Bookwire expands its WAY audiobook production service to include text-to-speech technology

Frankfurt am Main, June 2, 2022– Bookwire GmbH is expanding its audiobook protection service WAY - We Audiobook You - with text-to-speech technology (TTS). TTS gives publishers a new way of producing audiobooks. The quality of the synthesised voices used for TTS has improved enormously in recent years. Auto-narrated audiobooks are in no way intended to replace classic audiobook production with trained, human narrators, but non-fiction content and textbooks, in particular, benefit from the more cost-effective version of audiobook production, TTS. TTS should therefore be understood as a complement to high-quality audiobook production using human narrators. To find the right AI for creating the audiobook, different timbres and unisex voices can be chosen for each of the approximately 70 languages offered.

In terms of accessibility, TTS technology enables publishers to quickly and cost-effectively make large parts of their catalogues available as audiobooks. This enables cross-medial distribution of content, giving publishers’ title backlists many opportunities to reach new target groups and to boost untapped sales potential. As with classic audiobook production, Bookwire takes care of global distribution to numerous shops, which helps publishers realize the full potential of their title backlist. With its successful production service, WAY, Bookwire provides the optimal infrastructure for audiobook production with TTS. Publishers now have the choice of producing their audiobook with a human narrator or an artificial voice. The quality of synthesised voices is improving all the time and gives listeners a high-quality listening experience. 

“Text-to-speech technology gives publishers, especially those where a large part of their backlist isn’t yet available in audiobook form, a great opportunity to make numerous titles available as audiobooks within a very short time. However, TTS isn’t in any way a replacement for classic audiobook production. It just expands the range of titles on the market. By using TTS, we can get even more people enthusiastic about audiobooks and enable our publishers to tap into new target groups for their content,” says Solveij Krause, Team Lead Business Development Audio at Bookwire.

TTS is now available for publishers all over the world and can be ordered and processed via WAY as usual. Bookwire currently works with two TTS partners but will regularly expand its network. The plan is also to keep expanding TTS services with more voices and languages, as well as to actively support the partners involved with the on-going further development of the TTS voices and the quality achieved.

The audiobook production service WAY takes you quickly from manuscript to professionally produced, distribution-ready audiobook. Bookwire supports you throughout the entire process: From production and distribution to marketing and analysis of your digital audiobooks.

For media inquiries and interview requests, please contact:
David Breitwieser Alfaro
Corporate Communications Manager Bookwire
david.alfaro@bookwire.de