Narrators and voices

Stage ① Voice is where you decide who reads the book.

Three narrators

Each card shows what your whole book would cost on that narrator, from nothing recorded. The two realism narrators cost more because they cost more to run, and they are priced per character: usually about one credit per 2,000 characters on Realism lite, and one per 1,111 on Studio realism.

Hear it first

Every voice has a ▶ sample. It plays a real recording of the same short passage, so you can compare voices fairly — and it costs nothing and takes no time, because the samples are recorded once and kept.

On the realism narrator there is also a 95-second scene to hear how a voice carries narration and dialogue over a longer stretch.

Filter the realism narrator's 30 voices by Female or Male to narrow the list.

How the book should sound

A short delivery note for the whole book — warm, unhurried, close-mic. The realism narrator follows it; the included voice reads everything the same way, and the field says so rather than pretending otherwise.

Cast

Give a character a voice of their own. In ② Script, a passage you give to a character is read in their voice. ✦ Suggest reads the book's dialogue and proposes who speaks, one row at a time — nothing is added until you add it.

A character from your cast or codex can keep their voice across books. Choose a voice for them, then press Use for … in every book: from then on every book they are in reads them in it, unless that book picks another. The voice list says Usual voice — … where that applies. Two things to know:

• This book's choice always wins. Leave it empty to use their usual voice.
• A usual voice only travels to a book whose narrator offers it. The included voices and the Studio realism voices are different sets; when a book cannot use it, the list says so and the narrator reads their lines.

Changing a usual voice changes how their passages would sound, so those passages show as needing a new recording, in every book that uses it.

Pronunciation

Spell a word the way it should sound — Charon → KAY-ron. This changes what the narrator is asked to say; your manuscript is never rewritten.

Your narrator's credit

The side panel shows how stores will credit your narrator: “Kore (AI Voice)”, the form the Audio Publishers Association recommends.

What to watch for

• Changing the narrator or the voice re-records the whole book — the old audio no longer matches. Listen first, decide once.
• Changing the pronunciation list marks every passage for a new take, since any passage could contain the word. Settle it before you record.
• Voice and narrator are per book, so different books can sound different.