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Old 10-22-2017, 10:55 AM   #1
Mick Appleby
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Kindle books narrated on Alexa for Free

Alexa will now let you Listen to a lot of of your kindle books on the Alexa. Not all of the books are covered about 75% of mine. The quality is not as good as their Audible service but it syncs with all your kindle devices and its free. I was suffering with an eye infection and found this useful until I could read again.
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Old 10-22-2017, 11:17 AM   #2
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This feature has been available for awhile, almost since first Echo. Alexa will not read a book which has TTS ‘disabled’ (by publisher). I have not used it much, as I have a Fire and I can adjust the reading speed there.

Not that Kindle Voyage (unofficially) supports VoiceView, which will read out text even for books with TTS disabled. You need to get a USB audio dongle (<$20 US), install the Voice files (I copied them from another Kindle but there is another thread here describing how to use the Kindle Paperwhite download from Amazon.). Then you need to learn how to use the VoiceView screen reader (designed for people with vision impairments).
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Old 10-22-2017, 01:56 PM   #3
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I sometimes buy the audiobook when I buy the Kindle book if the price is discounted enough. My sister listens to audiobooks and she has an Audible app on her Iphone with access to my account, so they're really for her.

When the Echo got the ability to read audiobooks I tried that out. I used to listen to them but when I got my Kindle I kind of lost interest in audiobooks. But I was curious and when I tried it I found the Echo really did a nice job of it.

I've also tried using it as a TTS for my Kindle books and I didn't enjoy listening to that. While it's true that TTS is miles above where it used to be it still has a long way to go. I'm sure, though, if that was my only way to access books I'd be glad to have it.

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Old 10-22-2017, 02:22 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by Mick Appleby View Post
Alexa will now let you Listen to a lot of of your kindle books on the Alexa. Not all of the books are covered about 75% of mine. The quality is not as good as their Audible service but it syncs with all your kindle devices and its free. I was suffering with an eye infection and found this useful until I could read again.
Is this on the Echo or Dot. I briefly had access to the new HD 10 but Alexa wouldn't do that on that device.
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Old 10-22-2017, 02:23 PM   #5
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And is there an Alexa enabled device that with read personal documents via text to Speech?
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Old 10-22-2017, 04:37 PM   #6
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TTS works on both the Echo and the Dot. With the Fires the ability to turn on TTS is in the font menu in the Kindle app.

I'm pretty sure TTS will work with personal documents open in the Kindle app on my HD8, but I've not tried.

AFAIK, TTS does not work with personal documents on Echo devices.
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Old 10-22-2017, 04:52 PM   #7
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IF the ebook is able to do TTS You don't need Alex to read the ebook to you ... TTS also gives you Different voices.
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Old 10-22-2017, 10:36 PM   #8
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I've used my Echo to listen to audiobooks a bit. I just tried it using Alexa on my Fire 7" and it worked just fine. I'm reading a book on my Voyage and I also have the audiobook for it and the Fire picked up right where I recently stopped reading on my Voyage. It was a bit slow getting started. The Echo device starts right up. The Fire took over a minute but then it worked just fine.

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Old 10-22-2017, 10:45 PM   #9
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I've been thinking a bit about this thread and it occurs to me that for people interested in reading and listening, or even for people just interested in listening, a lot of money can be saved by buying the Kindle book and getting the discount on the Audible book.

For example: I'm reading Ken Follett's "Column of Fire" and I bought the Kindle book as well as the discounted Audible book for my sister to listen to. I think in this case the ebook was about $15 and the audiobook was $13. I may be a dollar off. This is from memory. If I'd bought the audiobook directly from Audible I think it was right at $50. So even in this case, a new best selling book, I saved quite a bit.

Most of the Kindle books I buy when they're on sale, nearly always for $2. Often if I buy the Kindle book adding on the Audible book is another $2. Sometimes $3. Sometimes more. Not every book gives me a big discount on the audiobook but a lot of them do. Maybe as many as 1/3 or 1/2 of them do.

So any audiobook fan might want to watch for Kindle sales and see which ones give those big discounts and get their audiobook that way instead of paying full price. It's even about 1/3 the price of a subscription, which is $15 for one book.

When I first started at Audible the deal they had was 5 books a month for $20. Ah the good old days.

I'm about to turn 77. I have macular degeneration and I've had it for a long time but it's never gotten bad. It's pretty common at my age. Now suddenly it's getting worse, although not quickly, so I'm starting to think more and more about audiobooks, not so much for now as for the future. I probably won't have to stop reading any time soon but farther down the road that's a real possibility. Listening is okay with me if I can't read.

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Old 10-22-2017, 11:18 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by barryem View Post
I've been thinking a bit about this thread and it occurs to me that for people interested in reading and listening, or even for people just interested in listening, a lot of money can be saved by buying the Kindle book and getting the discount on the Audible book.

For example: I'm reading Ken Follett's "Column of Fire" and I bought the Kindle book as well as the discounted Audible book for my sister to listen to. I think in this case the ebook was about $15 and the audiobook was $13. I may be a dollar off. This is from memory. If I'd bought the audiobook directly from Audible I think it was right at $50. So even in this case, a new best selling book, I saved quite a bit.

Most of the Kindle books I buy when they're on sale, nearly always for $2. Often if I buy the Kindle book adding on the Audible book is another $2. Sometimes $3. Sometimes more. Not every book gives me a big discount on the audiobook but a lot of them do. Maybe as many as 1/3 or 1/2 of them do.

So any audiobook fan might want to watch for Kindle sales and see which ones give those big discounts and get their audiobook that way instead of paying full price. It's even about 1/3 the price of a subscription, which is $15 for one book.

When I first started at Audible the deal they had was 5 books a month for $20. Ah the good old days.

I'm about to turn 77. I have macular degeneration and I've had it for a long time but it's never gotten bad. It's pretty common at my age. Now suddenly it's getting worse, although not quickly, so I'm starting to think more and more about audiobooks, not so much for now as for the future. I probably won't have to stop reading any time soon but farther down the road that's a real possibility. Listening is okay with me if I can't read.

Barry
I used to be an audible member and have about 200+ Audiobooks but now I just do as you say and buy the reduced price option attached to an ebook. I often by books from kobo or direct from the publishers but if I think I might want a specific book on audio (and it might be produced) I then make sure I buy from Amazon so if the whispersync comes up I can get it.
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