Preparing your audition listing

Before you start

You'll already have completed two prerequisites when you signed up:

• An author / Rights Holder profile with your display name and a short bio.
• A verification URL: a KDP author page, distributor page, publisher site, author website, Goodreads profile, or equivalent that establishes that you hold rights to the books you want to list.

Both of these things are reused across every listing you post. You don't need to do anything more for those before creating a new listing.

What follows is what you'll need to include for each of your book listings.

1. Book basics

Title. As it appears on the book.

Series name. Optional. Include it if the book is part of a series. Narrators can search by series and it helps your listing surface for the right eyes and ears.

Book author name. Optional override. Leave blank if you write under the display name on your profile. Fill in if this book is published under a pen name, or you're posting on behalf of a different author.

Book listing URL. Optional. If your eBook or paperback is already live, paste the URL from Amazon, Goodreads, Bookshop, your publisher's catalogue page, or any other public listing. Narrators use it to evaluate the book's positioning before auditioning. Skip the field if the book isn't published yet or if no listing exists.

Primary genre and sub-genre. Primary genre is selected from a curated list; sub-genre is free text, one short label (e.g., Space opera, Cozy mystery, Cottagecore romance). Both are used for narrator discovery and filtering. Be specific rather than broad and use a label that will be familiar to most users. Getting too clever or creative with this wording can eliminate your books from coming up when narrators use popular search terms to find their ideal listings.

Word count. This is the single most important number on your listing. We convert it to estimated finished audio hours (words ÷ 8,500), which tells the narrator whether your project fits their schedule. They will not audition without it. If you don't yet have a final count, use the most recent draft's word count. You can refine in edit mode later.

2. Book description

A standalone field of up to 4,000 characters (the same length Amazon KDP gives you for an eBook description). If you've already written the description for your KDP listing, you can paste it in as-is.

If you're writing fresh, the same principles apply:

• Hook them in with the first line. Narrators read dozens of listings.
• Establish setting, point of view, and stakes by mid-paragraph.
• End on tension: what's at risk, what gets answered.
• Skip the cover-blurb florals (“a tour-de-force,” “unputdownable”). Narrators are reading to decide whether they can voice the world you've built. Tell them about the world.

This description is what helps a narrator decide whether to invest the time needed for your audition passage. It is the second most important piece of copy on the listing, after the audition passage itself.

3. Audition passage

A representative excerpt narrators will read aloud. Up to 6,000 characters (~800 words). You can split into two passages (for example, one dialogue-heavy and one descriptive) if you want to test different performance strengths.

What to pick:

• A scene with emotional variance. Calm exposition tells you nothing about a narrator's range. Dialogue, internal conflict, or a tonal shift gives you something to assess.
• Representative of the book, not a peak. A scene the narrator will encounter twenty more times like it is more useful than the one impossible bravura moment.
• Clean copy. Track changes, alt-takes, and editorial notes confuse auditions. Paste the version you'd send to print.

If your book has unusual character voices, accents, or any kind of period or genre-specific delivery, the audition passage is your chance to surface those.

Casting more than one narrator? The single passage above applies to single-narrator listings only. Dual, duet, and multi-cast listings carry a passage per role instead (see section 8): prepare one excerpt in each character's voice. A strong per-role passage pairs a short descriptive or inner-voice section with a dialogue section where the narrator speaks only that character's lines, leaving a beat where the other voice would respond.

4. Deal structure

This is where the most preparation pays off. Settle these decisions before you sit down with the form; the form is for entering decisions, not making them.

Deal type. Pick one of four:

• Per Finished Hour (PFH): flat fee per finished audio hour. You pay; narrator delivers; you distribute. Cleanest, fastest, narrator-favored. You need cash on hand.
• Royalty Share: narrator takes a percentage of royalties for the life of the deal. You pay nothing up front; the narrator is investing their time in your book's success. Slowest to fill, most selective.
• Hybrid: a reduced PFH plus a royalty percentage. Splits the risk.
• Custom: anything that doesn't fit the above. Describe it in deal notes; narrators may ask follow-up questions.

If PFH or Hybrid: Have a rate range in mind (USD, low to high, e.g. $200–250). Per-finished-hour rates typically span $100–$400 across the indie market. Be honest about the range you'd negotiate within; narrowing it later in conversation is normal.

If Royalty Share or Hybrid: Have your allocation percentages settled. 50/50 (author/narrator) is the longstanding default. Different splits are fine but should be defensible. If other parties are on the deal (studio, agent, co-author), you'll describe them in deal notes; the total across everyone cannot exceed 100%.

If Royalty Share or Hybrid: Decide on the term (a fixed start and end date, or perpetual).

Distribution responsibility (asked for any non-PFH deal). Who operationally uploads to retailers and receives the royalty payments before splitting? Three options: Author, Narrator, or To be negotiated. “TBN” is a fine answer when you and the narrator will work it out together. Just don't use it to dodge the question.

Exclusivity. Wide (most retailers: Spotify, Libro.fm, Apple Books, Kobo, Audiobooks.com, etc.) or Audible-exclusive. If exclusive, you'll need the term in years.

5. The investment case (Royalty Share / Hybrid)

If you're posting a Royalty Share or Hybrid deal, this is the most important narrator-facing section on the listing, and the one most likely to make or break audition volume. A narrator considering Royalty Share is being asked to spend months of unpaid production time in exchange for a stake in your book's earnings. This section gives them the context to evaluate that.

You'll be asked four things. Prepare answers to all four before opening the form.

1. Track record. Have you released a Royalty Share audiobook before, or is this your first? Hybrid counts as Royalty Share. PFH-only audiobook history does not; describe that elsewhere if relevant. Honest answers do better than vague ones. Narrators respect “This is my first” far more than spin.

2. Audience reach. Where will buyers hear about this book? Newsletter subscribers, social followings, fan groups, prior series readership, mailing list size: whatever's real. “Just getting started” is a valid answer. 300 characters.

3. Distribution plan. Which retailers will carry the audiobook? “Wide via Findaway Voices: Spotify, Apple, Google Play, Libro.fm, Kobo.” “Audible exclusive for the 7-year term.” “Direct upload to Spotify, Apple Books, and Google Play.” “TBD, open to the narrator's preference.” 300 characters.

4. Make the case. 200–1,200 characters. What gives you confidence this book earns out for the narrator? Genre demand, comp titles, prior series performance, marketing plans, an existing fanbase: whatever's true. Direct beats slick. Honest scale beats no scale.

The biggest mistake first-time Royalty Share authors make here is over-promising. The narrator will compare what you say against what's verifiable; over-pitched listings get fewer auditions, not more. Calibrate to reality.

6. Deadlines

Three dates, two of them required to submit.

Audition deadline. When auditions close. Minimum seven days out; narrators need time to discover, read, record, and submit. Two to four weeks is typical.

Selection target. Optional. When you plan to make a casting decision. Useful for setting narrator expectations.

Project completion date. Required. When finished, edited, mastered audio is due back to you. Industry typical is 4–12 weeks after selection, depending on book length. Narrators won't audition without this date. It's how they decide whether your project fits their schedule.

Is the completion date firm? Check the box if your date is tied to a launch, marketing campaign, pre-order, or contractual obligation. Leave it unchecked if it's a target you'd prefer to hit but can adjust by a week or two. Most narrators build in two weeks of buffer if launching on a hard date.

7. Voice and character details

Accent preferences. Multi-select from a curated list. Narrators filter on these so tick all you'd consider, not just your top one. Restricting to one accent narrows your audition pool dramatically.

Voice gender preference. We will gently push back on restrictive selections here. Authors who specify gender restrictively often hear back from fewer talented narrators than they expected, and listeners typically don't penalize against-type narration when the performance is strong. Consider whether No preference gives you the best shot at the right narrator.

Character and performance notes. Up to 500 characters. Anything that affects casting that didn't fit in the structured fields: ages, additional accents within scenes, period dialect, notable named voices, switching between languages, etc.

Content warnings. Up to 400 characters. Anything narrators should know up front: violence, sexual content, on-page death, substance use. Listing them respects narrators' ability to make informed decisions; omitting them leads to mid-production attrition.

8. Cast type, roles, and tags

First, the cast type: how many narrators will perform the book.

• Single narrator: one narrator performs the whole book. The standard for most audiobooks, and the default.
• Dual narration: two narrators, each reading their own point-of-view chapters solo, alternating through the book. Common in romance.
• Duet narration: two narrators performing together within the same chapters, with dialogue interleaved. A distinct production style from dual narration.
• Multi-cast: three or more narrators, typically one per significant character.

For anything beyond a single narrator, you'll also define the roles: a name for each voice you're casting, a short description of what you hear for it, and that role's own audition passage (required; the single main passage from section 3 applies to single-narrator listings only). Narrators pick a role when they audition and perform that role's passage solo, so it's worth having descriptions and passages ready before you start. The dual, duet, and multi-cast guide covers the formats and how to write role descriptions and passages that attract the right voices.

Then one tag: Explicit / mature content, for adult audiobooks. Affects browsing filters. Tick if it applies.

9. Deal notes

A free-text field, up to 500 characters, for anything that didn't fit the structured fields above: delivery format preferences, distributor preferences, payment cadence, other parties on the deal, kill-fee provisions, revision policy, proof-listening arrangements, anything unusual about the contract.

If you have a contract you'd like the narrator to review before auditioning, mention it here and offer to share on request.

10. The listing-terms commitment

Before you submit, you'll be asked to confirm, with a single checkbox, that the deal terms posted in the listing are accurate and that you'll honour them as posted. You agree not to unilaterally change the compensation structure (PFH rate, Royalty Share split, exclusivity, distribution responsibility, or term length) after a narrator has been shortlisted or cast, except by mutual written agreement.

This isn't bureaucratic. Bait-and-switch listings are the single most-cited complaint narrators have about casting platforms in general; we don't tolerate them. Submitting the listing means committing to the deal as you've described it.

Public or unlisted?

By default your listing is public: once approved it appears on the browse page, in the sitemap, and in the saved-search alerts narrators have set up. That's what you want most of the time, since it puts the book in front of the widest pool of voices.

If you'd rather keep it private, tick Unlisted under Visibility. An unlisted listing stays off all of those surfaces and is reachable only by the direct link you choose to share. It still goes through the same approval step, and anyone who opens the link signs in as a verified narrator to view it and audition, exactly as on a public listing. It's a good fit when you're approaching one or two specific narrators, or keeping a project quiet until you're ready to open it up. You can switch it back to public any time.

What you don't need to prepare

• Cover art. Auditiono listings don't display cover art at this stage. If a narrator wants to see the cover, your book URL (if you've provided one) will take them to it.
• Audio technical specs. We don't require you to specify sample rate, bit depth, noise floor, or similar at listing time. Production specs are discussed between you and your selected narrator, not negotiated on the audition listing.
• Author bio. Lives on your profile page, separately from any individual listing.