Thank you so much for saying that because it was a real ton of work, and it makes me happy that someone noticed. I hope you get some use from this when/if you make your own audiobook. Let me know if you have questions and I’ll see if I can help.
Thanks for posting this again! It'll be extremely useful if I ever decide I need to do it.
I wonder how that Amazon pilot with AI narration is going. I've long had an attitude about audiobooks because the first version of the Kindle had audio narration built in. It sounded robotic, but it was serviceable. Amazon limited it to only a much clunkier accessibility feature when they bought Audible. So the only reason we have to pay for professional narration is because of artificial constraints.
Don't get me wrong. Human narration is much nicer and I might be willing to pay for it in many cases. But I resent not having the option of the machine voice. Particularly when we get built in synchronization with the ebook version for free, something Amazon/Audible only provide haphazardly if you buy both versions.
It looks like I replied to your restack instead of your comment. That's what I get for trying to do anything on my phone. Anyway, thanks for sharing the post!
No worries. With the app installed, do you still get email notification when someone replies to one of your comments? Mine stopped coming after I installed the app. Just wondering. I haven't found Substack support to be at all useful, at least not on this.
I do. Have you looked at your settings on the app? Maybe those have comment replies turned off? (It has been a while since I've looked at my app settings so I can't remember where they are).
Thanks. I've been over the settings endlessly, both on the web and in the app. Today I tried signing out of the app to see if that makes any difference, but if it's working for you, probably not. I also finally convinced their AI support chatbot to let a human know of my issue, but it didn't provide much hope for a speedy diagnosis. This plus a number of other issues aren't leaving me with a very positive impression of Substack.
Anyway, just fyi, if I suddenly stop responding in a conversation, it probably means I overlooked your reply in the site notifications area.
That is so weird. Come to think of it, I might not be getting all of my notifications. It’s hard to tell who’s at fault, me or the notifications. But I miss comments all the time. You’ll probably get a response from Substack in the next few days. They are pretty slow, but they’ll get to you eventually. Yeah, there’s a lot to be desired with Substack, but I found that to be the case with WordPress too. I wish I could take the best parts of each and merge them into one.
Yeah, it's strange. I do get posts, likes, and follows, at least some of the time. (Although I've learned not to click on the profile link in a follow message; it has the same functionality as the follow back button, one of many deceptive things I don't like about Substack functionality.)
We'll see on support. The chatbot warned that payment issues might get resolved within a few days, but it implied others might take much longer. I'm anticipating weeks to never.
I'm definitely not arguing that Wordpress is ideal either. Plenty of issues there as well, not the least that they appear to be neglecting the blogging segment of their customer base. But, at least historically, I've been able to reach someone when I had an issue.
In any case, installing the app was meant to be part of looking into crossposting between Wordpress and Substack. This issue (and others) put a stop to that.
I am not sure whether I'm going to go down this route, but I've saved your post and definitely appreciate your going through the process of explaining it for us!
Tina Lee should we narrate our 'stacks? I do, because a lot are being listened to, rather than read. I sound pretty bad, but that's part of my charm. I hope : ) Thanks for the info
I noticed that too, although I can't say I truly grasp what's going on with Substack analytics. I just know I have friends who prefer audiobooks and podcasts to reading, and it's to the point where they won't bother with a book if they can't get the audiobook. There do seem to be more audiophiles on Substack than I would have guessed, at least that's my impression. So good for you—any audio is better than no audio.
Really interesting to learn about your process! I’ve got a fair amount of experience recording vocals for songs, which can be quite a lot of work and they’re only 3-4 minutes long - so the idea of recording an entire book seems daunting! Kudos! Cool about the Tula mic - don’t know if I necessarily need it but dang is it cute! Thank you so much for this post - I love reading good detailed documentation with a sense of humor!
Thanks! I imagine songs are a tremendous amount of work...multiple stereo tracks....(shudder). I hope you decide to start posting your music on Substack. I especially hope to see a music video with you doing some headbanging, although I very much dig the singer-songwriter thing too.
Thanks for this post. Will be embarking on this myself—so glad to have found your post. I would love a video of your editing process on Substack. Just wading into Substack and have barely begun. I plan to listen to your audio book. Not a bad way to promote it here. 😁
Thanks for letting me know! I'll consider doing it...and I'm honored that you're interested in listening to my audiobook. Yeah, Substack can be a bit overwhelming and unintuitive at first, but you'll find your groove. Good luck to you!
Bookmarking!
Thanks for sharing all of your advice on this. The quality of your audiobook did show the hard work was worth it.
Thank you so much for saying that because it was a real ton of work, and it makes me happy that someone noticed. I hope you get some use from this when/if you make your own audiobook. Let me know if you have questions and I’ll see if I can help.
Bravo! And thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge.
You’re welcome! I hope it’s useful to someone out there.
Thanks for posting this again! It'll be extremely useful if I ever decide I need to do it.
I wonder how that Amazon pilot with AI narration is going. I've long had an attitude about audiobooks because the first version of the Kindle had audio narration built in. It sounded robotic, but it was serviceable. Amazon limited it to only a much clunkier accessibility feature when they bought Audible. So the only reason we have to pay for professional narration is because of artificial constraints.
Don't get me wrong. Human narration is much nicer and I might be willing to pay for it in many cases. But I resent not having the option of the machine voice. Particularly when we get built in synchronization with the ebook version for free, something Amazon/Audible only provide haphazardly if you buy both versions.
Anyway, very much appreciate you sharing this.
It looks like I replied to your restack instead of your comment. That's what I get for trying to do anything on my phone. Anyway, thanks for sharing the post!
No worries. With the app installed, do you still get email notification when someone replies to one of your comments? Mine stopped coming after I installed the app. Just wondering. I haven't found Substack support to be at all useful, at least not on this.
I do. Have you looked at your settings on the app? Maybe those have comment replies turned off? (It has been a while since I've looked at my app settings so I can't remember where they are).
Thanks. I've been over the settings endlessly, both on the web and in the app. Today I tried signing out of the app to see if that makes any difference, but if it's working for you, probably not. I also finally convinced their AI support chatbot to let a human know of my issue, but it didn't provide much hope for a speedy diagnosis. This plus a number of other issues aren't leaving me with a very positive impression of Substack.
Anyway, just fyi, if I suddenly stop responding in a conversation, it probably means I overlooked your reply in the site notifications area.
That is so weird. Come to think of it, I might not be getting all of my notifications. It’s hard to tell who’s at fault, me or the notifications. But I miss comments all the time. You’ll probably get a response from Substack in the next few days. They are pretty slow, but they’ll get to you eventually. Yeah, there’s a lot to be desired with Substack, but I found that to be the case with WordPress too. I wish I could take the best parts of each and merge them into one.
Yeah, it's strange. I do get posts, likes, and follows, at least some of the time. (Although I've learned not to click on the profile link in a follow message; it has the same functionality as the follow back button, one of many deceptive things I don't like about Substack functionality.)
We'll see on support. The chatbot warned that payment issues might get resolved within a few days, but it implied others might take much longer. I'm anticipating weeks to never.
I'm definitely not arguing that Wordpress is ideal either. Plenty of issues there as well, not the least that they appear to be neglecting the blogging segment of their customer base. But, at least historically, I've been able to reach someone when I had an issue.
In any case, installing the app was meant to be part of looking into crossposting between Wordpress and Substack. This issue (and others) put a stop to that.
I am not sure whether I'm going to go down this route, but I've saved your post and definitely appreciate your going through the process of explaining it for us!
Great! Thanks for letting me know. I hope it helps if you should decide to go down that road later.
Tina Lee should we narrate our 'stacks? I do, because a lot are being listened to, rather than read. I sound pretty bad, but that's part of my charm. I hope : ) Thanks for the info
I noticed that too, although I can't say I truly grasp what's going on with Substack analytics. I just know I have friends who prefer audiobooks and podcasts to reading, and it's to the point where they won't bother with a book if they can't get the audiobook. There do seem to be more audiophiles on Substack than I would have guessed, at least that's my impression. So good for you—any audio is better than no audio.
Really interesting to learn about your process! I’ve got a fair amount of experience recording vocals for songs, which can be quite a lot of work and they’re only 3-4 minutes long - so the idea of recording an entire book seems daunting! Kudos! Cool about the Tula mic - don’t know if I necessarily need it but dang is it cute! Thank you so much for this post - I love reading good detailed documentation with a sense of humor!
Thanks! I imagine songs are a tremendous amount of work...multiple stereo tracks....(shudder). I hope you decide to start posting your music on Substack. I especially hope to see a music video with you doing some headbanging, although I very much dig the singer-songwriter thing too.
Thanks for the encouragement, Tina!! It's one of my goals this year : D
Thanks for this post. Will be embarking on this myself—so glad to have found your post. I would love a video of your editing process on Substack. Just wading into Substack and have barely begun. I plan to listen to your audio book. Not a bad way to promote it here. 😁
Thanks for letting me know! I'll consider doing it...and I'm honored that you're interested in listening to my audiobook. Yeah, Substack can be a bit overwhelming and unintuitive at first, but you'll find your groove. Good luck to you!