Audiobook Finished Hours & Production Cost Calculator

How it works

Finished hours = words ÷ (wpm × 60); studio hours = finished hours × production ratio; cost = finished hours × (narrator PFH + post-production PFH); break-even sales = cost ÷ (price × royalty)

Audiobooks are bought, priced and paid for by the finished hour, and the finished hour comes almost entirely from word count: at the industry-standard 155 words a minute, 9,300 words make an hour, so a 85,000-word novel runs a little over nine hours. Producing each finished hour takes far longer than an hour — recording with retakes is about double, and editing, proofing against the text and mastering to distributor specs double it again, hence the common 6:1 ratio (4:1 for seasoned narrators who punch-and-roll their own edits). Narrators quote per finished hour, typically $150–400 with post-production extra, or work for a royalty share; comparing the upfront PFH cost with the royalty per sale gives the number of copies that decides which is cheaper. Distributors price largely by length, so the finished-hour estimate also predicts the retail band.

Worked example

An 85,000-word novel at 155 wpm is 9 h 08 min of finished audio. At 6:1 that is about 55 studio hours (≈ 9 days), costing $2,830 at $250 + $60 per finished hour; with a $19.95 price and 25% royalty ($4.99 a sale) it breaks even at 569 copies — below that, a 50/50 royalty share would have cost less.

Frequently asked questions