Author Business, Self-Publishing

Can free text-to-speech software save your self-publishing budget?

I am slightly biased when it comes to anything technology (my day-job involves horizon scanning for technological solutions in a large organisation) and it never fails to amaze me how many of the most boring and menial tasks can now be done faster and easier with the help of advanced tools. So, I recently had a brainwave when it comes to improving my writing and my proofreading – for free! – and I thought that you might be interested in trying this, too.

If you are thinking about self-publishing, or if you have already got some experience with this, you might have discovered that self-publishing can be expensive. Especially if you want to put out quality products (i.e. books). No, I am NOT suggesting that you use free text-to-speech software to help turn your books into audio books. But I AM suggesting that this type of software can be make you a better writer. And it will cost you nothing at all.

How is this possible, you ask? It’s all down to one little fact that we writers already know: it’s impossible to proofread yourself. Everyone who has tried it will undoubtedly have come across the problem of missing words (‘be’, ‘a’, ‘the’, are common problems), duplication (‘the the’ and ‘a a’ are my personal faves), and a general issue with spelling and grammar (don’t get me started on this one).

If I am telling you that the culprit of such problems is the human brain, your eyes will probably roll right into the back of your head. But this is exactly why technology is an excellent solution. Software is dumb! It doesn’t have thoughts, it doesn’t assume, doesn’t understand words that are misspelled, doesn’t block out duplicate words, and it most certainly doesn’t fill in words that are not actually there.

So, dropping a paragraph of your text into a free text-to-speech online tool (Natural Readers is my tool of choice), helps you beat your overly helpful brain! It lets you hear your writing as it will come across to your reader and you will hear if your sentences are overly long, and whether your narrative flows…or not. You will hear every misspelled word (because the software won’t be able to pronounce it) and you will be alerted to all missing and duplicate words.

I recently used this to edit a one-shot YA Fantasy story and the feedback I had on this from readers was so much better than I could ever have anticipated.
My favourite comment on this story claims:
This is one the most well written stories that I’ve read on here [Wattpad]! So much passion in so few words! I commend you! : )

See ya next time 😉

If you give this approach to self-editing and proofreading a try, share your experience in the comments below. Links to your stories on the web are also welcome! Have a great week.

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