How to Prep an Audiobook for Recording

Audiobook narration isn’t just about stepping into the booth and hitting “record.” Every professionally narrated book has hours of thoughtful preparation behind it.

Script prep is like building a roadmap that guides your narration, allowing you to deliver consistent voices, accurate pronunciations, and a conversational, engaging performance from start to finish.

Whether you use tools like Pozotron or prep in your own custom way, let’s walk through what audiobook prep looks like and how you can make it more efficient and thorough.

Read the Entire Book

It may sound obvious, but one of the biggest mistakes newer narrators make is only skimming, prepping a few chapters at a time, or simply not reading the book ahead at all. Reading the entire book before recording is essential.

Why? Because:

• You avoid surprises - like a character who suddenly develops a heavy accent halfway through the book.
• You can track long arcs and foreshadowing, ensuring your narration matches the author’s pacing and intent.
• You spot tricky vocabulary, foreign words, or made-up terms early on.

Narrators need to be familiar with the entire arc and characters before they can deliver an authentic performance in the booth. If you are working on a project that requires a “15-minute checkpoint”, you will need to prep before you record this.

Build a Character List

Strong characters are the backbone of any good story, and consistency is key. As you read, make note of every character, even minor ones. Note details like:

• Age and gender
• Personality traits (timid, confident, playful, stern)
• Physical characteristics that could influence voice (frail, booming, raspy)
• Emotional tone (sarcastic, sweet, dramatic)

Some narrators “cast” the characters based on movie stars or people they know as a shortcut to getting into character.

The job of a narrator is to bring a character to life authentically. To do this, narrators must know and understand each character and their motivations to properly portray them. It goes far beyond pitching your voice up for a female or adding gravel for the romantic male lead.

With Pozotron: The Character Voice Guide can help identify characters for you. You can add notes, attach sample clips, or record draft voices for consistency. AI-tagged characters even pull in clues from the text.

Note Descriptions and Vocal Clues

Authors often scatter subtle hints about a character’s voice or demeanour: “she whispered,” “he boomed,” “her voice cracked with nervousness.” These little details make a huge difference in performance. Highlight them so you can be ready for them during recording.

Even if you don’t plan to make significant vocal changes, consistency is important. If the author describes a character as soft-spoken, you don’t want to give them a booming delivery later on accidentally.

With Pozotron: The Character Voice Guide can also help organize these character notes in one, easy to reference place!

Flag Pronunciations

One of the most critical parts of prep is identifying words that could trip you up, such as:

• Unfamiliar vocabulary
• Regional place names
• Proper nouns
• Foreign languages
• Invented terms in fantasy or sci-fi

Make a list of everything you’re unsure about and research pronunciations in advance. Do your research on how to pronounce them and when in doubt, reach out to the author or rights holder to confirm how they’d like them pronounced. This can save hours of pickups later.

This step is crucial if you are working on a dual, duet, or multicast. Having consistent pronunciation between narrators is important for the listener to be fully immersed in the audiobook.

With Pozotron: Use the Pronunciation Research Tool to automatically surface tricky words, listen to dictionary pronunciations, and add phonetic notes. You can even generate a pronunciation list to send back to the author or rights holder for approval.

Plan for Accents or Dialects

Some books require accents or unique vocal styles. Spotting these early allows you to practice, do research, or even consult a dialect coach if needed. 

Note which characters require accents and how frequently they’ll be used. Sustaining an accent for a few lines is very different than carrying it through an entire book. 

Be sure not to add an accent unless the script explicitly calls for it or the rights holder or author has given approval.

Track Chapter Lengths and Structure

Some narrators like to go a step further and map out the structure of the book before recording. This involves noting the duration of each chapter, the characters that appear, and the locations where major shifts occur. This allows you to:

• Plan recording sessions realistically (short chapters can be grouped, longer ones may need breaks).
• Anticipate big shifts. Knowing when the point of view changes, or when a major emotional scene is coming, allows you to prepare mentally and vocally.
• Stay consistent with characters. If a challenging accent or demanding voice returns in a chapter, you can budget extra time to handle it smoothly.

For narrators balancing tight schedules, this can also help with time management. Having an overview of chapter lengths makes it easier to map out your week and avoid rushing through difficult sections.

Create a Typos and Issues List

Indie authors (and even traditional publishers) sometimes miss typos, duplicated words, or wrong character names in their manuscripts. Spotting these early allows you to:

• Confirm corrections with the author or rights holder.
• Avoid confusion while reading.
• Improve the overall quality of the finished audiobook.

Catching these small issues before you record can save you frustration and time later. This can also help avoid some unnecessary pickups. 

There will be some rights holders who want you to read what is on the page as is, even if it’s obviously a mistake, so it’s always best to verify any changes you intend to make to the text. 

With Pozotron: Use the Typo Report to help consolidate any typos found in one place for your author or rights holder. 

Decide on Sustainable Choices

It’s easy to get carried away with dramatic voices, but remember, you need to sustain those choices for hours of recording. Character voices should be created based on cues from the book and as realistic as possible for the world it is set in. Take note of:

• Character voices that may strain your vocal cords.
• Accents or tones that are hard to maintain.
• Overly dramatic choices that may not match the book’s tone.

It may also be helpful to check with the author and rights holder on any characters that might appear in subsequent books. You don’t want to give a challenging voice to a minor character only for them to be the lead in the next book, and you find you can’t sustain that voice.

With Pozotron: Record quick voice samples for each character in the Character Guide. You can share this guide with the author or rights holder to verify that the voices align with their vision.

Manual Prep vs. Using Pozotron

Every narrator develops their own prep workflow. Some prefer notebooks, highlighters, and spreadsheets. Others want an all-in-one digital system. Both approaches work; what matters is being thorough.

Pozotron has thoughtfully created our Script Prep Tools to help streamline your prep process and make it more thorough. If you have any ideas on how to improve our prep tools, please drop us a line and let us know at hello@pozotron.com

Prep Sets the Stage

Audiobook prep is where narration success begins. By reading the full manuscript, creating character and pronunciation guides, tracking structure, and making sustainable performance choices, you set yourself up for fewer pickups, smoother sessions, and a more engaging final product.

Whether you prefer a more traditional highlighter and notebook method or rely on Pozotron to streamline the process, the goal is the same: know the book inside and out before you ever hit record.

Want to see how Pozotron can transform your prep workflow? Book a demo today and explore the tools designed to make audiobook prep faster, smarter, and easier.