Can I share or sell my audiobook?

What you may do with the audiobook follows your book's license. The audiobook never gets more rights than the book.

  • Personal License: listen yourself, share it with your household, or give it to the person you made the book for. No posting it online or handing it to a group.
  • Educational License: share it with your students or class for free.
  • Commercial License: give it away for free to clients, course members, or your audience. No selling.
  • Author License: sell it or publish it under your own name.

Every audiobook opens with spoken credits saying it was written and narrated by AI. Personal and Educational audiobooks also say "A TailoredRead audiobook", and their ZIP includes "License and disclaimer.txt". Commercial and Author audiobooks don't mention TailoredRead, and their ZIP holds only the audio files. Their downloads also include a Retail sample (MP3) under 5 minutes and a Square cover (JPG) of 3000 by 3000 pixels, for store listings. The opening and closing credits are their own files in the ZIP.

To get the files, open the book, press the headphones button, and press Download. See How do I get an audiobook of my book?.

Course platforms (Commercial or Author)

Course players want one file per chapter, so download Chapters (ZIP) and extract it.

  • Teachable: add an audio lesson and upload the chapter file. MP3 is what it recommends.
  • Kajabi: create a private podcast product and add each chapter as an episode, or import your podcast link.
  • Podia: add the chapter files to a lesson, and they play as audio lessons.
  • Thinkific: audio lessons are limited to 25 MB per file, about 17 minutes at this quality. Longer chapters need splitting in an audio editor first.

Selling direct (Author)

Upload the M4B and the ZIP to your store and let buyers pick.

  • Payhip: several files per product, up to 5 GB each.
  • Shopify Digital Products: up to 50 files and 5 GB per product, with a 500 MB limit per file uploaded through the product page.
  • Lemon Squeezy: any file type, up to 5 GB per product.

Audiobook stores (Author)

Each store applies its own rules and review, so check its current requirements before you submit. Three stores publish rules that allow AI narration when you declare it:

  • Google Play Books: upload the chapter files or the ZIP, and declare the narration as Synthesized voice. It wants MP3 at 128 kbps or higher, a cover between 1024 and 7200 pixels, and a ZIP with nothing but audio in it.
  • Kobo Writing Life: MP3 only, one file per chapter, under 200 MB per file and 2 GB per book, and a square cover of at least 600 pixels. It asks for its own synthesized-voice narrator credit.
  • Spotify for Authors: MP3 at 192 kbps and 44.1 kHz, one file per chapter under 120 minutes, opening credits, a sample of at most 5 minutes, and a 3000 pixel cover. Tick the digital voice narration option when you submit.

TailoredRead files are 192 kbps MP3 at 44.1 kHz with separate credit files, so they match these specs. The retail sample and square cover in the downloads cover the Spotify and Google requirements.

Two stores don't take it:

  • Audible (ACX) requires human narration unless Audible itself authorizes otherwise.
  • INaudio (Findaway) accepts AI narration only as an unmodified package from a few named providers, and TailoredRead isn't one of them.

Apple Books takes audiobooks only through distributors, and we haven't confirmed whether they accept AI narration.

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