Emily Henry Narrator Has Recorded Over 700 Audiobooks Because Workers Are ‘Notoriously Ill Paid'
Audiobooks have been gaining popularity over the last few decades. If you're a fan of them, then Julia Whelan is probably one of the voices that you've heard before. She is a professional narrator who has worked on novels written by bestselling authors like Gillian Flynn, Emily Henry, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Kristen Hannah, and Freida McFadden.
In an exclusive interview with E! News, Whelan spoke about the process of recording an audiobook, which is much more work than most readers realize. "When I get an offer for an audiobook, I don't have time to read the book ahead of time to make the decision, and the publisher doesn't have time to wait for me, so I have to just kind of go on vibes," she explained. "Is it an author that I either know or I've always wanted to work for? Does the synopsis sound interesting?"
She went on to say, "My decision-making process really boils down to the fact that I am a book nerd who, if I read a flap, and I would pay $27 for that book, that's enough of an indication for me that I want to do it."
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Even though Whelan has worked on hit books that are beloved by readers, she revealed that the amount of money that narrators typically make isn't high, especially for the amount of hours they are required to put in. "It's about four hours of work to one finished hour of audio," she explained, but they are paid based on finished runtime.
"Because audio books are notoriously ill paid, I would do 70 books a year to keep my head above water," she said, confessing that she once recorded a new audiobook every four days or so.
In addition to the many hours it takes to prep and record, the work can also strain your voice. "I ran myself into the ground," she said. "I had a doctor say, ‘If you don't give yourself a 30-day vocal rest, I can't guarantee you're going to get your voice back.' That was the wake-up call that I needed to start prioritizing my vocal health and also mental health. It's not good to be like locked in that booth for eight hours a day-physically, mentally-in the intensity of telling these stories."
She claims she made a change after working on her debut novel. "I wrote My Oxford Year under those conditions, almost had a breakdown and said I would not write another book until I had changed my work life," she explained. "I slowly started raising my rate and cutting back on the number of books I would do. There are a lot of narrators who have recorded way more books than I do because they're still doing it at that pace."
Whelan has several books of her own available, including Thank You for Listening, which is a contemporary romance novel about former actress who becomes a successful audiobook narrator.
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This story was originally published April 18, 2026 at 6:19 AM.