All You Ever Wanted To Know About Audiobook Production in Santa Fe, But Were Afraid To Ask!
Producing Your Audiobook in Santa Fe – How’s that work?

In a comfy corner of our Santa Fe recording studio, you’ll sit behind a fancy professional microphone with your manuscript. For seamless audiobook production you can read from a printed version of your book, or better yet, a tablet or laptop. You can even use one of ours if you like. You’ll be wearing headphones, to hear our friendly engineer, who’ll be across the glass, recording your voice.
You’ll narrate your book, chapter by chapter. When you make a mistake (everybody makes mistakes — no worries!) you’ll simply start over from the previous phrase or sentence. That way, you can keep your momentum going. We’ll stitch the breaks together for you afterward.
You’ll pause for a moment between chapters while we set new files. And you’ll probably want to take a short “voice break” every hour or so.
Most audiobook production narrators like to schedule a series of sessions over three to five days, depending on the length of their manuscript. Reading aloud can be tiring for the voice and the mind; shorter sessions and frequent breaks help keep you rolling. Two-hour, three-hour, or four-hour recording sessions are ideal.
As you read, your recording engineer will follow your manuscript along with you. If you like, they’ll let you know when you miss a word. An especially talented engineer–like the one in our Santa Fe recording studio–can also suggest when there might be a better way to read a particular line. How much or how little direction you’d like to receive is entirely up to you.

Your Narration Style
Everyone reads aloud differently. Professional narrators have lots of range, and can deliver compelling recordings. Authors who self-narrate vary from those who read with plenty of expression, to others who sound rather flat.
There’s a definite plus to having an author narrate their own book, but it’s always an advantage to having an engaging speaking style. If you want to make an audiobook, but don’t feel you’re the best person to narrate, we can offer a variety of professional narrators to do the job for you. If you’d prefer to do the audiobook production yourself, we’ll help you to be your best.
I recorded my audiobook. Now what happens? (Editing)

Once you’re finished recording, we do a careful job of editing your audio. We piece together your re-takes. We adjust for pauses that might have been too long or too short. We even out the volume of your delivery. And we’ll clean up all the various mouth sounds and breath noises that become noticeable in the recording process.
About Those Breaths
When people listen to audiobooks, they don’t want to hear a lot of breathing. A little is OK, but loud breaths are distracting. Breathing is part of speaking, but when you record spoken word material, breath sounds can be intrusive.
Professional audiobook editors are adept at managing breath sounds and other noises. It’s a skill that requires both technical tools and artistic judgment— it’s a delicate process! Inexperienced engineers are not attuned to it, and this attention to detail and commitment to clean audio is exactly what separates professional productions from amateur recordings.

How long does all this audiobook production take?
Let’s say it takes 10 hours in the studio to record your book. It might take roughly another 15 hours to edit and finalize the recording—about 1.5 times the number of hours as it took to record. That’s a very general, ballpark kind of guesstimate. Could be more, could be less.
The overall time will depend on the length of your book, how fast or slow you read, how many mistakes you make, the sound of your voice, and so on. If you’d like to estimate your project, record a page of your book on your phone. Then multiply the time that took by the number of pages. Then multiply that by 2.5 times. That’s roughly how many hours your project might take. We currently charge $75 per hour for recording and editing.
Distribution: Getting Your Audiobook On Audible, Etc.

Audible is owned by Amazon, and sells the most audiobooks of any platform. To get your book on Audible, you need:
- A book that’s already available on Amazon as an E-book on Kindle.
- An account at ACX—Audible’s “Audiobook Creation Exchange.” ACX also distributes to Apple Books.
It’s easy to set up an account at ACX. Just go to ACX.com.
If you want wider distribution, say to Spotify, Google, Audiobooks.com etc, there are several alternatives to ACX:
- Findaway Voices: Distributes to a broader range of retailers and library distributors, including Amazon and Audible (the latter at lower, non-exclusive royalty rates*).
- Author’s Republic: Offers distribution to over 50 channels worldwide, including Audible, Apple, Spotify, Google, and Hoopla.
- PublishDrive: Distributes to major channels like Audible, Google Play, Kobo, Overdrive, and Findaway.
- Lantern: Distributes to various retailers and libraries, including Downpour.com, Audiobooks.com, Storytel, Hoopla, and Overdrive.
- ˆKobo Writing Life: Offers distribution to Kobo’s platform and other partners.
These platforms allow authors to reach a wider audience beyond ACX’s limited distribution network. By using non-exclusive distribution options, authors can potentially increase their audiobook sales and visibility across multiple platforms.
*However, it’s important to note that choosing non-exclusive distribution through ACX reduces the royalty rate from 40% to 25% for sales on Audible, Amazon, and Apple Books. Since those are the biggest platforms, you might earn smaller royalties by going non-exclusive. It’s a pickle.

Produce Your Audiobook at Desert Heart in Santa Fe
We’d like you to do your audiobook production right here, at Desert Heart. That would be a good idea, if you want the best quality, and would prefer a comfortable, friendly, and easy place to work. We’ll even offer you a warm beverage!