Narrate your audiobook in your own voice

Lesson details

Start by recording yourself reading your own book, from the first chapter, with the tone and pace you want your audiobook to have. Aim for three hours of clean reading in your voice alone, with no background noise and no other speakers. Use the same mic at the same distance the whole time. Record in a quiet room without echo: a friend’s podcast studio or music booth, a church’s production setup, a media agency’s studio, or a rented studio. At home, a good mic inside a closet works too, with thick blankets or pillows on the walls.

Then sign up at elevenlabs.io with your own email and choose the Creator plan or higher. Creator is the cheapest plan that includes a Professional Voice Clone. Open Voices, choose Create Voice, then Professional Voice Clone, then Create new clone. Give your voice a name, choose Upload samples, add your files, and choose Next.

ElevenLabs asks you to verify that the voice is yours. Your phone or computer microphone works for this: choose Start recording, read the line on screen once, then choose Submit recording. Training starts on its own and takes two to six hours. ElevenLabs emails you when your voice is ready.

Listen to your voice before you share it, because a shared voice can’t be edited. Then open the voice’s menu, choose Share voice, turn on the Anyone with the link toggle, and email the link only to hello@storybase.io, from the email address you use for Storybase, with your book’s title. Leave sharing and your plan on until your audiobook is finished, because we narrate with that shared voice. Once we add your voice, it appears at the top of your audiobook’s Voice step in Storybase, where only you see it. Choose Use this voice and finish your audiobook the same way you would with any narrator.

Frequently asked questions