Audiobooks
Record the audiobook in your own voice
Readers trust the author's voice more than anyone's. An acoustically treated studio near Chichester, an engineer to pace the sessions, and editing to audiobook platform spec, booked in author-friendly blocks.
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In short: Granary Digital records author-narrated audiobooks at an acoustically treated studio near Chichester, West Sussex. An engineer runs every session, whole books are quoted from the word count, and editing and mastering are delivered to audiobook platform spec. Sessions from £39/hour +VAT.
An author, a manuscript, a patient engineer.
Nobody reads your book like you do
Listeners forgive an author almost anything and a stranger almost nothing. If the book is yours, the audiobook probably should be too. What stops most authors is the practical bit: hours of clean, consistent audio to a retail platform's technical spec, without a professional's stamina behind the mic.
That is what the engineer is for. Sessions are paced in honest stretches, retakes happen the moment a line stumbles rather than in a panic at the end, and the edit removes what the room caught: breaths, clicks, chair creaks, the lorry that chose your best paragraph. You read; the spec is our problem.
The studio is a 16th-century barn near Chichester, which turns out to matter. Authors settle faster in a room with some character than in a padded box, and a three-day recording block should not feel like a stay in one.
What gets recorded here
Author-narrated audiobooks
Fiction and non-fiction, quoted per manuscript, recorded in day blocks and delivered to your platform's spec, chapter by chapter.
Business & expert books
The audiobook is the version your clients actually finish. Authors in our business verticals often record theirs alongside a content day.
Memoirs & oral history
Guided life-story recordings and family histories, with an interviewer if it helps, edited into an heirloom rather than a file.
Poetry & spoken word
Collections and performances recorded with as much care for rhythm and silence as for levels.
Podcast-to-book projects
Series that became books, and books becoming series. The same room does both, which keeps a project's voice consistent.
Charity & community projects
Oral history and story archives, priced to third-sector budgets the same way as our charity film work.
How a book gets made
1. Word count call
Manuscript length becomes a schedule and one quoted price: sessions, edit and mastering together.
2. Voice hour
The first hour finds your reading voice and pace before anything is kept. It survives the whole book.
3. Day blocks
Comfortable recording stretches with an engineer catching errors live, so nothing is discovered in the edit.
4. Edit & master
Cleaned, levelled, mastered and split per chapter to platform spec, ready to upload.
Sessions from £39/hour +VAT; whole books quoted from the word count before you commit. Send the word count and we will send the plan.
Ready when you are
Availability and a firm quote, usually same day. No pressure, no hard sell.
Audiobook sessions · from £39/hour +VAT
Questions we get asked
How long does it take to record an audiobook?
A useful rule: finished audio runs at roughly 9,000 words per hour, and recording takes about twice the finished length once retakes and breaks are counted. A 60,000-word book is around 6.5 finished hours, so plan for three to four studio days. We map this out from your word count before you book.
What does it cost?
Studio sessions with an engineer are from £39/hour +VAT, and whole-book projects are quoted as a block from the manuscript's word count, with editing and mastering included in the quote. You will know the full number before you start.
Will the files meet Audible/ACX requirements?
The edit and master are delivered to the retail platform specifications you are publishing through, including the usual loudness, noise floor and per-chapter file requirements. Tell us the platform and we deliver to its spec.
I have never narrated before. Will I be any good?
With an engineer pacing you, most authors are better than they fear. Sessions run in comfortable stretches with water, playback and retakes on the spot, and the first hour includes finding your reading voice before anything is kept.
Can you record family memoirs or oral history?
Yes, and it is some of the best work the room does. Life-story interviews, guided memoirs and oral history projects are recorded the same way, with an interviewer if you want one, and edited into something a family keeps.