A couple of days ago, I attended a webinar that’s left me rather giddy with excitement. ElevenLabs—the folks behind those eerily realistic AI voices you’ve probably heard narrating everything from YouTube videos to your nightmares—hosted a session on audiobook creation, and I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s completely changed the game for authors.
Let me put this in perspective. Traditionally, getting an audiobook made was about as accessible as buying a yacht. You’d need to hire a professional narrator (at roughly £200-300 per finished hour), book studio time, and pray your book was commercially viable enough to justify the four-figure investment. Spoiler alert: most indie authors’ books weren’t. Which is why the vast majority of the millions of titles on Amazon have never had a professional narrator speak a single word of them aloud.
But here’s where it gets interesting—and crucially, ethical.
ElevenLabs hasn’t just created a studio that lets authors produce audiobooks using incredibly lifelike digital voices. They’ve done it the right way. Every single one of their hundreds of voices is a clone of a real person who volunteered their voice and gets paid royalties whenever it’s used. No sketchy voice-scraping, no exploitation—just fair compensation for voice actors who’ve opted in. In a world where AI ethics often feels like an afterthought, this is refreshingly decent.
The possibilities are frankly bonkers. Authors can now create multi-voice productions—different characters with different voices—adjust vocal characteristics, add background music, and layer in sound effects. Essentially, you can transform your novel into a fully-fledged audio drama for somewhere between $100-200, depending on length. Then publish it on Spotify and other platforms with just a few clicks.
Let that sink in for a moment. What was once the exclusive domain of big publishers with deep pockets is now available to anyone with a manuscript and a modest budget.
Naturally, I’m now plotting to convert all my existing novels into multi-voice dramas. My inner control freak is positively gleeful at the prospect of casting every character myself. The audiobook revolution has arrived, and I, for one, am here for it.
