Text to speech app recommendations?

[Brad]

Hi folks, as an avid Audiobook listener I know that a decent narrator will always be better than a text-2-speech app or AI narration but some books simply don't have an audiobook edition. I do use Alexa to read ebooks from Amazon and it's pretty good but I also have a lot of freebie books not on Amazon that I'd like to listen to and so far I haven't found an app that does even a half decent job of narration.
Any suggestions? I don't mind paying for a premium app if it's good.

[Philip]

Trollslayer1 wrote: "Hi folks, as an avid Audiobook listener I know that a decent narrator will always be better than a text-2-speech app or AI narration but some books simply don't have an audiobook edition. I do use ..."

As a writer having my books narrated for Audible etc, I have also looked at AI tools to create the narration. The main platform ACX (output to Audible, Amazon and iTunes) specifically excludes such recording in their Tcs and Cs. Don't know about others.

I have experimented with some sites. Quillbot, Natural Reader and others. They take a lot of fiddling with voices and loading to get correct inflection. As text to speech they are probably slightly better than built in readers on Apple, Chrome, Windows or Android, but not much. You do get a choice of voices wider that operating system. Premium subscriptions add more.

Their main use seems to be focused on marketing and multi-language in particular.

If the submitter takes the time to add the variations for tone, emotion etc then they can be good. This is a slow process and I only tried on a few paragraphs.

Real narrators are so much better at the moment. Yes AI is getting better but it has a long way to go and someone (author or producer) has to adjust for character voice, emotion etc.

[Brad]

Oh, I don't think AI will ever replace a real narrator, I just want to find a useable option for those ebooks that have no audiobook option and don't come from Amazon (arc editions, Indie authors who sell via their own website etc) so they can't be read via Alexa.

[Philip]

Trollslayer1 wrote: "Oh, I don't think AI will ever replace a real narrator, I just want to find a useable option for those ebooks that have no audiobook option and don't come from Amazon (arc editions, Indie authors w..."

Okay - I suggest trying Natural Reader then- it has a free version to test. You upload a chapter or whatever to test it out. It's on-line or you can download an MP3 to play back.