#ScribesAndMakers 10: What's your preferred format for reading (hardcopy, e-book, audio)? Is it the same for publishing?

Ebooks for reading, unless it is something with a lot of illustrations, where hardcopy remains better. Audio books have a data transfer rate that is far too slow to be useful, but full cast recordings can be amusing.

For publishing, I can't afford audio publication, so it's ebooks and hardcopy. I hope people mostly buy ebooks: POD royalties are minimal at sane price points.

@elysegrasso Draft2Digitial has a new free audiobook publishing promotion using digital voices via Apple Books. I published two of my books as audio books via that.

They say that it will take a couple of months for a book to be published, but in my case I think it took about a month. No sales that I know of, but the book is available on Apple Books as an audio book.

@f How does the process work? Did you listen to your book all the way through before it was released, to be sure the narration was adequate?

I am not tempted at all by the thought of listening to digital voices. Readings with human intelligence behind them are hard enough to listen to without falling asleep or having my attention drift. Even live author readings with a physical presence are iffy.

@elysegrasso You don't have a lot of control over the process. They let you choose from a list of voices and if I recall correctly, that's about it. You are totally hands-off after that.

They used the EPUB version of my book and I was not provided the option to proof it after the conversion to audio book was complete. It just went up for sale and I was informed that the audiobook is now up for sale.

So yeah, not a lot of control or QA at all. Unless of course, Apple does the QA at their end, but I doubt it.

The voices are better than the usual very computer sounding ones you get with text-to-speech readers, but not as good as an actual voice.

I did do another version of the book with somebody on a profit sharing basis via acx.com and that was very good and at no cost to me, but then the resulting book is limited to Audible. The process was longer but if you find the right person willing to work with you, the end result is much better.

All a matter of what compromises you are willing to accept I guess?

Related to formats... Inventing the Renaissance by @adapalmer just arrived. I bought the hardcovers rather than the ebook because the prices were comparable and it seemed appropriate, somehow. But it has been a while since I dealt with a 700+ page hardback, and my wrists (and fingers, oddly enough) are not pleased with me. I've finished the first 100+ page Section - which is great - but I think I'm going to set it aside for a few hours and do something else while my wrists un-kink.

@elysegrasso I know that scenario well.

@asleepyfrog I've been reading mostly ebooks for so long that I had forgotten it...