[Liviu_5]

Hi,

As it happens there is good text to speech software that sounds almost natural. It costs in the 25-50$ range and I use one such regularly. The free ones I have tried sounded bad, but the commercial ones have decent voices. It is very easy to find such online and try them to see if you like them.
I convert to sound mostly short stories and science articles that I want to read but do not have the energy ( a moderate length novel takes 10 hrs+ of listening) and pop them on my ipod and for longish trips they are quite nice.
For someone who got deprived of his daily 2 hours of train reading (the drawback of working 5' from your house ), that, Ebookwise1150 and more recently Nokia 770 + Fbreader were a "lifesaver"

Liviu

Originally Posted by Jon Westfall

Why haven't I bought your eBooks? There's this little problem I have with finding time for pleasure reading. Now if you had audiobooks, then perhaps I'd be interested, but a 2 1/2 hour commute (round-trip) makes it hard to read an e-book

[Liviu_5]

Hi,

As it happens there is good text to speech software that sounds almost natural. It costs in the 25-50$ range and I use one such regularly. The free ones I have tried sounded bad, but the commercial ones have decent voices. It is very easy to find such online and try them to see if you like them.
I convert to sound mostly short stories and science articles that I want to read but do not have the energy ( a moderate length novel takes 10 hrs+ of listening) and pop them on my ipod and for longish trips they are quite nice.
For someone who got deprived of his daily 2 hours of train reading (the drawback of working 5' from your house ), that, Ebookwise1150 and more recently Nokia 770 + Fbreader were a "lifesaver"

Liviu

Originally Posted by Jon Westfall

Why haven't I bought your eBooks? There's this little problem I have with finding time for pleasure reading. Now if you had audiobooks, then perhaps I'd be interested, but a 2 1/2 hour commute (round-trip) makes it hard to read an e-book

[Don't Panic!]

Welcome liviu_5.

Is that a Pocket PC or MS Smartphone app?

I'd like a more versatile text to speech converter than VoiceCommand for my devices.

If you're talking PC's only, that's cool too.

[dh]

Steve, I've bought hundreds of eBooks over the last few years, but this is the first time I've been aware of your work.

My first thought was that you were that Robert Jordan guy, the one I stopped reading after volume 2321.

[Steve Jordan]

Yeah... nope, wasn't me!

Let me e'splain... no, is too long, let me sum up:

• 1. I've been writing SF for about 15 years,
  2. Never published yet, so
  3. Have tried to get a leg up in the pub market by selling novels as e-books first.
  4. I've gotten good reviews and kudos from my small audience, so I'm
  5. Trying to expand my markets, and
  6. Bugging the PPCT forums incessantly doing it.

And now you're caught up!

[Don't Panic!]

once you join the SFWA Steve you'll be cooking.

Dystoptia in a time of war won't sell though.

Lighten up!

[dMores]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

• 6. Bugging the PPCT forums incessantly doing it.

haha how true

sorry ...
i answered "not interested in SF". i started the free onuissance (spelling?) book, but it was totally not my universe so i stopped.
but i got the feeling you're a pretty good writer, too bad you're ONLY writing SF.
you want to try crime/mystery?

[Liviu_5]

Hi,

The application I use is pc only. The special voices (Crystal and Mike) are AT&T and there are several companies that license them and they occupy about 600 Mb space on the hd each. The software does conversion to mp3 or wav and of course once you have the sound file you can manipulate it.
There are many sites where you can listen to a demo text for these (and other commercial) voices, the official one for these particular ones is www.naturalvoices.att.com/demos/

Liviu

Originally Posted by Don't Panic!

Welcome liviu_5.

Is that a Pocket PC or MS Smartphone app?

I'd like a more versatile text to speech converter than VoiceCommand for my devices.

If you're talking PC's only, that's cool too.

[burtcom]

I picked "Steve Who?'

I'm a big SF fan and writer wanna-be -- just starting to appreciate how nice reading on my PPC is...

... I can read at night without turning on a bright light and disturbing the sig-other.

... I can fit my entire library on a 1GB card with plenty to spare

... I can make the text as large as necessary for easier reading.

... It's easy to book-mark and return to my location.


So, yes, I'll have to check out your work!

[Steve Jordan]

Originally Posted by dMores

but i got the feeling you're a pretty good writer, too bad you're ONLY writing SF.
you want to try crime/mystery?

I'm actively planning to write a non-SF novel, but I haven't developed a story I'm happy with yet. The next novel I start is SF, so maybe the one after that!

[jwhayn]

I am an avid sceience fiction ebook reader (read most of the websubscriptions at Baen.com). I am, nevertheless, very unlikely to purchase or read a book like Worldfarm One based on its blurb. UN good, USA bad -- sounds like a NYT headline. While you have the right to write such books, I do not need to read them.