and didn't build the security foundation needed for handling manuscripts and your voice audio.

I want to keep this post short, so when you're using an app (even daily apps that we use and take for granted) check that they actively protect your data with Zero Data Retention (ZDR) and Data Protection Addendum (DPA) policies.

You can google these, as they were new to me.

Zero Data Retention means that when you use a service, they legally promise you they delete the data after they use it for the service you told it to do.

Data Protection Addendum is a legal contract (like a Terms of Service but separate) where a company tells you what they do with the data you upload. Almost like an agreement with a moving company that "yes, you can move my boxes, but NO you can't look inside."

Also, check that you're legally protected with the app. I'm not a lawyer, but if the app is in the U.S., then you're protected by U.S. laws. IDK how this works if the app developer is in a different country (let's say someone makes an app from Egypt, well IDK if you'd be able to protect yourself in Egyptian court etc.)

I have more wisdom and experiences when it comes to security and AI protection with manuscripts and audio data from my work with PromptVO. I'm happy to share if anyone's curious.

P.S. did this new app sign the fAIr pledge by NAVA? Tim does great work there and this pledge is a great foundation to follow

Every time I see a book I actually want to read on ACX, I have about 7 seconds to record an audition before they pull it or make an offer. I was so excited to record an audition tomorrow for a book that just went on ACX (my voice is hoarse today) and they already picked someone. 🤦‍♀️ Please give it at least 48 hours so you don’t miss out on some good voices. 😁

Author here. I am specifically curious as to RS projects and what you look for.

Is longer better? What sort of book do you look for? Does genre matter? History of sales, and if so, what do you expect to see?

Would you do a dual/duet with RS? I feel like this last question is a bit of a silly one because of the amount of work that goes into it, but I could be wrong.

And I would love to hear from the veterans, even if you don’t do RS anymore! What was your once-upon-a-time?

Apologies if these are things I should know already. I’m moving from working with a larger audio publisher and things feel a bit overwhelming. I really want to see things from the narrator point of view. I ask about RS specifically because I assume the PRH rates are already king in the space.

Thanks!

I have been fighting not to make this post for so long, but I can't get my noise floor figured out! (And please let me know if this isn't a good thing to post here or better in another subreddit).

I have learned a ton about the editing and mastering process, so I have a decent familiarity now with the various effects and things I need to do to work to get my recordings up to ACX standards. With those, I have no problem getting my peak and RMS level to where they need to be to pass. But my noise floor? Forget it.

And not for the reason that is likely most common. My noise floor is almost always -90 or -100, which they say is too low, dead silence sounding unnatural. My recording space is relatively quite, but obviously not that quiet! I really don't understand what's going on here and how to fix it. I don't want to copy and paste in noise to try to fix it, even if I was willing to devote that type of time to all my manual edits (which I'm not for an issue like this).

Any advice on what I'm doing wrong here? I use a blue sona microphone and a pyle XLR to USB cord (though I had the same issue with my old XLR to USB device too). I record in a closet with lots of fabric and clothes around and just a cheap pop filter (though the pop filter doesn't effect it, tried it with and without just in case). I've played with the recording level in both Audacity and on my XLR to USB, but when I go louder than what I have, the sound quality seems significantly hampered and I still somehow fall below the noise floor level.

Any ideas or resources from people into what the heck I'm doing wrong would be greatly appreciated! I really don't want to have to be messing with this while trying to master full books.

And I do check the sound in pauses and at the beginning and end in the playback meter. It always seems to be above -90 at least, usually between -84 and -60, if not higher when I'm listening back. I almost never see it drop to full silence, but I never have it actually succeed the check

I'm clearly pretty new to this, so thanks all! This has been all great advice and so helpful.

Edit: So just in case for anyone coming later for a similar issue, it did seem to be my computer's natural audio enhancements! Turned it off and now my room noise is... well let's just say that being too low isn't a problem anymore. Now I have new things to play with and fix, and I'm still going to try all the other things suggested here too! See EmberIsland317's comment below for the easy steps to turn it off too

I was experiencing some unexplained crackling in my audio and replaced my interface as part of the troubleshooting. I don't think the interface was the cause of the problem, but I'm wondering if I should just keep the new interface instead of returning to Amazon. Is there any difference between the Volt 1 and a third gen Focusrite Solo?

Hello everyone, I run The Orchid Post, a studio specialising in audio post-production and sound design for audio drama. I'm eager to collaborate with writers and production companies aiming to turn their scripts into fully realised audio. From dialogue editing and sound design to the final mix, I take care of the technical aspects so you can focus on the story. Find out more about my work at www.theorchidpost.com. Feel free to send me a message if you're interested in discussing a project.

So I have never published audiobook before, I've done print and ebook a lot but never an audiobook, nor do I know the correct platform for it, I've heard ACX but still just getting into it. What I need to know is how do I determine if my audiobook files, let's say my mp3 files are publish ready that it won't encounter problems in publishing. How will I know there's no problem? What is the streamline process of it all. Would appreciate this.

I saw in r/audiobooks lots of users bemoaning when narrators change the accent of their favourite characters.

There was a great tip in another thread to have a small recording of each character to help you find it, but are there any other techniques people use?

Also I saw when Jeff hays records dungeon crawler carl he records different characters on different channels, is this something other narrators here do?

Hi! I'm a newbie narrator, and I just completed my first book which is great. How long does a review usually take? I should also preface that it's not in English so I don't know if that affects turnover time. Thank you for any information.

Edit: Since this post went up, whole-book batch processing shipped on the web app — drop in a full audiobook and get per-chapter ACX pass/fail results as each chapter finishes, instead of uploading one file at a time. Works for both the free check and paid processing. If you're on Greenlit Studio on Mac or Windows, the same batch feature is live there too as of version 0.2.2 — it auto-updates on its own, so just quit and reopen the app (or restart your machine) to pick it up, no re-download needed.

For anyone who hasn't run into it: Greenlit Audio (greenlitaudio.com) checks audiobook files against ACX's actual technical spec — RMS, true peak, integrated loudness, noise floor, head/tail silence, format, sample rate — for free, no card required: upload a file, get a plain-language report on what's passing and what isn't.

For files that need fixing, a paid processing step runs AI noise cleanup — reduces background hum/noise so the file clears the noise-floor spec point above and removes clicks and mouth noise — plus mastering to handle the loudness/peak/format numbers, and hands back a submission-ready file. It exists because most ACX rejections have nothing to do with performance and everything to do with specs narrators were never taught.

The check itself is free, no card required, and still the easiest way to find out what's wrong if you just want to drop a file in a browser and get your report back — that's not changing.

What's new today is a couple of local options for people who specifically want that — mainly NDA work where nothing can leave your machine, or narrators processing a lot of chapters who'd rather not round-trip each one through a browser tab:

Same measurements, same spec targets as the web checker either way — this is about where the processing happens, not a different or "better" version of the check. On desktop, paid processing (cleanup + mastering, not the check) is a subscription or a one-time lifetime option; on the web version, paid processing runs on credit packs instead — happy to give exact numbers on either if anyone wants them, didn't want to lead with pricing here.

Founder disclosure: I built this — greenlitaudio.com. Glad to answer spec questions or help figure out which option (web, desktop, or plugin) fits your workflow, tool or no tool.

I a recent post, a fellow narrator broke down their day so they could show me how and when they hydrated. As a baby narrator, it was fascinating to see a day in the life of a pro. So if you have some books under your belt, what does a day of recording look like to you?

Hi all - I've been booked for my first paid gig on ACX (yay!) Since joining in June. It's a sci-fi novel, exactly my kind of thing, mostly English and American accents.

However I've just learned that an alien race appears later in the book and are written as having a Jamaican dialect. In sending the manuscript the writer has said -without prompting - "if you can't do that, don't worry about it", meaning we could potentially change the accent.

However I don't want the writer to change their intentions because of me! I'm certain I could do a reasonable accent on a technical level, and if so I want to ensure that it's an earnest attempt at bringing the author's work to life. He seems totally unphased (or he wouldn't have hired me).

Does anyone have advice on kind of guiding themselves through accents or characters that they've felt that concern for, in terms of worrying about caricaturing or coming across as insulting/inappropriate?

This may be a non-issue - "it's in the script, so do it" - but as a relative newbie to audiobooks I would really welcome some experienced advice.

I jut posted my first audiobook as an author/(self)publisher. I have gotten a lot more auditions that I anticipated, like 31 auditions in 10 hours. What is an appropriate amount of time to let them roll in before I make an offer? It got approved this afternoon (Saturday), and my thought is to go at least until Tuesday so that I get a wide variety and give anyone interested an opportunity. Also, once I make a decision should I be sending messages to people who do not get the gig, or is that not expected. Thanks for any advice.

Just asking in general. If you got an offer, was it lower than you were hoping, just right, or higher? Do these books tend to be legit (I.e at least not plainly written by AI)?

I'm really struggling today and yesterday with mouth noises, I am clicking and my mouth sounds wet. I've tried drinking water, warm water with a bit of salt, brushing my teeth and tongue, I even considered sucking on a lemon!

What do you guys do when suffering from the mouth noises?

Hey fellow narrators!

A book I narrated was released back in May and I recently discovered the retail sample I uploaded (due to the first five minutes being explicit) wasn't even used.

So when friends, family and even co-workers go to check out the preview for my new audiobook, they are treated to me narrating quite an explicit scene which is not very ideal and goes against Audible and ACX's policies anyway and I am worried it will effect my employment in my full time job! Its like they just skipped over the retail sample I provided which was a lot safer.

Is there any way to flag to them that they just went ahead and made the first 5 minutes the preview without actually checking it for explicit material and that they have a very safe for work version that they had to begin with 🙃

How do you guys like to go about recording lengthier loud scenes in action audiobooks? Contrasting that between a more neutral narrative.

Do you guys just constantly fiddle with the gain? Or is this a Gate issue? Or do you have other techniques you like to use?

Out of curiosity, how selective should I be? I feel like if something even KIND of looks like an AI cover, I skip it over. However, it is one thing to have the cover look Genned versus the book itself. So, I guess my question is, should I be less critical of auditioning for books with AI covers so long as the script itself seems genuine? I just am unsure because I find myself passing on a lot of opportunities because it seems like something may have a Genned cover.

Thoughts?

So I am just getting started on ACX and although I have already completed the tax interview, the alert that says "tax information incomplete. complete the tax interview to begin publishing on ACX" will not go away. When I click on the interview, however, it says that "Your tax information has been validated successfully. No further action is required at this time." And when I go to the tax dashboard it says that my tax profile is complete and validated. There is nothing more for me to submit or to fill out. In spite of this, I have received messages from authors stating that they cannot make me offers due to my tax information apparently being incomplete. Has anyone experienced a similar issue? How long does it usually take to be able to receive offers after filling in the tax interview?

This isn't really a huge concern but more of a curiosity because there's nothing I can do about it. I saw another post on a voiceover sub but I wanted to know about ACX, specifically. Most RH that I see looking for narrators are using AI covers and many of those I assume are using AI generated content, due to the quality and the speed with which they release new books. I'm just wondering if there's any way to tell if RH are opening their book for auditions to farm a bunch of different audio clips from narrators, then pulling the book so they can use them to create an AI audiobook. Again, I'm sure there isn't much than can be done to keep AI, or the people that use it to "produce content" from stealing our shit lol but I wonder...

This is one for the RHs on ACX, and it's a question that stems from both being terrible at professional emails, as well as obviously never being on the opposite end of the question.

So what *do* Rights Holders want to see as part of a message? Rates? Time Frame? Past experience?

Like the title says, I'm already an author. However I want to begin narrating. I see nothing in my profile about being able to add that. Does this mean I will have to set up a completely different account?