Audio Ebook version of ebooks

[John Cabral]

Hi,

Need your input on an ebook I converted to an mp3. you can listen to it at player

I plan to do this with all my ebooks that I have ( over 500). Most of us have tons of ebooks to read but wouldn't it be nice to have them on your Ipod, MP3 players.

Looking forward to your feedback. I will try different voices and you have to play around with the files and voices as some voices sound crappy.

This one does not sound too back.

My other option is to read the darn ebook and record but I think this can work.

John

Edit: Can you tell me if it sounds deecent or if it sucks? Trying to find the best voice for converting ebooks.

Thanks

[Colin Palfrey]

Sounds hypnotic. You could stick a twist on it and tell people to put headphones on and listen to it subliminally whilst sleeping.

Anyway I think you will need to say something about the fact it's not a human reading it as it's clearly not a normal style of speech. It's good though, I still liked it.

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Smart!

It's a great idea to convert your e-books to audio and/or video. I'm doing that for several Warriors right now because I have a background in doing professional voiceovers, narration, and announcing. It is really going enhance their product offerings.

[John Cabral]

Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly

Smart!

It's a great idea to convert your e-books to audio and/or video. I'm doing that for several Warriors right now because I have a background in doing professional voiceovers, narration, and announcing. It is really going enhance their product offerings.

Steven,

I like the idea since I can put the ebooks on my MP3 player and listen anything and don't need a computer.

Do you use a real person to read the ebook and record it? I don't think my voice would be all that appealling. lol

I am trying to find a voice that is as realistic to a human as possible any suggestions?

John

[Kenneth Fox]

As long as the audio is a professional sounding
voice over, I think it's a great addition to the ebook
but I can't listen to 45 minutes of that robotic
voice over you hear in many of the audiobooks.

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Originally Posted by John Cabral

Do you use a real person to read the ebook and record it? I don't think my voice would be all that appealling. lol

Yes, I myself do the voiceover. This isn't some mechanical or electronic speech, instead it is a living, breathing person who reads your text into audio format.

Click on the link in my sig for information and an example.

[David Wolfman]

Proper voice makes all the difference for the ears of the customer, as it's hard to get focused on the message when you're trying either falling asleep from boredom or trying to decipher every 7th word.

The quality of your products has impact on reoccurring purchases.

[Jillian Slack]

Hi John,

Offering audio book versions of your ebooks is a fabulous idea.

There are plenty of people who (believe it or not) simply do not enjoy reading.

And there are a lot of us who are avid readers, but also enjoy having the option of listening to something while we work, while we are driving, etc.

However, this robo-guy is just not doing it for me. Sorry!

Why not read it yourself and create an mp3 file? If you have a nice voice, it could be an option for you if you simply can't afford a voiceover artist at this point.

There are tons of great voiceover people out there.

If someone is going to listen to your ebook, they need to be able to enjoy it and that simply isn't possible with this robo-voice dude.

[John Cabral]

Originally Posted by Jillian Slack

Hi John,

Offering audio book versions of your ebooks is a fabulous idea.

There are plenty of people who (believe it or not) simply do not enjoy reading.

And there are a lot of us who are avid readers, but also enjoy having the option of listening to something while we work, while we are driving, etc.

However, this robo-guy is just not doing it for me. Sorry!

Why not read it yourself and create an mp3 file? If you have a nice voice, it could be an option for you if you simply can't afford a voiceover artist at this point.

There are tons of great voiceover people out there.

If someone is going to listen to your ebook, they need to be able to enjoy it and that simply isn't possible with this robo-voice dude.

Yes the voice is not human but I have tried 16 different voices from different companies and that was one of the best ones. The other ones really sounded robotic...

As for voice over I know that is the best way but my budget is pretty much zero as when the economy went South so did my job.

After working in my field for 20 yrs and being degreed I have only worked 7 months in the past 2 yrs :-(

Doing the audio ebooks with software was an idea since I use a software that works with
most file types including pdf and with FF I thought if I could get a decent voice it would add an extra value.

Guess I will scrap the idea for now.

Thanks for the input.

[Sonomacats]

GREAT IDEA!!!

And I agree with what others have already said - do you're own voice-over or get someone with a good voice to do it for you. I'd be willing to bet you could partner with someone for that - they do the recording and get a percentage of the profits. If they have a great voice, it will be worth it. Especially if you have a lot of eBooks.

Check on Craigslist or try to get someone from the local college who wants to get into voice-overs, theatre, film, etc. They'll jump at a chance to build a portfolio. Not to mention the people here on the Warrior Forum who offer those services. Professional sounding audios are worth their weight in gold. You can get by with less than perfect video, but not audio.

But, again, FABULOUS idea. I wish I had thought of that! (On the other hand, I've now added it to my to do list, as well.

Let us know what you decide to do or how it ends up.

[John Cabral]

Originally Posted by Sonomacats

GREAT IDEA!!!

And I agree with what others have already said - do you're own voice-over or get someone with a good voice to do it for you. I'd be willing to bet you could partner with someone for that - they do the recording and get a percentage of the profits. If they have a great voice, it will be worth it. Especially if you have a lot of eBooks.

Check on Craigslist or try to get someone from the local college who wants to get into voice-overs, theatre, film, etc. They'll jump at a chance to build a portfolio. Not to mention the people here on the Warrior Forum who offer those services. Professional sounding audios are worth their weight in gold. You can get by with less than perfect video, but not audio.

But, again, FABULOUS idea. I wish I had thought of that! (On the other hand, I've now added it to my to do list, as well.

Let us know what you decide to do or how it ends up.

Yeah I have alot and don't really have the time to read them plus when I was working I was on the computer 8-10 hrs so I figured making books into audio and listening to them would get me to at least listen to them.

I guess for now since I don't have any money to hire anyone I will use the software with the ATT voices and just do it for me. :-(

[Sonomacats]

You don't need money. Get someone who wants to put a portfolio together and offer them a percentage of Adsense income in return - or just a reference and a ton of portfolio pieces. You'd be amazed at the response you'll get. Start with Craigslist in your area and then move outward until you get a response. Cities with good theatre companies or schools with theatre or film programs are perfect for this.

I'm currently doing some video work for free so I'll have some samples so I can get more video editing work. And there are a ton of others out there. Just put out the word and you'll get a voice.

And, if it works out and you like the way they sound (and they do good work), you can offer them a cut of the revenue down the line. They only make money when you do. No money up front.

[Sonomacats]

I was having lunch with a friend to day who mentioned a technology that turns typing into speech. So I did a Google (turn text into speech) and found Text to speech software with Natural Voices-- Free NaturalReader.

Some of the voices were a bit robotic (think Stephen Hawking), but several were REALLY good. And it's not that expensive.

Also, it looked like there were a number of other choices, but I didn't really look at them after I found Natural Readers as it looked like an excellent option. So if you can't find a real person to do it, check it out!

[VilPietersen@]

Sounds like you're using auto tuner, sure Kanye West wasn't in on it? He could release his own ebooks too...

[Sonomacats]

No - it's NaturalReaders.com

[shaddai]

It's a great idea to convert your e-books to audio and/or video.

Yup, it is. It makes way more sense to do that process in the reverse order though.

1. Record the video with camera's and screen shots, Sell a DVD.
1a. Chop out a couple of giveaway segments & put them on youtube as howto's...link back to DVD & related materials.
1b. Use shorter segments & create commercials...off to viddler with those.
2. Strip & re-edit the audio from the video, Sell an audio book.
2a. Shorten it more, sell 25 minute mp3's on iTunes/Amazon etc etc
2c. Chop yourself out some audio to make commercials for your CD & DVD for people's podcasts.
3. Transcribe CD audio to text, sell it as an eBook/WSO.
4. Condense the text, use for free-ebook that gives someone a taste of what you're selling, with links to the DVD & related products.
5. Condense to paragraph size, quote it on Facebook, forums, squidoo, EZA...include links to DVD & eBooks "for more information".
6. Condense to short tips, build a following on twitter, bit.ly them to where they can buy the DVD & related products :-)

Did I leave anything out?

Oh yeah...someone buy me a good video camera so I can do that too :-)

Todd

[John Cabral]

Originally Posted by Sonomacats

No - it's NaturalReaders.com

I tried that one but its very limited. My friend has TextAloud which can read pdf files, word or text and even has a pluging for FF. I tried all the different voices and the two best ones where from NeoSoft which is what I used for the sample at player

You can't compare to a real life voice but I thought it was pretty good.

[BIG Mike]

I didn't like it - there weren't a lot of pauses between sections and no real intonation...made me sleepy, LOL.

I agree with the others - do it in your own voice for now. You can always hire someone professional later to re-record it if you think you need it.