Julie Broad argues that authors who skip audiobooks for Speechify lose income and control. An audiobook is a distinct product that improves discoverability and lets you monetize or capture reader emails, while Speechify benefits the tool's company. ElevenLabs voice cloning offers a low-cost alternative to professional narration.
Chapters
When Tammy told me she wasn't going to produce an audiobook because her readers can just use Speechify. Well, I'm sorry, Tammy, but we got to talk about this because it might be a path to the end result, but it's not the one that I think authors should use. If you're telling readers to use Speechify instead of creating an audiobook, you're giving away one of the most valuable pieces of your intellectual property because an audiobook isn't just another format. It's a product. And if you're serious about building an author business, you should understand the difference. Even if you give your audiobook away, which I do all the time, and I will in this video if you want a copy, you still want to understand the choices you're making. So if you're thinking of having your readers just use Speechify to get an audiobook, or you weren't going to produce one at all, this video is for you. Hi, I'm Julie the Book Broad. I'm the founder of Book Launchers and your host here at booklaunchers.com. Today I want to get into why Speechify is a fantastic reader tool, but a terrible audiobook strategy for authors. Now, if you aren't familiar with what Speechify actually is, it's a consumer tool designed to help readers listen to content. I have no issues with Speechify. The issue I have is when authors begin thinking, why create an audiobook? My readers can just use Speechify. Because when you think that, you've just stopped thinking like the owner of intellectual property. And you've started thinking like a consumer. And those are not the same thing. You've put a lot of time, effort, energy, probably money into producing a great book. And your audiobook is a product. It's intellectual property. All the formats serve different readers— ebook, hardcover, audiobook, print book, and they create additional revenue opportunities, and they're part of your author ecosystem, which expands your reach, your impact, and your income. So if you think, well, if someone wants to listen to my book, they can just use Speechify, you're actually thinking don't create one of the products your intellectual property could be generating. Now here's why I think you want an audiobook, because when someone buys your audiobook, you get paid. You gain rankings, your visibility goes up, your discoverability improves, you gain reviews, and your author platform strengthens. If someone uses Speechify, Speechify gets paid. You don't. More than that, when you create an audiobook, you control the voice, the pacing, the experience, the pronunciation, the quality, and you now have the option to give it away. To sell it, leverage it for so much more. For example, if you're new to self-publishing and you're not sure about all the things, you can grab Self-Publish and Succeed, the 2nd edition, in audiobook version for free at booklaunchers.com/freeaudio. Now, when you do that, I get your email address so we can build a bit more of a connection. If I told you to just go get the book and run it through Speechify, I control none of that and I won't get your email address. One of the things I teach all the time is the idea of the words you've put into this book are not just words, they're intellectual property with value that can be licensed and repackaged and distributed and monetized in a whole bunch of different ways. When you look at a manuscript, hopefully you're not just seeing words, you're seeing that ebook, that paperback, that hardcover, that audiobook, the workbook, the course, the speaking material, the licensing opportunities, the consulting Speechify is great for accessibility, but even if you're on a budget, there are choices to produce a high-quality audiobook like ElevenLabs where you can clone your voice or choose one of their awesome voices and produce your audiobook for a low cost and high quality. If you want to check it out, go to booklaunchers.com/elevenlabs. Regardless, you can produce a top-quality audiobook for a low cost. For so much less than you ever could before, and you will own that book, and you can still make it accessible while you own that product. Now, my ranking is still author-narrated audiobook first, or number 2 would be author clone voice, number 3 would be professional narrator, number 4 would be high-quality AI voice narration, and number 5, way down here, is no audiobook. I think no audiobook is a big mistake. Because readers increasingly consume content through audio. And if you're not available in the format they want, they don't wait. And they also just move on. Speechify is not a tool and your audiobook is an asset. Remember that the audiobook's something you own and Speechify is something your readers use. Every piece of intellectual property you own should be working for you, not creating value for someone else. Or a company like Speechify while you're sitting on the sidelines. You want more support or you want to talk about this? Let's head on into the— actually, let me start that over. You want to talk about this? Head on down to the comments below and let's talk about it. And if you want to hang out some more, come on over to our free Author Lab over on Skool, booklaunchers.com/authorlab. See you there. Bye.
