How to organise audiobooks

[svenlind]

Hi,

I have been using ebooks for many years and am using Calibre (and the apprentice) to organise my ebooks.
I can backup my purchases and read them on any device using any app.

I am however new to listen to books, and have decided to give it a try.

I bought an audiobook at Audible and I can transfer it to the IOS Audible app.
I can also transfer the file to my Windows 10 PC and listen using iTunes.
I will however not listen using my PC but only my transportable devices.

The reason for transferring the file to the PC is only for backup.
But how can I transfer the file from my PC to an iDevice? The audible app does not appear as a file recipient in iTunes.

I have also bought an IOS app MP3 Audio Player Pro. It can receive audiobooks via iTunes and a cloud drive, but can not handle Audible books.

Any suggestions on how to use the audiofiles in a manner like the ebook files?

TIA

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by svenlind

Hi,

I have been using ebooks for many years and am using Calibre (and the apprentice) to organise my ebooks.
I can backup my purchases and read them on any device using any app.

I am however new to listen to books, and have decided to give it a try.

I bought an audiobook at Audible and I can transfer it to the IOS Audible app.
I can also transfer the file to my Windows 10 PC and listen using iTunes.
I will however not listen using my PC but only my transportable devices.

The reason for transferring the file to the PC is only for backup.
But how can I transfer the file from my PC to an iDevice? The audible app does not appear as a file recipient in iTunes.

I have also bought an IOS app MP3 Audio Player Pro. It can receive audiobooks via iTunes and a cloud drive, but can not handle Audible books.

Any suggestions on how to use the audiofiles in a manner like the ebook files?

TIA

On the mac, you can transfer audiobooks to your iDevice via iTunes. I'm not sure how iTunes works in Windows land, but look to see if books is a file recipient. You can listen on the Books app, or audible will see the audiobooks in the iTunes tab (the tabs in audible are cloud, device, iTunes). On the mac, once you have audiobooks loaded in iTunes, in addition to music, TV, Movies, you get an audiobook table on the sync screen. You can select the audiobooks you want to copy to your iDevice that way. I assume that the Windows version of iTunes is the same way.

The way I do audiobooks with audible is I download the files to my mac and put them in iTunes. I then remove the DRM and convert them to mp3 files for backup purposes. On my iDevice, I download the audiobooks that I plan to listen to via the audible app. I normally have about 5 or 6 books downloaded at a time.

If you wish to listen to an audiobook as an mp3, you need to add the mp3 file to itunes, mark it as an audiobook and mark it as remember the place.

[svenlind]

Thank you very much for your reply.

As I see it you shall do the following steps to buy a book from audible save it on your PC (Windows 10).

1. Buy the book

2. Download the book to the PC.
Here you must specify that the book shall go to the Audible Download Manager. And you shall also specify a location, even if you already have specified the location in the download manager.
This will also transfer the book to iTunes.
If I synchronize the iDevice with iTunes I can see the book cover in the audible app.
But when I play it, I hear some music from my music library???
Well I am not very adept using iTunes.

3. Now to make a MP3 backup.
There are several programs that can do the conversion. But the testversions only convert about 5-10 minutes.
So I bit the bullet and bought one of the programs. It made the conversion, but it lasted about 6 hours. The original audible 681 MB file increased to a 1.31 GB MP3 file!


I will no try to see if listening to books is something for me before I use more time and money.

A final question what program can be recommended to transfer from an audible file to an MP3 file?

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by svenlind

Thank you very much for your reply.

As I see it you shall do the following steps to buy a book from audible save it on your PC (Windows 10).

1. Buy the book

2. Download the book to the PC.
Here you must specify that the book shall go to the Audible Download Manager. And you shall also specify a location, even if you already have specified the location in the download manager.
This will also transfer the book to iTunes.
If I synchronize the iDevice with iTunes I can see the book cover in the audible app.
But when I play it, I hear some music from my music library???
Well I am not very adept using iTunes.

3. Now to make a MP3 backup.
There are several programs that can do the conversion. But the testversions only convert about 5-10 minutes.
So I bit the bullet and bought one of the programs. It made the conversion, but it lasted about 6 hours. The original audible 681 MB file increased to a 1.31 GB MP3 file!


I will no try to see if listening to books is something for me before I use more time and money.

A final question what program can be recommended to transfer from an audible file to an MP3 file?

I use TunesKit on the mac. They have a version for Windows, though I haven't tried it. I probably wouldn't buy it until you decide that you like audible and want to keep buying audible books since it's $40. It generally takes only a few minutes per audiobook on the mac.

Frankly, when you first start listening to audible books, just using the audible app works just fine via the cloud and on the device tabs. It's plenty good enough when you are only talking 10 or 20 audiobooks.

I go through all the other stuff mostly because I prefer having an unDRMed backup. I've got fairly close to 800 audiobooks, which is a fairly healthy investment that I want to be able to keep using no matter what. I feel the same way about ebooks and digital movies.

Yes, the mp3 will be larger than the aax file. That's the downside to mp3 files.

I also used mp3 files to listen to audiobooks in my car before I got a stereo that did CarPlay, but that was strictly for listening to audiobooks in cars. You can see my various experiences with audiobooks and cars in iOS audiobook player thread.

[svenlind]

Thank you very much for your help.

I will follow your advice and just use the audible app for starters.

[Tarana]

deleted

[Kaysclie]

Maybe I am misunderstanding your question.
If you have a windows 10 machine you could purchase an MP3 player that plays audible.com files..books..you download the audible book via audible manager.
Is this what you mean?

[svenlind]

Originally Posted by Kaysclie

Maybe I am misunderstanding your question.
If you have a windows 10 machine you could purchase an MP3 player that plays audible.com files..books..you download the audible book via audible manager.
Is this what you mean?

My intention was to have the same flexibility with audiobooks as I have with ebooks. That is download the book, convert it so I can read it on any app on any device.

I have been advised that openaudible https://openaudible.org/ can do just that.

I have tried it and it seems to work just fine.

I have only bought a few audiobooks and am not sure that listening to books is something for me.

English is my second language and I consider myself a fluent reader in English, but I am not so fluent when it comes to listening.

The narrator is very important to me.

I will try some Danish books to give listening a chance.

[tempest@de]

Originally Posted by svenlind

I have only bought a few audiobooks and am not sure that listening to books is something for me.

English is my second language and I consider myself a fluent reader in English, but I am not so fluent when it comes to listening.

The narrator is very important to me.

I will try some Danish books to give listening a chance.

Like you English is not my first language, and the first time I tried to listen to audiobooks I had trouble keeping with the narration and gave up. After some time I tried again and I’ve been listening to them for about a year now, I found that it takes time and I had to train my brain and ears. In the beginning I had to make an effort, it’s like if I was listening to the radio and it was not clear, I had to tune in to the correct wave length to understand.

Now I’m used to it, that being said it requires more attention, I can’t be listening to a book while doing something that requires my brain to work, like reading or planning something, but I can do fine with listening while doing mundane tasks, like cooking, cleaning, walking. And it makes these chores much more palatable, I had to paint my house recently, and I did it while listening to audiobooks, it was almost fun because the book kept me engaged.

What I do is I always sample the audiobook to see if I like the narrator, some voices require more attention than others, when I find a narrator that I think I will like I listen to one book and then later I search specifically for books read by the same person. I’ve discovered several narrators that I like, and I have a list where I rate the narrator, I have some that for me are 5

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by tempest@de

Like you English is not my first language, and the first time I tried to listen to audiobooks I had trouble keeping with the narration and gave up. After some time I tried again and I’ve been listening to them for about a year now, I found that it takes time and I had to train my brain and ears. In the beginning I had to make an effort, it’s like if I was listening to the radio and it was not clear, I had to tune in to the correct wave length to understand.

Even when English is one's first language, it can take time to train your brain to listen. I had a hard time getting into audiobooks at first; now they are my primary form of reading for entertainment.

I found it useful to start out with books I had already read in the past--classics and childhood favorites, for example. Since I was familiar with them, it didn't matter so much if my mind wandered now and then. After a while, it became easy to listen while still being able to do routine tasks.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Even when English is one's first language, it can take time to train your brain to listen. I had a hard time getting into audiobooks at first; now they are my primary form of reading for entertainment.

I found it useful to start out with books I had already read in the past--classics and childhood favorites, for example. Since I was familiar with them, it didn't matter so much if my mind wandered now and then. After a while, it became easy to listen while still being able to do routine tasks.

I would say that perhaps 90% of the audiobooks that I listen to are books I've already read. Some of that is that much of the time, the book/ebook is out well before the audiobook. There are a few audiobooks where I listen to the audiobook first, but most of the time it's because of a specific reader. I do the majority of my audiobook listening when I am driving and you really can't afford to get too focused on a book when you drive.

[svenlind]

Thank you for many useful suggestions.