How to get started with Apple Books digital narration

Sign up with a preferred partner

Apple’s preferred partners make digitally narrated audiobook production and distribution simple.

Draft2Digital: Independent authors currently selling ebooks directly on Apple Books or through Draft2Digital can work with them to produce and distribute audiobooks narrated by Apple Books.

Ingram CoreSource: Existing and new publishing clients can work with Ingram to produce and distribute audiobooks narrated by Apple Books.

PublishDrive: Publishers and independent authors can work with PublishDrive to produce and distribute audiobooks narrated by Apple Books.

Here are some steps to get set up with one of our preferred partners. You can find additional requirements for eligible ebooks as you start to work with them.

Select your title

We are currently accepting title nominations via preferred partners based on the following guidelines.

• Ebook must be available on Apple Books.
• You must own the rights to produce the audiobook.
• Primary category must be romance, fiction, mystery and thriller, or science fiction and fantasy.
• Book must be in English.

Nominations will be evaluated based on several criteria, including file quality, content compatibility (no complex formatting elements, and limited foreign language words and phrases), and editorial review. Note that since every book is unique, even titles that meet these requirements may not pass synthesis. We are working to expand the program and qualify more titles, so if nominations are not currently accepted, they may still be eligible in the future. More details on title candidate criteria can be found on partner sites.

Select your voice

Listen to the samples for your genre and choose which type of voice works best. Titles will appear in the store as “Narrated by Apple Books.”

Choose your cover art

You can provide custom cover art for your audiobook if it meets cover requirements. If you do not submit a custom cover, Apple will convert your rectangular ebook cover into a square audiobook cover by adding a customized background inspired by the colors of your cover art.

Add a description

Get tips on crafting a compelling description for your audiobook.

Decide on a release date

Once your request is submitted, it takes one to two months to process the book and conduct quality checks. If the digitally narrated audiobook meets our quality and content standards, your audiobook will be ready to publish on the store. If your chosen release date does not allow sufficient time for production, your audiobook will go live as soon as it’s completed. Pre-orders are not currently supported.