As promised, here is my report on my experiences with the various free programs to convert ebooks into auto-generated audiobooks.
The first off Google.
Google’s conversion process offers 12 female and 12 male voice options with various accents.
You can use different voices for different characters within the book.
You can listen to the book, modify the pronunciation of words, and edit the text of the book. Improvements to the technology are automatically applied to all audio books.
You can charge and change your price as you like, including free.
The process is pretty simple, given the many options.
It takes only hours for the audiobook to be available for sale.
Next Apple via Draft2Digital.
This service offers you essentially no options. Apple/D2D chooses from 2 female and 2 male voices according to the story’s genre.
You can not listen to the narration before the book is released nor modify pronunciation or text.
You can charge what you like. Changes after release will cost money. You cannot withdraw the audiobook in the first six months.
The process takes a minute, given that you essentially have no options to choose from beyond price.
You can set your price, including free.
It takes months for audiobooks to be available for sale. Five of the twelve ebooks I uploaded on the first of January 2024 remain unconverted on the 29th of April 2024. Conversions appeared at random over the course of five months.
Lastly, Amazon.
You currently have a choice of five female voices including one with a British Accent, and three male voices. More are promised coming this summer.
Promised upgrades this summer include using different voices for different chapters, and improvements to the voices. It seems that you will need to manually republish the book to receive the upgrades.
You can listen to your audiobook and edit pronunciation and the speed a word is spoken prior to release.
You are limited to books under about 240K words, or 27 hours of audiobook narration.
Books require a table of contents. The Kindle Create app will add tables of contents automatically.
The process is simple, and depending on how much you want to review and modify, fast.
Minimum price is $3.99. Audiobooks are listed in both Audible and Amazon
Are auto-generated audiobooks worth it?
Note: My audiobooks are free on Google & Apple.
Google – First month sales 431 audiobooks vs 288 ebooks. Second month 1,179 audiobooks vs 506 ebooks, with 5,813 audiobooks sold April 2022 – Dec 2022. This month, April 2024 I’ve sold 461 copies of both audiobooks and ebooks to date.
Apple – Given the erratic release of my books, and the limits of D2D reports, I’ll offer my March and April-to-date numbers. In March I sold 33 audiobooks vs 63 ebooks. In April to date (28th) I’ve sold 51 audiobooks vs 83 ebooks. Five month total: 127 audiobooks sold.
Amazon – I am only including the sales of books at retail price. In March I sold five $3.99 audiobooks vs 40 paid books. Of those 40, 24 were my new releases. In April I sold 2 audiobooks vs 15 retail priced ebooks.
Major downsides.
Google – the necessity of converting your manuscript into an epub on your own which may not provide a perfect ebook to convert. The last book I converted missed chapter headings, so they did not appear in the table of contents for the audiobook, though the text was there. I changed the chapters titles to include them.
Apple – The lack of any options or control over the product and their whimsical attitude to actually publishing the audiobook.
Amazon – the limit to the length of the book, the limits to pricing.
My takeaway.
Audiobooks increase total sales significantly, and can boost ebook sales as well – in proportion to ebook sales volume. They extend your reach into a new and growing market. And, well, you’re in the game at no expense to you.
Auto-generated audiobooks provide an acceptable listening experience, especially if priced below human-voiced audiobooks. I’ve had no reviews critical of the narration, and rating parallel the ebook version. They will only get better over time. And probably fast.
All three programs are free to use vs hundreds to thousands of dollars needed for a human to read your book. This gives you flexibility in pricing.