Apple Books digital narration
Apple Books makes it easy to create digitally narrated audiobooks from an ebook using natural-sounding text-to-speech technology.
Title selection
For your ebook to be eligible for the program:
- You must have the audio rights for the title and the title must not be in the public domain.
- It must be English language.
- The ebook must be available for sale on Apple Books.
- The ebook must be reflowable (not fixed layout or Multi-Touch).
- Ideal genres include fiction and romance. Erotica is not accepted.
Our service is currently optimized for narrative, reflowable English-language ebooks, so avoid submitting titles with complex formatting elements like images, illustrations, or tables. Titles with a lot of charts, diagrams, and other visual elements are not optimal for digital narration.
Voice selection
Specify the type of voice you want to narrate your audiobook.
You may choose one voice type. Apple will select the best voice based on this designation paired with the content. The voice selection cannot be changed once your request is submitted.
Cover art
Submit cover art that meets our requirements. Alternatively, Apple will generate a cover using your ebook and a customized background, inspired by the colors of the artwork.
Description
Your audiobook description must begin with the following copy:
“This is an Apple Books audiobook narrated by a digital voice based on a human narrator.”
On-sale date
Digitally narrated audiobook creation takes approximately one to two months once the request is submitted to Apple by a preferred partner. If your chosen on-sale date does not allow sufficient time for production, your audiobook will go live as soon as it’s completed.
Note: Pre-orders are not supported for digitally narrated audiobooks.
Digital narration review
All content will go through our digital narration review process to ensure the best quality for customers. If quality standards are not met, the content will not be published and partners will be notified.
Work with one of our approved partners to get started
Draft2Digital is an approved partner for indie authors.
Ingram CoreSource is an approved partner for publishers.