How to Audition for Audiobook Narration (ACX and Publisher Auditions)

You found a title that’s open for auditions. The author has uploaded three pages: a stretch of narration, a conversation between a mother and her grown son, and a paragraph that ends on a cliffhanger. There’s a note about the genre and a line saying the son “sounds younger than he is.” You have a quiet closet, a microphone, and a few evenings.

It looks simple. You read well, you’ve done voiceover, and nobody will see your face. Then you press record, and the first take sounds like someone reading aloud to a class. The second has a mother who sounds like a cartoon. The third is fine until a long sentence runs out of breath halfway through.

The short version: an audiobook audition is a sample of the whole book, and the person casting it is asking whether they can listen to you for hours. So follow the notes exactly, prep the text the way you’d prep a full book, keep your narrator voice as the home base and make the characters clear rather than big, carry each sentence to its end, and send a clean file with a short, specific message. Most of what follows is about doing those things well in a few pages.

What an audiobook audition actually is

On ACX, Audible’s marketplace where authors and publishers (“rights holders”) find narrators, the process is plain. In ACX’s own steps for auditioning, you sign in, choose Find Projects, open a title, download the audition script from its Auditions tab, then upload your mp3 and submit. A message to the rights holder is optional at that step.

The audition script is short on purpose. ACX’s guidance for authors says it should be 2 to 3 pages from the fully edited manuscript, chosen from important scenes or character moments, and that a finished audition runs about 3 to 5 minutes. If an author uploads the whole manuscript by mistake, ACX tells narrators to record a 3 to 5 minute segment, preferably a compelling one, or to ask the rights holder which part they want.

Publishers cast too, and not only through marketplaces. Audible’s guide to becoming a narrator notes that many major publishers take demo submissions through their websites, and a producer and director at Audible Studios, Sara Pagluica, explains what the job takes. Whether the audition comes from an indie author or a publisher’s casting director, the job is the same: a few minutes that sound like the first few minutes of the finished book.

Read the notes, then read around the excerpt

Narrator and former casting director Tanya Eby puts the first rule simply: read, and follow, the directions of the audition notice. In practice: if it asks for a specific section, record that section. If it says the narrator should be a woman in her thirties with a light Southern sound, that’s the brief, not a suggestion.

Look closely at point of view. In a piece on how long an audition should be, Eby notes that a book told in third person can usually be narrated by anyone, while a first-person book may call for a narrator who fits the character telling the story. If the “I” is a sixteen-year-old boy and you’re nowhere near that, a brilliant read may still be the wrong voice.

Then learn what you can about the book beyond the pages you were given. Chicago narrator Anne Marie Lewis, in an interview with the Vernon Area Public Library, gives the first rule of narration as “READ THE BOOK!”, because it tells you the author’s intent, what the characters are like, and whether accents are needed. For an audition you rarely have the whole book, but you often have more than you think: the book description, a published edition’s sample, the author’s earlier books in the series, and the character notes in the listing.

If something important is missing, ask. ACX lets you message the rights holder, and a short, polite question (“Is Marcus’s accent from the same town as his mother’s?”) shows that you read carefully.

Prep the text like it’s the whole book

Audible’s guide for new narrators tells them not to be afraid to “mark up” their script, and to practice reading aloud while scanning ahead to see what’s coming. Scanning ahead matters more in a book than in a play, because prose often tells you how a line was said only after you’ve already said it.

Here’s the opening exchange of Pride and Prejudice, from the Project Gutenberg text. It’s a near-perfect audition page: one narrator, a husband and wife, and a lot of tone in very few words.

“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?”

Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.

“But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.”

Mr. Bennet made no answer.

“Do not you want to know who has taken it?” cried his wife, impatiently.

“You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”

This was invitation enough.

Mark it before you record it. A few things a narrator would note on this page:

• The first line is split by a dialogue tag, so you go from Mrs. Bennet to your narrator voice and back to her within one sentence, and the two halves of her line still need to sound like one thought.
• “Mr. Bennet replied that he had not” is reported speech, so it stays in the narrator’s voice even though it tells you what he said.
• “Cried his wife, impatiently” comes after her line, so you have to see it coming and play the impatience in the line itself, or the tag will contradict you.
• The italic You is the author telling you where the stress goes, and it’s the whole joke of Mr. Bennet’s reply.
• “This was invitation enough” is a narrator’s wink, and it lands better after a small pause than rushed into the next paragraph.

Then check every word you’re unsure of. Pagluica says you can tell when a narrator hasn’t prepared, because “they don’t know how to pronounce certain things.” The guide adds that a savvy listener will notice. For nonfiction, Eby suggests authors include a section with technical terms precisely to hear how a narrator handles pronunciation, so treat any jargon in your pages as the real test it probably is. Our guide to operative words covers how to find the word in each sentence that carries the meaning, which is most of what a narrator’s markings are for.

Your narrator voice is the home base

Much of an audiobook is narration, not dialogue, so the voice you use outside the quotation marks carries most of the book. Robin Whitten, founder of AudioFile magazine, writes on the ACX blog that authors should choose a narrator whose vocal style and tone fit their written style and tone. For you, that means your narrator voice isn’t a neutral announcer. It’s you, tuned to this book: drier for a comic novel, closer and warmer for a memoir, cooler and more precise for a thriller.

Characters come next. Pagluica’s line to new narrators is that “you’re playing every single character,” and that each one should be a fully formed person. That doesn’t mean a new funny voice for everyone. A change in rhythm, attitude, pitch, or placement is often enough for a listener to know who’s talking, and it’s far easier to keep consistent across a long book.

Whitten’s advice to authors works for narrators too: “Consider whether big accents will define your characters or distract from them.” If the listing asks for an accent you don’t have, give yourself real time with it. Lewis says that when a book needs an accent she hasn’t used before, she researches it, works with a dialect coach, and practices. Our guide to learning an accent for a role walks through a plan you can start this week.

One test before you record: could you hold this voice for ten hours, on a tired afternoon, in chapter thirty? If the answer is no, pull it back. A minor character with an extreme voice can turn out to be a major one later in the book, and you’ll be stuck with what you chose in the audition.

Carry the long sentence

Novels are full of sentences that a playwright would never write: three clauses, a parenthesis, and the verb at the very end. Pagluica asks a pointed question of anyone who wants to narrate: can you “carry a long sentence and make it make sense” without chopping it up?

Carrying it means you know where the sentence is going before you start it. Find the main verb and the last important word, and let your voice hold up through the middle so the listener knows more is coming. Take your breath at the start, and if you must take another, take it at a comma that doesn’t split the meaning. Our guide to breath control for long speeches has exercises that work the same way for prose.

Pace follows the book, not your nerves. Nervous auditions tend to rush, and rushing flattens everything into one speed. Let a scene of quick dialogue move, let a description of a place breathe, and give the end of a chapter or a big reveal a beat of silence. The listener has no page in front of them. Your pauses are their paragraph breaks.

Record it like the finished product

Expect the rights holder to hear your sound along with your reading, because your audition is their best guess at what the book will sound like. ACX’s audio submission requirements for finished books are a useful target even for an audition: volume between -23dB and -18dB RMS, peaks below -3dB, a noise floor below -60dB RMS, a 192 kbps or higher constant-bit-rate, 44.1kHz mp3, and files free of plosives, excessive mouth noise, and outtakes. ACX also offers an Audio Lab for checking a file’s specs, and most audio editors can measure levels like these.

Keep the processing light. Actor and narrator Alex Hyde-White, in his tips for new narrators on the ACX blog, says plainly that “[A]udiobooks don’t require heavy effects.” Record in the quietest, softest room you have, edit out mistakes and loud mouth clicks, and leave the natural sound of your voice alone. Our guide to voiceover auditions covers turning a closet into a usable booth.

Don’t add a slate unless the listing asks for one. Eby advises narrators to skip stating their name, the title, and the author unless it’s requested. The first thing the listener hears should be the book.

Write a short, specific message

When you submit on ACX, the message is your cover letter. The ACX producer’s checklist suggests a message that introduces you, says why the project interests you, and gives your availability and rate. Keep it to a few sentences, and make the “why” about this book rather than about audiobooks in general.

If a title shows an orange “offer pending” flag, ACX says you can still audition, but to weigh the pending offer first, and you’re free to message the rights holder before you record. And if you’re cast, ACX’s checklist describes a 15-minute checkpoint, a short early section you and the rights holder agree on to settle accents, pronunciations, character voices, pacing, and tone before the full book is recorded. Treat your audition as the first draft of that conversation.

An audition run sheet

1. Read the listing twice: genre, point of view, character notes, and exactly which pages to record.
2. Find what you can about the rest of the book, and message the rights holder with any question that would change your read.
3. Mark the pages: dialogue tags that come after the line, reported speech, stressed words, pauses, and every name or term to look up.
4. Decide your narrator voice first, then make each character clear with the smallest change that works.
5. Read the whole excerpt aloud twice before you record, scanning ahead as you go.
6. Record it straight through, as if it were page one of the book, then fix only what’s wrong.
7. Edit lightly, check your levels and file format, and listen once all the way through on headphones.
8. Write a three-sentence message, upload, and submit.

Common audition mistakes

• Recording a different section from the one the author asked for, or sending fifteen minutes when they asked for five.
• A narrator voice that sounds like reading, with every sentence landing on the same downward note.
• Character voices so big that the listener notices the voice instead of the person.
• Missing a dialogue tag that comes after the line, so “she whispered” follows a line you said at full volume.
• Guessing at a name or a technical word instead of looking it up.
• Noisy, over-processed, or uneven audio, which tells the rights holder the whole book will sound that way.
• Auditioning for a first-person book whose narrator you clearly don’t fit, or ignoring the voice the listing asks for.

Questions actors ask

Do I need audiobook credits to audition on ACX?

ACX’s audition steps ask for an account and an mp3 of the audition script, not a list of credits. What rights holders do hear is your reading and your sound, so a clean, well-prepared audition counts for more than a short resume.

How long should an audiobook audition be?

As long as the listing asks. ACX’s author guidance describes an audition script of 2 to 3 pages and a finished audition of about 3 to 5 minutes. Eby advises authors to keep auditions to no more than 5 minutes, so a longer file usually isn’t welcome.

Should I do character voices in an audiobook audition?

Make the characters distinct, yes. Pagluica says you’re playing every character, and each should be a full person. But clarity matters more than size: small changes in rhythm, attitude, and pitch are easier to listen to and easier to keep up across a whole book than big, comic voices.

Is an audiobook audition the same as a commercial voiceover audition?

No. A commercial spot is short and sells one idea. An audiobook audition is a sample of a long story, so the rights holder is listening for stamina, storytelling, and how you handle narration and dialogue together. The recording skills overlap, but the read is different.