How do you turn a chapter into a full-cast audiobook?
Parse the chapter into a script, check who says each line, give every character a voice, then generate and export. Four steps, one chapter at a time.
You turn a chapter into a full-cast audiobook in four steps: parse the text into a script, check who says each line, give every character a voice, then generate the audio and export it as one file. You work one chapter at a time, and nothing you have already produced has to be redone when you fix a line.
AudioForge is a production tool that turns a manuscript into a multi-voice audiobook, with a distinct voice for every character. The steps below are the same ones shown in the help center, with what to look for at each stage.
Below: what you need to start, how the script is made, how casting and direction work, and how the finished chapter comes out.
What do you need before you start?
A chapter of your manuscript and a free account. You create a book, then add text in whichever way suits you.
- Paste a chapter straight in.
- Upload a chapter as a .docx or .txt file.
- Import a whole manuscript as .docx, .txt or PDF. It is split into chapters, which you can rename, reorder, split or join before anything else happens.
Each chapter becomes its own audio file. That is why serials are a natural fit: you can produce a chapter as soon as it is written.
How does a chapter become a script?
The parser reads your prose and writes it out as a screenplay. Every line gets two labels: who speaks it, and how it should be delivered. A nervous aside and a shouted warning from the same character end up with different directions.
The parser is not always certain. When it cannot tell who said a line, the line carries an Unsure tag, and "Next uncertain line" takes you from one to the next. Checking those lines is the most valuable few minutes you will spend, because a wrong speaker is much easier to fix in the script than to notice in the audio.
How do you cast the voices?
You pick a voice for the narrator and for each character from the Voice Library. Casting is saved for the whole book, so a character who appears in chapter one sounds the same in chapter forty.
Two things help with a long series:
- Mark voices you like as favourites so you can find them again.
- Add invented names to the book's pronunciation glossary once, so they are said the same way every time.
How do you direct a line?
You edit it. In the Director Studio any line can be changed: the speaker, the delivery, the text itself, or the pause after it. What is in the script is what gets voiced, so a correction on the page is a correction in the audio.
You do not need to direct every line. Read through a tense scene, adjust the deliveries that matter, and leave the rest. Edits save automatically, and undo and redo work as you would expect.
How do you get the finished audio?
You generate the chapter and download one file. Generation runs in the background, so you can leave the page and a notification tells you when it is done.
| Step | What you do | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Parse | Add the chapter | The text becomes a script with a speaker and a delivery on every line |
| Check | Go through the Unsure lines | Each line ends up with the right speaker |
| Cast | Choose voices | The cast is saved for the whole book |
| Generate | Start the chapter | Every line is voiced and stitched, with your pauses, into one MP3 |
Listen to the result. If a line sounds wrong, change it and regenerate. Only the lines you changed are produced again, and everything else is reused.
The bottom line
A full-cast chapter is four steps: parse, check, cast, generate. The parser does the heavy lifting and flags what it is unsure about, so your time goes into decisions rather than recording. Start with a single chapter, listen to it, and fix individual lines until it sounds the way you hear it. You can try it with one chapter for free during early access.
FAQ
How long does it take to produce one chapter?
Parsing and generating a long chapter can take a few minutes, and it is safe to leave the page while a job runs. Most of your own time goes into checking the cast and listening, not waiting.
Do I have to upload my whole book at once?
No. You can add one chapter at a time, or import a whole manuscript and have it split into chapters that you check, rename, reorder, split or join.
What happens if the parser gets a speaker wrong?
You change the speaker on that line in the Director Studio. Lines the parser was unsure about carry an Unsure tag, so you can jump straight to them instead of reading the whole script.
Do I pay again when I fix a line?
Only for the line you changed. Unchanged lines are cached and never billed again, and AudioForge is free during early access with no credit card required.
