Findaway Voices (INaudio) Cost and Pricing: What Audiobook Distribution Really Costs

Authors researching Findaway Voices usually want one answer: what does it cost? Two changes make older answers out of date. First, the business left Spotify on August 1, 2025, and now operates independently as INaudio, with the author platform called Voices by INaudio. Second, ACX, the main alternative, changed its royalty rates in 2026. This guide brings the numbers up to date.

The short version: distribution through Voices by INaudio has no upfront cost. It takes 20% of the royalties it receives and passes 80% to you. The real cost of an audiobook is production, which you pay before any sales arrive.

Two costs, not one

Audiobook costs fall into two buckets that older guides often blurred together:

• Production: narration, editing and mastering, paid upfront unless you narrate yourself.
• Distribution: getting the finished audiobook into stores and libraries, paid as a share of each sale.

Voices by INaudio is now mainly a distribution service, and some production services from the Findaway era are still being rebuilt after the split. Most authors arrive with a finished audiobook, produced by a narrator they hired or by narrating it themselves.

Distribution cost: what INaudio takes

There are no setup, upfront or subscription fees. Each partner store pays INaudio its share of the sale, INaudio keeps 20%, and you receive 80%. INaudio charges no fee on Spotify sales made through it.

INaudio's support pages give typical partner rates:

Library platforms such as OverDrive and Hoopla use their own models: libraries buy licenses or pay per checkout, and those payments flow through the same 80/20 split.

What you earn per sale

Take a $19.99 audiobook sold through a store that pays 50% of list price. The store pays INaudio about $10.00, INaudio keeps $2.00 and you receive about $8.00. Through a store paying 40%, you receive about $6.40.

Compare ACX, which since May 26, 2026 pays 50% for exclusive distribution and 30% for non-exclusive on Audible, Amazon and Apple Books, with Audible membership listening calculated on a share of each member's plan value rather than a simple per-copy price. Titles still on ACX's legacy model earn 40% or 25% until that model ends at year-end.

Production cost: per finished hour

Most narrators charge per finished hour (PFH): a fixed fee for each hour of completed audio, not studio time. A finished hour often takes several hours to record, edit and master, which is why rates look high at first glance. Typical market ranges:

Rates rise with experience, genre specialization, the number of distinct character voices, accents and rush turnaround. Confirm whether the rate includes editing and mastering to retailer specifications.

Estimating your finished hours

A common rule of thumb is about 9,300 words per finished hour for fiction and narrative nonfiction, and fewer for dense or technical material.

• Narrative fiction: divide your word count by 9,300.
• Dense nonfiction: divide by about 7,500.

An 80,000-word novel works out to roughly 8.6 finished hours.

Three sample budgets

In every case, distribution adds no upfront cost; the difference is how much of each future sale you keep and where the audiobook can be sold.

Royalty share: ACX only

Royalty share means a narrator produces the audiobook for no upfront fee in exchange for half of your royalties. On ACX, the narrator is paid for seven years and the title must be distributed exclusively through ACX. Under ACX's new model, each side earns 25% of an exclusive title (20% each under the legacy model).

That exclusivity is why royalty share does not combine with Voices by INaudio. If you want wide distribution, budget for a PFH narrator, narrate yourself, or agree private terms with a narrator that leave you free to distribute anywhere.

Break-even: how many sales to recover production

Suppose you pay $1,720 to produce an 80,000-word novel and earn about $8.00 per wide sale through INaudio. You would need roughly 215 a la carte sales to recover the narrator fee, before counting library and subscription income. The same book sold through ACX non-exclusive at 30% on a $19.99 price would earn about $6.00 per Audible sale, though membership listening is paid differently.

Most authors recover production through a mix of channels over time rather than one store, which is why series and books with proven ebook demand are the safest audio investments.

The cost of narrating it yourself

Self-narration swaps cash for time. You need a quiet, treated space, a decent microphone and headphones, and editing software, plus the patience to record, edit and master every chapter to retailer specifications. A finished hour usually takes several hours of work. Many author-narrators hire an audio engineer for editing and mastering only, which costs far less than full narration.

Self-narration suits memoir, nonfiction and books with a strong personal voice. For fiction with many characters, a professional narrator usually earns back the fee in better reviews.

Ways to lower production cost

• Tighten the manuscript first. Every 9,300 words cut saves roughly one finished hour of narration fees.
• Start with your strongest title, usually a series opener with proven ebook sales, rather than producing a whole catalog at once.
• Prepare a pronunciation guide so narrators do not lose time, and you do not pay for retakes.
• Agree correction rounds in advance and review chapters promptly.
• Consider newer narrators with strong samples; audition widely before deciding.

Library income and the long tail

Library platforms such as OverDrive, Hoopla and Bibliotheca can keep paying long after launch, as libraries buy licenses or patrons borrow. This income only flows through wide distribution, so it belongs in any comparison between ACX exclusive and going wide. For series and nonfiction with steady library demand, it can make a meaningful difference to how quickly production costs are recovered.

Other costs to plan for

• Audiobook cover: stores use a square format, so adapt your ebook cover.
• ISBN: some wide retailers require one for audiobooks; ACX does not need one for Audible.
• Retakes and corrections: agree in advance how many correction rounds the narrator includes.
• Your time: reviewing every finished chapter for errors takes as long as listening to the book.

How long production takes

Time is a cost too. From hiring a narrator to an approved, distributed audiobook, two to four months is common for a full-length novel: narrators record a few finished hours a week, then editing, mastering, your chapter-by-chapter review and each platform's quality check all add time. Plan the audio release around that schedule rather than promising readers a date before narration starts, and budget your own listening time for the review, which takes at least as long as the finished runtime.

Which route costs less for you

For the full platform comparison, see ACX vs Findaway Voices (now INaudio).

Frequently asked questions

Does Voices by INaudio charge upfront fees? No. There are no setup, upfront or subscription fees. INaudio keeps 20% of the royalties it receives.

Is Findaway Voices the same as INaudio? Yes. Findaway's co-founders bought the business back from Spotify on August 1, 2025, and it now operates as INaudio, with the author platform called Voices by INaudio.

How much does it cost to make an audiobook? Mostly narration. At typical rates of $100 to $400 per finished hour, an 80,000-word novel costs roughly $860 to $3,440 in narrator fees.

Can I do royalty share and distribute wide? Not through ACX, whose royalty share requires exclusive distribution. Wide distribution usually means paying a narrator per finished hour or narrating yourself.

How many sales does it take to recover narration costs? It depends on price and channel. At about $8 per wide a la carte sale, a $1,720 narration fee takes roughly 215 sales, with library and subscription income on top.

What does ACX pay in 2026? Under its model from May 26, 2026, 50% for exclusive and 30% for non-exclusive distribution. Legacy rates of 40% and 25% end at year-end.