🛠️ Getting Started & The Dashboard

When you open Spoken Studio, you have three primary paths to kick off your journey:

• Start a New Project: Click this when you are ready to upload and build your own audiobook from scratch.
• Clone a Story: If you just want to test things out, practice, and explore the interface without using your own material, choose this option to clone an existing story.
• Need Help? The Spoken Producer Marketplace: If you ever need a professional to jump in and help you complete or perfect your audiobook, you can hire a professional directly from our marketplace of Spoken Certified Producers. www.spoken.press/findmyproducer

📂 Step 1: Project Manager & Manuscript Upload

The Project Manager is the first of five crucial tabs in the audiobook creation process. This is where you upload your text and lay down the foundation of your project.

Document Upload Rules & Formatting

To ensure your chapter separations are absolutely perfect, follow these strict file formatting guidelines:

• ePub Files: Highly recommended for manuscripts over 20,000 words. ePub files are automatically parsed and organized by chapters through our system.
• Word Documents (.docx): You can upload an entire novel or multiple chapters/installments serially. However, if your document contains multiple chapters, you must place the tag <INSTALLMENTMARKER> immediately before your chapter or section headers so the system can separate your work accurately.
• Manual Text Input: Best for shorter stories or stand-alone pieces. Manual text upload is strictly limited to a maximum of 20,000 words.
• PDF Format: PDFs should be used for screenplays only, NOT for narrative stories.
• Existing Audio Files: If you have pre-recorded audio files, they must be loaded separately for each individual chapter.

🔮 Step 2: The Confabulate Process (Setting Base Layers)

Once your story is uploaded, click Confabulate. Magic Mode is entirely built on layers, and the "Confabulate" phase develops the underlying initial layer of your project by analyzing the basic information of your work:

• Language
• Chapter and Uber summaries
• Writing Style
• Genre
• Comparables
• Voice & Narration Style

Next, choose how you want your story delivered:

• Single Narrator or Dual: One voice reads the entire project, or alternating, single, chapter narrators
• Multi-Voice Full Cast Narration: You can manually choose individual voices for every single character, OR you can have Spoken Studio automatically generate a custom, exclusive voice for your main narrator and every single speaking character exactly how you wrote them.

Pacing & Cadence

Select an accent to define the cadence of your main narrator. The system preloads a list of all possible accents based on the language your manuscript is written in.

• Pacing Options: Choose between Leisurely, Normal, or Brisk.

Chapter Management & Automated Tracking

The system automatically populates your chapters into layers.

• You can view, alter, and copy your main project summary as well as individual chapter summaries.
• You can toggle individual chapters on or off for narration.
• Front and Back Matter: Notice that front and back matter are toggled off by default. Spoken Studio automatically derives and automates your Introduction and Closing Credits using your narrator's voice, so there is no need to manually upload text for them.

⚡ Step 3: Generating Passages & Characters

Once your basics are locked in, click Make Passages.

During this phase, the system analyzes the text to understand the narrative arc between characters, crafts descriptions for those characters, and develops prompt structures that derive the perfect, distinct voice for everyone.

🗣️ Step 4: The Lexicon

When the passage generation is complete, you will move to the Lexicon tab to finalize your vocal casting and pronunciation rules.

Lexicon

This section flags all the complex, unique, or unusual words detected in your manuscript that might require pronunciation corrections. Review them here, or easily manually add any words you want to ensure are pronounced correctly. Use phonetics to get the desired pronunciation.

🎙️ Step 5: The Voices Tab (Casting Your Story)

Here, all identified speaking characters from your manuscript are compiled for full multi-voice customization.

🎭 Voices Management Tips & Options

Located on the main layout of the Voices screen, you can reference these casting strategies and voice types at any time:

Casting Modes & Workflows

• Automated Previews: If you chose to auto-generate your cast, you can instantly preview all generated voices here to check their delivery.
• One-by-One Casting: If you didn't auto-generate your cast, you will manually move character by character through this page to assign them a voice profile.
• Flexible Refinement: Remember that you can change character voices and renarrate your passages at any time in the production process.

The Three Voice Casting Options

1. Custom Voice Generation: Build a voice from scratch by entering a descriptive text prompt. The AI will synthesize an exclusive voice identity matching your specific character profile. You can also use custom voices you’ve created in prior projects by searching for, and assigning them.
2. The Voice Library: Cast your role directly from our curated catalog of over 100 paid, professional voice actors. The system will automatically prioritize the ones that make the best fit for your manuscript.
3. Personal Voice Clone: Create an instant digital clone of your own voice. Spoken guides you through this very easy process. Use this option to seamlessly narrate your work or jump in as a character in the cast.

✏️ Step 6: Passages Tab (Proofing & Editing)

Click Make Spoken to enter the Passages tab. Once narration is complete, this is your primary workspace to proof, tweak, and perfect the execution of your audiobook. Progress tracking indicators will show you how far along each chapter is in the layering process.

The Layout

• Characters active in the current chapter are listed clearly at the top.
• The script is entirely color-coded by character for effortless reading.
• Spacing and delivery timing are automatically calculated based on your initial cadence choices and indicated by the colored padding bar before each passage. You can click and drag this bar forward or backward to adjust the pause between lines in millisecond ranges.

💡 Passage Editor Tips & Shortcuts

Located at the top right of the passage editor, you can reference these critical tips at any time:

Magic Mode Performance Tips

• Simple Fixes: If you don't like a specific character delivery, simply click "Regenerate" to try another take in Magic Mode.
• Swapping to Text-to-Speech (TTS): If you wish to make a textual change, or switch from Magic Mode to standard text-to-speech, click the Magic Button (the wand icon) to flip the passage over to TTS mode.
• Speak-It Mode: If you want a highly specific delivery, select Speak-It mode, plug in a microphone, or use your device's direct mic, and record the line yourself. The system will process it to come out seamlessly through that character's designated voice.
• Emotional Cueing: For Text-to-Speech passages, utilize the emotional cue field to meticulously control the mood and delivery style.
• Re-attribution: If a line is misattributed to the wrong character, click the character assignment dropdown on the passage to swap it to another existing character or add a brand-new one on the fly.

Cursor & Editing Shortcuts

• Split a Passage: Place your cursor in the text exactly where you want the split to occur and press Enter.
• Join Passages/Paragraphs: Place your cursor at the very beginning of a passage and press Backspace or Delete to merge it with the preceding one.
• Add a New Blank Passage: Place your cursor at the absolute beginning or end of an existing passage and press Enter.
• Add a New Line Break: Place your cursor at the beginning or end of a passage where you want to insert the break, and hit Enter.
• Manual Insertion Menu: Alternatively, you can click "Insert a Passage" on the top left of your workspace to select:
  • Add passage before this passage
  • Add passage after this passage

🚀 Step 7: Mastering & Publishing

Once you have proofed and approved all of your chapters, navigate to the final Publish tab to launch your audiobook.

Finalization Checklist

• Cover Art: Upload your high-resolution cover art. This will be packaged directly into your final file compilation for deployment to streaming platforms.
• Privacy Controls: Set your privacy settings based on your goals:
  • Private: Keeping it completely to yourself.
  • Unlisted: Generates a private link you can share directly with friends or beta listeners to stream right on Spoken.
  • Public: Publishes your project directly onto the public Spoken platform for anyone to discover and enjoy.
• Intro & Outro Customization: The system defaults to your main narrator reading the automated introduction and closing credits. However, you can change this settings block to allow any character from your story to read them. You can also upload a completely custom, personal audio intro file.
• Chapter Selection: Check the boxes for the specific chapters you wish to publish (or select all).
• Rights Certification: Check the box certifying that you own or hold the legal rights to publish the work.

The Finish Line

Click Publish! Your project will enter the Mastering Process, where Spoken Studio seamlessly blends, balances, and normalizes the audio levels of all passages, sound effects, and voices into a single cohesive file.

Once complete, your full-cast digital audiobook is ready for the world! You can now download your project either as individual MP3s, a ZIP file containing each chapter, or an LPF file containing metadata, necessary for certain distribution partners. Download from the top right of your Project Page with the download icon, or from the Publish tab within Studio.

Happy Narrating!