95: Robots. Reading Audio Books. On Podcasts. Really. With Jim Kukral

https://podcastfasttrack.com/

Jim Kukral is quick to say that his new service, Book2Pod is not a service that creates audio books.

So I’ll say it for him. ;) Because that’s EXACTLY what it is… except for a few differences…

• It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of traditional audio books
• It’s distributed via an automatic feed - RSS - like a…. PODCAST!

Jim and his behind-the-scenes business partner have a pretty cool system in place that anyone who has a book, whitepaper, story, series of blog posts, etc. - can make it into a podcast.

It’s really interesting - and the possibilities are very intriguing. Take some time to hear what Jim has to say. You can even hear the robots doing their thing!

Main Points : Done For You Audio Books To Podcast

• [1:16] Why you need to know who Jim Kukral
• [3:10] Jim’s new endeavor: Book2Pod
• [4:04] The future possibilities with computer generated voices and podcasts
• [7:25] How are robots being used for reading books?
• [10:51] What’s the benefit of putting your book out chapter by chapter as a podcast?
• [17:05] Are there other options you can do besides books?
• [21:06] Ways to tweak the robot voices to make your audio books better
• [23:16] Actual examples of Book2Pod books - fiction and non-fiction
• [27:19] Pricing for the Book2Pod service: two packages

Why would you want to turn your book into a podcast?

This was one of the very first questions I had for Jim because books are typically made into books in order to sell them as books. Putting them into podcast form and broadcasting them freely via an RSS feed doesn’t seem like a good way to promote book sales.

But it’s actually the exact opposite that happens.

One of the reasons I believe podcasts are so popular is because they are a low-friction introduction to a topic, resource, or expert. A person can listen and learn and get to know you without ever having to let you know they are interested.

No risk of being “sold to.” No email opt-in required. In other words, it’s entirely safe for you, the listener, to check out a content provider by listening to the content they provide (a podcast, in this case).

Authors haven’t made good use of this aspect of podcasting… at least most haven’t. That’s because they are focused on selling books - and podcasts OF their books seem a bit non-intuitive at first.

But there are ways to make the entire text of your book(s) - fiction or non-fiction - available as a audio book(s) and use them as a lead-in to your sales process.

And according to what Jim shares on this episode, it’s working for many authors already. Listen to learn more.

I’ve got a handful of books I’ve considered making into audio books

The problem thus far has been the cost of making it happen. If you check out the plans ACX has for putting any book in to audio book format, it’s pricey… no matter which way you slice and dice it.

But what Jim Kukral has going on here makes the process of putting a book into audio format a whole new ballgame. If I’m satisfied with a robot voice reading the text of my book (a very GOOD robot voice… listen to this episode to hear an example) then there could be a much more affordable option available, now..

And it’s got at least one added perk: the ability to set it up as a podcast

64% of people are now familiar with podcasts, a stat that continues to climb each year. Combine that with the fact that 44% of people are listening to...