Apple Books digital narration price and terms
Terms
- Free plan
- YesYesEligible ebooks must already be on Apple Books, be in English, and have audiobook rights owned by the nominator
The terms in full
Apple also reviews quality and compatibility.
- Sign up without sales
- YesYes
Where these prices come from
authors.apple.com/support/4519-digital-narration-audiobooks, checked
What we checked on Apple Books digital narration
Promotion and regular price
Apple describes digital narration production as free rather than a temporary introductory offer.
Apple Books digital narration is free and creating titles is easy,
Commercial use
Authors and publishers retain audiobook rights and may produce and distribute other versions.
Publisher/author retains audiobook rights - No restrictions on producing and distributing other versions of the audiobook
Stock voices
Authors choose a voice type for their genre, although Apple does not publish a count.
Listen to the samples for your genre and choose which type of voice works best.
Languages
The current nomination guidelines require an English book and do not offer an accent catalog.
Book must be in English.
Long scripts and chapters
Apple says it adapted its speech technology for long-form reading and creates audiobooks from ebooks.
Apple has long been on the forefront of innovative speech technology, and has now adapted it for long-form reading,
Audiobook files
The program creates audiobooks from ebooks that pass checks and are ready to publish on Apple Books.
If the digitally narrated audiobook meets our quality and content standards, your audiobook will be ready to publish on the store.
Works inside
Digital narration production and distribution are handled through named preferred publishing partners.
Apple’s preferred partners make digitally narrated audiobook production and distribution simple.
AI labelling
Apple labels digitally narrated titles in its store as Narrated by Apple Books.
Digitally narrated audiobooks are shown as “Narrated by Apple Books” in the store.
Who owns the audio
The author or publisher retains audiobook rights, with no restriction on other audiobook versions.
On the page: Production and distribution details list
Free plan or trial
Apple says digital narration is free, while eligible ebooks require partner nomination and review.
On the page: Empowering indie authors and small publishers section
What the free plan leaves on your audio
The free narration program identifies digitally narrated titles in the Apple Books store.
On the page: Opening paragraph
Still sold
Apple is currently accepting title nominations through preferred partners under its published guidelines.
We are currently accepting title nominations via preferred partners based on the following guidelines.
Sign up without a sales call
Authors begin the free narration process by working with one of Apple’s named preferred partners.
On the page: Sign up with a preferred partner section
Apple Books digital narration alternatives
All 9 alternatives6 more alternatives
All 9 publish a price.
- AkoolFree, then $12 a seat a monthAI video suite with video translation, lip sync, text to speech, voice cloning and a voice changer.
- VoicemakerFree, then $5 a monthCredit-metered AI text-to-speech studio with 2,000+ voices, voice cloning, speech-to-speech and SRT export.
- Fish AudioFree, then $15 a monthExpressive text-to-speech, voice cloning and long-form studio with a credit-metered API.
- Amazon PollyFree, then $4 per 1m charactersPay-per-character cloud text to speech from AWS, with four voice engines and a browser console.
Sources and changes
Last changed
Sources on authors.apple.com2
What changed on this page1
- Dubbing features, free tier, license terms, plans
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