Frequently Asked Questions

You pay a flat per-book fee based on length. Early bird pricing with a Narrated voice: $49 for a Novella (up to 60,000 words), $79 for a Novel (60,001–100,000 words), and $99 for a Tome (100,001–150,000 words). With a Performed voice: $149, $229 and $299 for the same lengths. There is no subscription, no monthly fee, and no per-minute audio charge. You pay only if you decide to buy, after hearing your free first chapter.

Yes, you get a free first-chapter preview before payment. After signing up for a free account, you can upload your book file and receive a fully produced audio version of your first chapter at no cost. The preview uses the same AI voices and production pipeline as the paid output: same audio quality, same mastering targets, same M4B structure. What you hear is exactly what the rest of your book will sound like. There is no credit card required to get your free chapter preview.

You can download your full audiobook as soon as your payment is confirmed, because it is already produced before you pay. Once production is complete, we email you and you can hear your free first chapter in your TomeVox dashboard. If you like it, choose Unlock full book. After payment is confirmed, the finished audiobook (an M4B with chapter markers plus per-chapter MP3s) is ready to download from the same place, with no further production wait.

We accept all major credit and debit cards, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover, via Stripe. All transactions are processed securely by Stripe. We do not currently accept PayPal or bank transfer. Your card details are never stored on TomeVox's servers.

Yes, we offer bulk pricing for publishers and authors producing 5 or more titles. Contact [email protected] with a list of your titles and approximate word counts to receive a custom quote. Volume discounts are also available for series authors who plan to produce a complete backlist.

Books over 150,000 words are priced by length: the Tome price plus a charge for each word above 150,000. Narrated: $99 + $0.0005 per extra word. Performed: $299 + $0.0015 per extra word. For example, a 200,000-word book costs $99 + (50,000 × $0.0005) = $124 Narrated, or $299 + (50,000 × $0.0015) = $374 Performed. There is no upper word limit. Very long works, including omnibus editions, multi-volume collections, and reference books, are all supported. Contact [email protected] if you have questions about your specific title.

You are never charged for a production that fails on TomeVox's side, because you pay only after your audiobook is finished. If a delivered file fails our stated technical specifications because of a fault on our side, we regenerate it at no charge or, where that is not possible, refund you in full. If you are unhappy with the output quality, contact support within 7 days of purchase. We offer a credit toward re-production with a different voice or adjusted settings, or a refund at our discretion. Because the free first-chapter preview gives you an accurate sample of the final output quality before you commit payment, refund requests are uncommon.

TomeVox accepts EPUB, PDF, DOCX (Microsoft Word), and TXT files. EPUB is the recommended format because it preserves chapter structure, heading hierarchy, and metadata natively. PDF and DOCX files are parsed for heading structure and formatting.

Yes, scanned PDFs work, but narration quality depends on scan quality. TomeVox runs OCR automatically on image-based PDFs (scans), and a clean 300 DPI or higher scan typically produces accurate text extraction. Very low-quality scans, handwritten pages, or damaged documents may produce text extraction errors that will appear in the narration. For scanned manuscripts, always review the free first-chapter preview carefully before you buy.

Footnotes and endnotes are read as parenthetical content at the point they appear in the text. Running headers, such as the repeated chapter title or author name that appears at the top of printed pages, are detected from document structure and excluded from narration to avoid interrupting the flow.

Tables are narrated as a structured list with row and column context. Charts and graphs, being visual content, are represented by any text labels or captions associated with them. Image captions are read as labeled content. For books that are heavily visual, such as art books, photography books, or books with extensive data tables, some content will translate imperfectly to audio by its nature. TomeVox's first-chapter preview shows authors exactly how their specific content is handled before you buy.

TomeVox supports 13 languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. English voices are available in American and British accents (male and female), each with 2 reading styles: Classic and Expressive. All voices are built for long-form narration, with consistent character and emotional range across hours of content. Preview any voice on your actual book during the free first-chapter preview. You can also have the whole book narrated in your own voice (voice cloning): upload a short sample and we read it in your voice. Performed, our newest range, adds 12 voices each in English (US and UK accents), Spanish and Swedish that shape their tone, pacing and breath to each scene; Performed vs Narrated explains the difference.

Dialogue gets its own treatment: quoted speech takes a warmer, more conversational register while narration stays steady and clear. Most AI narration tools read dialogue and narration in exactly the same flat tone: the narrator says "she whispered" and then delivers the whispered line at full pace with no shift at all. That distinction is what makes long-form fiction listenable. The Cheshire Cat passage in our demo is a good test: it's almost entirely dialogue, and you can hear the difference clearly.

Yes, the voices are trained to handle fiction genres including romance, thriller, and fantasy. They render emotional intensity in romance without sounding melodramatic, maintain tension in thriller pacing without mechanical monotony, and handle fantasy proper nouns and invented names with consistent pronunciation across the full manuscript. The AI interprets punctuation, including breaks, ellipses, and question marks, to guide natural timing and emphasis in a way that serves storytelling rather than just reading text aloud.

Yes, we can narrate children's books with voices suited to children's content, with warmer and more animated tonal styles that hold a young listener's attention. The pipeline handles shorter sentence structures, repetition, and simple vocabulary naturally. For picture books and early readers especially, the expressive quality of the narration matters as much as accuracy.

Every completed TomeVox production includes two deliverables: (1) an M4B audiobook file with embedded chapter markers, table of contents, cover art, and author/title metadata; and (2) a ZIP archive of individual per-chapter MP3 files, formatted to professional distribution specifications (44.1 kHz, 192 kbps, ACX loudness range). These distribution-ready files upload directly to Google Play Books and Kobo Writing Life, or go wide to Apple Books, Spotify, and more through an AI-friendly aggregator such as PublishDrive or Author's Republic (Author's Republic also unlocks Chirp). You can also sell direct from your own site (Payhip, Gumroad, BookFunnel). Disclose AI/digital-voice narration wherever a platform asks, and as best practice everywhere.

Yes, the output is mastered to ACX-style technical specifications (the spec most stores check against) without any manual adjustment: 44.1 kHz sample rate, 192 kbps CBR MP3, peak levels at -3 dBFS or lower, RMS around -20 dBFS (within ACX's required -23 to -18 dBFS range), noise floor at or below -60 dBFS, and properly timed room tone buffers at the start and end of each chapter file. Note: standard ACX submission requires human narration; Audible is rolling out acceptance of third-party AI-narrated audio but it is not yet open to all independent authors (as of 2026), so contact ACX support to ask. See our ACX specs guide for a full breakdown.

Most TomeVox audiobook productions are ready well within 24 hours, often much sooner. Processing runs asynchronously in the background, so authors don't need to keep their browser open. TomeVox sends an email notification when your audiobook is ready. We produce the whole book before you pay, so you hear your free first chapter first, and once you pay there is no further production wait.

Every TomeVox audiobook is automatically checked for technical quality before delivery. Some projects may be paused for manual review where rights, safety, or technical issues are detected.

Yes, you retain full commercial rights to the audiobook TomeVox produces, with no exclusivity. Upload directly to Google Play Books and Kobo Writing Life, go wide to Apple Books and Spotify through an AI-friendly aggregator (PublishDrive or Author's Republic, which also unlocks Chirp), or sell direct from your own website. TomeVox claims no royalties, rights, or revenue share from your sales. There is no royalty share with a narrator, so you keep your full share of each sale, minus only the retailer's standard cut. The audio file is yours.

Standard ACX submission requires human narration. Audible is rolling out acceptance of third-party AI-narrated audio, but it is not yet open to all independent authors (as of 2026), so contact ACX support to ask. Separately, Amazon's KDP Virtual Voice can generate AI narration from your ebook text, which is a different product from uploading your own files and does not accept author-supplied audio. To distribute a TomeVox file today, upload directly to Google Play Books and Kobo Writing Life, or go wide to Apple Books and Spotify through an AI-friendly aggregator such as PublishDrive or Author's Republic (Author's Republic also unlocks Chirp). Note: INaudio accepts AI narration only when produced via Google Play Books, ElevenLabs, or Spoken Press, so it is not a route for an external TomeVox file. Disclose AI/digital-voice narration wherever a platform asks, and as best practice everywhere.

Yes, your audiobook can be distributed to Spotify Audiobooks and Apple Books through AI-friendly aggregators, while Google Play Books and Kobo Writing Life accept AI-narrated files via direct upload. For Spotify and Apple Books, go wide through an AI-friendly aggregator such as PublishDrive or Author's Republic (Author's Republic also unlocks Chirp), since those stores ingest external AI audio through a distributor rather than a direct upload. Note that Apple Books' paid-audiobook program isn't open in every region, so availability varies by market. INaudio (formerly Findaway Voices) accepts AI narration only when produced via Google Play Books, ElevenLabs, or Spoken Press, so it is not a route for an external TomeVox file. All of these require you to disclose AI/digital-voice narration. Platform policies continue to evolve, so check each platform's current content policy before submitting.

Yes, TomeVox is built for self-published authors producing an audiobook independently. You don't need a publisher, an ISBN, a distributor agreement, or any third-party involvement. You need a manuscript file and a TomeVox account. The resulting audiobook files are yours to distribute independently. Upload directly to Google Play Books and Kobo, go wide to Apple Books and Spotify through an AI-friendly aggregator, or sell direct from your own site.

We keep your finished audiobook files (M4B and MP3) available to re-download for 90 days after purchase. Your uploaded manuscript and the working master files used to make corrections are deleted 14 days after purchase. See our Privacy Policy for the full retention details. We do not use your manuscript content for AI training, model improvement, or any purpose other than producing your audiobook.