AuthorVoices FAQ

Yes — AuthorVoices users get audiobook distribution at no upfront cost. There are no submission fees, no annual fees, and no payment required to publish. You only share royalties when the book actually sells.

Your audiobook goes to over 50 of the leading audiobook retailers worldwide, including Apple Books, Google Play, Kobo, Spotify, Storytel, BookBeat, Scribd, and many more. Audible and Amazon are not included because their terms of service prohibit AI-narrated audiobooks — they require human narration only. That's why our distribution channel is described as "All except Audible and Amazon."

For an audiobook built inside AuthorVoices, distribution is done directly from the project page after you have created the MP3 ZIP and M4B exports. The "Distribute Audiobook Globally" button then activates; click it, complete the book details, and submit. Finished audio created outside AuthorVoices cannot be uploaded into a project or submitted through that button today; this is an expected current product boundary, not a fault. Use the Distribution Ready tools and contact support about SelfPublishing.pro's separate audiobook-distribution service.

Distribution is operated through SelfPublishing.pro, our sister company. They manage the upload to retailers, monitor sales reporting, and handle royalty payments to you.

On average, authors keep about 50% of the retail price. SelfPublishing.pro's share is 15% of the net royalties (the amount paid out by retailers after their cut). The author keeps the remaining 85% of net royalties — that typically works out to around half of every retail dollar.

Royalty payments are made by PayPal or bank transfer. Payouts are sent once your account balance reaches $25. Below that threshold, royalties accrue and roll forward to the next payout cycle.

No — distribution is non-exclusive. You can continue selling your audiobook on your own website, as a direct download, or through any other channels you choose. You're never locked into one platform.

Refund requests are handled case-by-case. If you believe you qualify for a refund (for example, a duplicate or accidental purchase), please email hello@authorvoices.ai with your order/transaction ID, the email used for the purchase, and a short explanation. We'll review your transaction and whether any credits were used; approved refunds are processed via Stripe and typically appear on your statement within 5–7 business days. For complex disputes or suspected fraud, we may follow up for additional verification.

Your Dashboard shows your credit balance at the top, split into the allowance included with your subscription this period and any credits you have purchased separately, which never expire. The Billing page lists every transaction — purchases, monthly grants, narration charges and refunds — with the date and the amount, so you can see exactly where credits went.

AuthorVoices.ai is an AI-powered audiobook narration platform that helps independent authors create professional-quality audiobooks using curated AI voices.

You can sign in with your email and password, or use "Sign in with Google" if you registered that way. Forgot your password? Use the "Forgot password" link on the sign-in page to get a reset email. If you originally signed up on our older site, your legacy password still works — no need to create a new account.

Upload your EPUB, DOCX, or paste text directly, select a narrator voice, and our system will generate your audiobook chapter by chapter. You can edit individual sections with Quick Fix and re-narrate just the parts that need changes — no need to rebuild the whole book.

Yes — when creating a new project, choose the 'Pull a book from SelfPublishing.pro' option and search by title or author. If your SelfPublishing.pro and AuthorVoices accounts share the same email address, your SPP books will appear in the list and can be imported with one click. The EPUB is fetched and the project is created automatically, ready for narration. If no books appear, make sure both accounts use the same email address. You can also start a project the usual way by uploading an EPUB or DOCX directly, or by pasting text.

Yes — when you finish a book in BookBud.ai, pick a narrator in its audiobook handoff step and confirm. AuthorVoices automatically creates your project (and your account, with a welcome email, if you don't already have one) using the same manuscript and cover, ready for narration. If you submit the same BookBud book twice, we reuse the existing project instead of making a duplicate.

Cloned voices created from your uploaded sample are private to your account. If you create a cloned voice before buying credits, we retain it for a short trial window (approximately 24 hours) so you can experiment. To keep the cloned voice longer-term, purchase any credits in your account — cloned voices are preserved while you have credits. If you delete a cloned voice it cannot be recovered; you can upload a new sample to recreate one.

Subscriptions are flat monthly or annual plans that let you narrate without paying per character. Starter is $49 a month and includes 440,000 credits and up to 2 audiobooks; Basic is $99 with 1,100,000 credits and up to 5 audiobooks; Pro is $149 with 2,200,000 credits and up to 10 audiobooks. Annual billing saves 17%. Credits cover both whole-book narration and individual edits from a single pool, and you can start one new book a day. Every narrator in the catalogue is available on every plan.

No. Credits used to be split into Studio Credits for whole books and Instant Credits for edits; since September 2026 there is one pool that covers everything. Your subscription grants a credit allowance each period, and unused subscription credits do not carry over. Credits you buy in a one-time pack are separate: they never expire, and they are spent only after your monthly allowance runs out. Your Dashboard shows both figures.

No. Your plan's credit allowance is granted fresh each billing period and unused credits do not carry over. Credits bought in a one-time pack behave differently — those never expire and stay on your account whether or not you keep a subscription. Your monthly allowance is always spent first, so purchased credits are only touched once it is gone. The Credits or Billing page shows both balances and your reset date.

Credits are sold in three one-time, book-sized packages so you need not guess: Short Book $59 for up to 300,000 characters, about 55,800 words; Standard Book $89 for 500,000 characters, about 93,000 words, which is the most common size; and Long Book $129 for 750,000 characters, about 139,500 words. Choose the one closest to your manuscript on the Pricing page. Anything left over never expires and carries forward to your next book.

Yes — you can try voice previews without purchasing credits. The site provides a limited number of free voice-preview attempts so you can hear narrators and pick the right voice before buying credits. If you run into limits or need more previews for testing, contact support.

All of them. Every narrator in the catalogue works on every plan and with one-time credit packs alike, and so does your own cloned voice if you have made one. There is no longer a separate eligibility list.

Some older/imported projects are preserved as "Download Only" — this means the project files and final audio remain available for download, but the project is not editable in the new editor. Editable projects can be updated and re-narrated as usual.

Processed output files are available for download for approximately 6 hours after the job finishes. After that they are automatically deleted from the server. Download your files as soon as processing is complete — they cannot be recovered once the retention window expires.

The live chat launcher on every page is Riley, our AI support agent; it is not a live-human chat queue. For a human reply, use the Contact page at /contact or email hello@authorvoices.ai. Riley can also collect your email address and hand your question to the team. Include your account email, any relevant project or section IDs, and screenshots or error messages so the team can investigate quickly.

The Distribution Ready Fix (/distribution-ready/fix) is a paid done-for-you service that re-masters your complete audiobook to common retailer delivery specs — consistent loudness, clean room tone, and correct encoding — across every chapter at once. Upload your full audiobook as a ZIP of MP3 chapters, or select all your MP3 files at once. We measure the total run-time, show your exact price up front (no surprises), and after payment your re-mastered files are ready to download. Optionally, AI-narrated opening and closing credit files (book title, author, narrator, copyright) can be generated and included at no extra charge. Pricing is based on total audiobook length; audiobooks over 20 hours can email for a custom quote. This is separate from the free single-file Spec Checker at /distribution-ready.

No — the Distribution Ready Fix (/distribution-ready/fix) is charged as a separate one-time card payment at the time of your order; it does not draw from your narration credit balance or your Studio subscription. Your purchased credit packs and Studio plan are completely unaffected. The price is shown up front before you pay, based on your total audiobook run-time.

Done-for-You Audiobook Production (/done-for-you) is a $299 one-time concierge service where our team handles manuscript and chapter setup, narrator configuration, full-book narration, one quality cleanup pass, and delivers your final chapter MP3s plus a combined M4B. It covers one project up to 550,000 characters (about 102,000 words), with typical turnaround of 7–10 business days after your manuscript and narrator choice are ready; longer or multi-narrator books can request a custom quote. This is different from the Distribution Ready Fix, which re-masters audio you already narrated to meet retailer delivery specs — Done-for-You starts from your manuscript and produces the narration for you.

Cloned voices are private to your account and will appear in your narrator list when you create or edit projects/sections. Select your cloned voice as the default narrator for a project or override the narrator for individual sections when editing. Note: cloned voices created during a trial window are preserved while you have credits (see the Clone Your Voice page for details).

Open Voice Cloning from your Dashboard and upload a clear audio or video recording; about 30 seconds of clean speech is enough, and longer files are automatically reduced to the usable sample window. You must confirm that the voice is yours or that you have written consent from its owner. We create one private clone that appears in your narrator list. Uploading a new sample replaces the previous clone.

Yes — when uploading your voice sample on the Voice Clone page, check the "Clean up my sample before cloning" box before submitting. This runs a light audio cleanup pass: it trims the sample to 10 minutes, reduces background noise, tames low rumble and hiss, applies light compression, and normalizes loudness. Leave it unchecked if you want the sample used exactly as recorded. Cleanup helps most with room noise or recordings made on a phone or laptop microphone; studio-quality recordings usually don't need it.

Yes. Each section can override the project's default narrator and narration speed before you regenerate it. Sections without an override continue to use the project default, so you can give selected chapters a different voice or pace without changing the rest of the book.

Yes — new accounts receive a small registration bonus (5,000 characters, roughly 5–6 minutes of finished audio) so you can test narration quality before purchasing a credit pack. You can also preview any narrator voice on the homepage without using account credits. To produce a full chapter or book you will need to purchase a credit pack from the Pricing or Credits page.

Yes — use Quick Fix in the section editor to highlight the passage you want to change. AuthorVoices re-narrates that selection, preserves the surrounding audio, and stitches the section back together, so a small edit finishes faster than regenerating the chapter.

Yes — open the section from your project page and use the section editor to update any or all of the source text, then re-narrate the section. The previous audio is replaced; the rest of your project stays untouched. For smaller targeted changes — fixing a word, a sentence, or a passage — Quick Fix is faster and uses fewer credits because it only re-synthesises the selected range and stitches it back into the existing audio.

An active AuthorPass membership through SelfPublishing.pro qualifies for a 10% discount on eligible one-time purchases; having a basic SelfPublishing.pro account alone is not enough. The discount is applied automatically when both accounts use the same email address. AuthorPass and coupon discounts cannot be combined.

Yes — open your project and use the Cover Art option to upload a square image (JPG or PNG). The cover is embedded in the M4B export so it appears as album art in audiobook players, and is used as chapter art in the ZIP export. For distribution submission, your cover must be square and at least 2400x2400 pixels — the project page will show a warning inline if your image does not meet this spec. If your cover is close but not quite right, you can use the one-click 'Convert to Distribution-Ready' option on the project page, which uses AI to resize and remaster the image to spec. For personal listening exports that are not being distributed, 1400x1400 is fine. You can replace the cover at any time; re-export the project to apply the updated art.

Distribution requires a square cover image at least 2400x2400 pixels. If your cover does not meet this, the project page will show a warning banner above the book title with an 'Update Cover Image' button. From the cover upload modal you can upload a replacement file, or use the one-click 'Convert Current Cover to Distribution-Ready' option, which automatically resizes and reprocesses your existing cover to meet the spec. Once your cover passes the check the warning disappears and the Distribute button becomes available.

Yes. On any project page you'll see a "Narrate Whole Book" button. Click it and AuthorVoices shows a pre-flight summary — how many sections will be narrated, exactly how many credits it will cost, and your current balance — then kicks off the whole book in the background. You can leave the page and come back; narration keeps running. When you return, each section will show its live status and the top card will show overall progress.

The Quality Control report analyses your finished audiobook sections by transcribing the audio and comparing it to your original text. It flags passages where the narration diverges from the script, long silent gaps, and gives each section a match score. Minor transcription quirks — homophones, number formatting, compound-word splits — are hidden by default so the report focuses on genuine problems; use the "Show quirks" toggle to reveal them. You can also dismiss individual flagged items to keep the report tidy as you work through it. To run a QC report, open your project and go to the Quality Control tab. From the report you can jump directly into Quick Fix to correct any flagged passage without re-narrating the whole section. Quality Control is free for Studio subscribers; Instant Credit users are charged a small credit fee per job.

Yes — on the project page, drag and drop sections into the order you want. The new order is saved immediately. Reordering does not affect the audio files already generated; it only changes how sections are sequenced when you export.

Changing the project-level default narrator does not affect sections that have already been narrated — their existing audio files are preserved. Only sections you re-narrate after the change will use the new voice. You can also override the narrator on individual sections without touching the project default, which is handy for giving specific chapters a different voice. To update previously narrated sections, open each one and regenerate it manually (or use Narrate Whole Book with the 're-narrate already rendered' option checked).

Marking a section as Proofed is a personal quality-review flag — it simply means you have listened to that section and are happy with it. It does not affect generation, downloads, or billing. The project page shows how many sections are proofed so you can track your review progress across a long book.

When you enable Autoplay next section on a project page, the audio player will automatically start the next narrated section as soon as the current one finishes — useful for listening through your audiobook straight through without clicking between sections. The toggle is visible on your project page next to the section list and only affects your current listening session.

Our Terms and Conditions are at /terms (also linked in the footer and the homepage voice preview widget). They cover voice-cloning consent requirements, manuscript ownership, your responsibility to comply with each retailer's AI-narration policy, and how credits work. If you have questions about a specific section, email hello@authorvoices.ai.

No. As of the current Terms, Audible and ACX do not accept AI-narrated audiobooks produced by third-party tools such as AuthorVoices — they permit only their own in-house AI narration tools where offered. Submitting AuthorVoices audio to ACX or Audible violates their content policy and may result in your retailer account being closed. AuthorVoices audio is compatible with most other retailers and distributors; see /terms for the full policy details.

Visit the Billing page from your Dashboard (or go directly to /account/billing) and click "Manage subscription." This opens a secure Stripe portal where you can update your payment method, switch between monthly and annual billing, change your plan tier, or cancel. Cancellations take effect at the end of your current billing period — you keep full Studio access until then. Upgrades are applied immediately; downgrades take effect at the next renewal.

Not through the project-page Distribute button today. That button works only with an audiobook built and exported inside an AuthorVoices project; there is no upload path for finished third-party MP3s. This is an expected current product boundary, not a broken upload. Use the free Spec Checker at /distribution-ready to check one file or the paid Distribution Ready Fix at /distribution-ready/fix to re-master the full audiobook, then contact support about SelfPublishing.pro's separate audiobook-distribution service.

Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period — you keep full Studio access until then, and your account reverts to the free tier after that. Rendered audio files are retained for 30 days post-cancellation so you can download everything; after that they are removed from the server. Any Instant Credit packs purchased separately remain on your account and never expire, regardless of subscription status.

If a renewal payment fails, your Studio access continues uninterrupted during a 7-day grace period while Stripe retries the charge — you'll see a payment-failed notice on your Dashboard with a link to update your payment method. If the payment is not fixed within 7 days, your account automatically reverts to the Free plan; any Instant Credit packs you purchased separately are unaffected and never expire. Update your card any time from the Billing page (/account/billing) via the Manage Subscription link.

Yes for speed: each section has its own speed slider in the section editor, and a change applies only to that section; regenerating it does not affect the rest of your project. How expressive or steady a narrator sounds comes from the narrator you choose rather than from a setting, so if you want a different delivery, pick a narrator whose description matches it, or ask support to suggest one.

Yes. Your private cloned voice works for whole-book narration and for individual section edits, exactly like any narrator in the catalogue, and it stays visible only to you. It appears at the top of your narrator list wherever a narrator can be chosen.

Click Narrate Whole Book on the project page and the entire manuscript is narrated in one job. There is one narration engine, so there is nothing to choose, and a book sounds the same from the first section to the last. Credits come from your monthly allowance first and from any purchased credits after that. Subscribers can start one new book a day, up to the number of books their plan includes. All audio is ACX-mastered however it was paid for.

We send occasional helpful reminders — for example, if a project is sitting without any audio after a few days, or if you have narrated sections but haven't yet exported your audiobook. After you export, we may also ask for a quick review. Each email includes an unsubscribe link.

The current catalogue has 165 active voices across 10 languages: English, Spanish, Russian, German, Portuguese, French, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, and Polish. Use the language and accent filters on the Narrators page to compare samples. Every catalogue voice is available with any plan or one-time credit pack.

Yes — on your project page, use the section menu (the three-dot or action button next to any section) to insert a new section immediately after it or delete an existing one. You can also create a new blank section from the project page and paste in text directly. Deleting a section removes its audio permanently, so download anything you want to keep first.

In September 2026 AuthorVoices moved new narration to one voice system; the current Narrators page has 165 active voices across 10 languages. The earlier catalogue is retired for new projects, while audio you already finished remains unchanged. Search for a retired narrator's name to find its current match, shown with a “Previously …” label.

It carries on. A retired narrator keeps the same name on your book, and a matching voice on the new engine reads any sections you narrate from now on: the same gender, a similar age and the same accent, but not the identical voice. Sections you had already narrated are unchanged. If you would like the whole book in one voice, contact support and we will add enough credits to re-narrate the finished sections at no cost to you.

Often, yes. If a retired narrator was one of our own designed voices, we can usually recreate it privately for your book on request: contact support with the narrator's name and the book title. A few retired voices belonged to professional voice actors and cannot be recreated on the new engine; for those we will suggest the closest match and cover any re-narration.

Yes. Every private cloned voice was recreated on the current system from the recording you originally uploaded, and it still appears in your narrator list. To hear it, open Voice Cloning from your Dashboard and play the preview; if it does not sound right, upload a fresh recording with about 30 seconds of clear speech. If the clone came from a professional voice rather than your own recording, you will be asked to provide a new authorized sample.

No. Credits you purchased never expire, subscription allowances are unchanged, and the price per character is the same on the new engine as it was before.

AuthorVoices narrates with Inworld's TTS-2 engine. We completed the move to it in September 2026 and no longer use ElevenLabs. The audio you create is yours to keep and to sell; the engine's licence permits commercial use, including audiobooks.

No. We never alter finished audio. An engine change only affects sections narrated after it, and only when you choose to narrate them.

Yes — you can sign up for free and explore the platform with no credit card required. New accounts receive a one-time registration bonus of 5,000 characters (roughly 5–6 minutes of finished audio) so you can test narration quality before purchasing, and you can preview any narrator voice on the homepage at no cost. When you're ready to produce a full chapter or book, purchase a one-time Instant Credit pack from the Pricing page, or subscribe to a Studio plan.

There are two ways to narrate on AuthorVoices. For pay-as-you-go, purchase one-time Instant Credit packs from your dashboard (Credits) or the Pricing page — multiple tiers are available to match different manuscript lengths, and credits never expire. For a flat monthly or annual fee, subscribe to a Studio plan (Starter, Basic, or Pro) from the Pricing page; Studio includes a monthly allotment of whole-book rendering credits plus real-time editing credits. Purchases and subscriptions are applied immediately. For help with a specific transaction, contact support.

We use a character-based credit model. One hour of finished audiobook audio corresponds to about 9,300 words or roughly 50,000 characters, and credit packs are sized accordingly. Use the Pricing/Credits page to estimate how many credits your manuscript will need.

There are two ways to pay. One-time credit packs are billed per character and never expire: Short Book $59 (up to 300,000 characters, about 55,800 words), Standard Book $89 (500,000 characters, about 93,000 words) and Long Book $129 (750,000 characters, about 139,500 words). Roughly 50,000 characters makes one finished hour of audio. Subscriptions are $49, $99 or $149 a month, or 17% less billed annually, and include a monthly credit allowance plus a set number of books. Every narrator in the catalogue is available on either route. There is also a $49 Economy One-Book Pass for a single book with no subscription. See the Pricing page for the current figures.

The Economy One-Book Pass is a one-time $49 purchase that produces a single audiobook of up to 400,000 characters, about 74,000 words, with no subscription. It also includes 20,000 credits for pronunciation and line edits. The pass attaches to the first project you use it on and cannot be moved to another project afterwards.

Narration stops at the section where the credits ran out and everything already narrated is kept — nothing is lost and nothing is charged twice. Add a credit pack, or wait for your subscription period to reset, then click Narrate Whole Book again; already-finished sections are skipped and it picks up where it stopped. The project page tells you how many credits the remaining sections need.

Yes. Enter a valid affiliate coupon on the Pricing page to receive 10% off your first eligible purchase. A code can be used once per customer and cannot be combined with an AuthorPass or other discount.

You can upload EPUB and Microsoft Word (.docx) files to create a project and auto-detect chapters, or create a project manually by pasting text. Manuscript uploads are limited to 200 MB, though typical book files are much smaller. If an upload fails, confirm the format is valid and contact support with the file size and error message.

Yes. Once your audiobook sections are generated you can download the audio. From the project page you can export a ZIP of individual MP3 files (one per chapter) or a single M4B audiobook file with embedded chapter markers and cover art. Audio generated on AuthorVoices is mastered to common retailer specifications. For MP3s recorded outside AuthorVoices, use the free Distribution Ready Spec Checker to check one file or the paid Distribution Ready Fix to re-master a complete audiobook.

No, and you no longer need to. Every project uses the same engine and the same narrator catalogue, so a book is consistent throughout and a series stays consistent between titles. If you are continuing a series that was narrated before September 2026 and you want the original voice, contact support and we will arrange it for your account.

Yes. The system is built around section-level narration so you can update specific parts of a project without having to rebuild the entire audiobook every time. That makes revisions faster and more practical.

AuthorVoices has two distribution audio tools. The free Spec Checker at /distribution-ready analyzes a single MP3 against common retailer audio specs — no credits used, no charge, login required. The paid Distribution Ready Fix at /distribution-ready/fix re-masters your entire audiobook: upload a ZIP of MP3 chapters (or select all your MP3 files at once), get an instant price quote based on total run-time, pay securely, and download re-mastered retailer-ready files. Opening and closing credit files (ACX-style) can be added at no extra charge. Output files from both tools are available for approximately 6 hours after processing, then automatically deleted.

EPUB and DOCX manuscript uploads, along with other ordinary uploads, are limited to 200 MB. The free Distribution Ready Spec Checker accepts one MP3 up to 100 MB; the paid Distribution Ready Fix accepts a ZIP or multiple MP3 files up to 2 GB total. Processed outputs remain available for about six hours and are then deleted.

Generation time varies with manuscript length and current demand. Individual chapters usually finish sooner than a whole book; whole-book narration continues in the background if you leave the page. The project page shows progress, and AuthorVoices sends an email when the job finishes.

Credits are charged per section, not up front, and only right before that section actually renders. That means: (1) if a section errors, you are not charged for it; (2) if you run out of credits part-way through, the batch stops cleanly at the section it could not afford — already-narrated sections stay; (3) if you click "Stop After Current Section", AuthorVoices finishes the section in flight and then halts — no half-finished audio files. By default, the batch skips sections that already have audio, so you will not be re-billed for work you have already paid for. If you've edited the source text of an already-narrated section and want it re-rendered, tick the "Also re-narrate sections that are already rendered" checkbox in the pre-flight modal before starting.