FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
On this page we provide answers to FAQ's for general informational purposes. Please refer to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for all legal questions.
Aishwarya and Ehsaan can read this page to you if you wish:
INDEX
Why do you call your products voiced scripts and not audiobooks?
How much more expensive is it to produce an audiobook than a voiced script?
How much longer does it take to produce an audiobook than a voiced script?
How does voicedscripts.com work?
Which text-to-speech engine do you use?
Why should I pay you and not use a free text-to-speech engine?
Does my manuscript have to be a novel?
When is it not a good idea to have a voiced script produced?
What happens if I have images or other embedded content in my document?
Which document formats do you support?
Is there a limit to the size of the manuscript?
How does your system recognize characters in my manuscript?
Can I have a mix of narration and characters talking?
Do I have to choose a narrator voice?
Do I have to assign a voice to each character?
How many different characters can I have in my script?
Which languages do you support?
Why is a nationality assigned to each voice?
How can I insert jingles and sound effects?
Why does the confirmation text sometimes differ from my original?
Why does your character count sometimes differ from mine?
Is my credit card information safe with you?
Who owns the rights to voiced scripts?
Can I distribute and/or sell my voiced script?
Can I sell my voiced script as an audiobook for example on audible?
Can I have a voiced script produced of someone else’s manuscript?
When and how do I pay for my voiced script?
Is there a money-back guarantee?
Can I listen to a sample of my script?
ANSWERS TO FAQ'S
Why do you call your products voiced scripts and not audiobooks?
People generally assume that an audiobook is the recording of a written work as read out loud by a human being. Computer-generated audible versions of books are still not classified as audiobooks. So, in order not to confuse our customers, we call our products voiced scripts. On the other hand, audiobooks are usually narrated by one individual and are therefore monologs, whereas we want to emphasize that our products often use several voices and are therefore dialogs.
How much more expensive is it to produce an audiobook than a voiced script?
Producing an audiobook is fifty to hundred times more expensive than producing the corresponding voiced script.
How much longer does it take to produce an audiobook than a voiced script?
Producing an audiobook can take several days, while producing the corresponding voiced script will take only a few minutes.
How does voicedscripts.com work?
First, you select a document for script to voice conversion, or specify the address of a web page for website to voice conversion, or simply enter some text for TTS (text to speech) synthesis. Next, you assign voices to characters in your dialog (if any) and/or choose a narrator voice, which can be assisted by voices that read only headers or text in quotations. Our natural voice generation software will mark up your text so that every word sounds like spoken by a human character, and you get to confirm the voice to character assignments you opted for. It will then synthesize the speech and will provide you a sample to listen to. Once you’re happy with the sample, you pay to receive your voiced script as an mp3 download, which you can use as you wish.
Is the process automated?
Yes. Human intervention is not required. A few minutes after you submit your script, your text to speech mp3 with natural voices will be ready to download.
Which text to speech engine do you use?
While our technology primarily builds on Google’s text to speech engine, we also use Amazon Polly and Microsoft TTS.
Is the technology improving?
Yes, it is. We are making progress in synthesizing speech that is more humanlike every day.
Why should I pay you and not use a free text to speech engine?
Our technology is designed to make computer-generated speech sound human-like, rather than robot-like, and at the same time enables switching between different voices effortlessly, so that dialogs are easily accomplished. This would be extremely tedious for an individual to achieve, without TTS conversion software like ours, for a script longer than one or two pages.
Does my manuscript have to be a novel?
Absolutely not. From a short story to a blog post, from a news article to a financial report, any written work can be turned into a voiced script with ease, benefitting listeners of all types of content. Text to podcast, website to audio, video voiceovers, and so much more are easily doable.
When is it not a good idea to have a voiced script produced?
If your book relies mainly on photographs, charts, diagrams, data, symbols, formulae, and so on, it will not convert well to audio. Thus, a cookbook, a guidebook, a reference book, or any book of this nature is not suitable for turning to a voiced script. Poems and scripts that are based on unusual grammer or sentence structures are also not ideal candidates for creating voiced scripts.
What happens if I have images or other embedded content in my document?
While our natural TTS system is able to simply ignore these and process only the textual content, we recommend strongly that you remove all images and multimedia before submitting your document, since these can significantly slow down the processing. In addition, the manuscript file size limit can be exceeded very fast when the document contains imagery or multimedia.
Which document formats do you support?
We currently accept plain text files (*.txt), Microsoft Word documents (*.docx), Adobe PDF files (*.pdf), and e-Books formatted as EPUB (*.epub). In addition, you can specify a web page URL or enter some text that you want to convert to natural speech into our text box.
Is there a limit to the size of the manuscript?
There is a 2MB limit to the size of the manuscript file. This corresponds roughly to the text file size of a novel with 1,200 pages.
How does your system recognize characters in my manuscript?
When you assign a character name to a voice while completing our submission form, our system understands that it should look for that character name in your manuscript. Once it identifies the character name, it designates the subsequent portion of the text to the corresponding voice, based on rules as described in our guidelines.
Can I have a mix of narration and characters talking?
Of course. This is the usual way dialogs are structured. Where a portion of the text is not assigned to a character voice, that portion will be read by a narrator voice.
Do I have to choose a narrator voice?
No, you do not. When you do not, a default voice will read the narrations.
Do I have to assign a voice to each character?
No, you do not. Any portion of the text that has not been assigned to a character voice will be read by the narrator voice. In this case, the narrator voice will also read the name of the character.
How many different characters can I have in my script?
We offer a large number of standard, high, and low pitched, female and male voices with four different accents.
Which languages do you support?
We currently support English text only.
Why is a nationality assigned to each voice?
The nationality attribute provided with each voice determines the accent that the English text is read with. Currently available are American, British, Australian, and Indian accents. Voices designated as tourist voices will not read text in a foreign language but read English with a typical accent of someone from the corresponding country. We do NOT recommend choosing a tourist voice as a narrator voice.
How can I insert jingles and sound effects?
Inserting a pause, a short melody, or a sound effect into your voiced script is as easy as inserting a code enclosed in braces. For a full list of insertion codes, visit our INTRO MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS page.
Why does the confirmation text sometimes differ from my original?
In an effort to make your audio easier to synthesize by an AI, our system converts some symbols to their textual counterparts and replaces some punctuation marks by others. For example, parenthesis are replaced by dashes to signal the correct duration of pause during processing. While these corrections are usually minimal, they are required for natural text-to-speech conversion.
Why does your character count sometimes differ from mine?
Because our system must convert some symbols to their textual counterparts and replace some punctuation marks by others to achieve human-like reading, our character count may differ slightly from yours. As an example, while you may count the '&' symbol as one character, our program will replace it by 'and' and count three characters. But because our algorithm will eliminate multiple spaces and new lines, often, our character count can be lower than yours. Please note, however, that character names, reading instructions, insertion codes, and so on are to be included in the character count.
Is my credit card information safe with you?
We do not process credit card payments ourselves and have thus no access to your information. The third-party payment processors we rely on are known to be among the most secure in the World. (Legal Notice: Notwithstanding, voicedscripts.com does not provide any warranty of any kind, either express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, for any third-party service provider. Please refer to our Terms of Service for all further details.)
Is my script safe with you?
Our algorithm runs on Google’s servers and your script is processed as well as stored reliant on Google’s stringent encryption and safety procedures. After processing, it is purged automatically and permanently from Google’s Storage. We do not access your data and it is not stored on our servers. (Legal Notice: Notwithstanding, voicedscripts.com does not represent and does not provide any warranty of any kind, either express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, that your documents cannot be accessed illegally while in our possession. It is your responsibility to make sure that documents you submit to us do not contain confidential, sensitive, or potentially valuable information. Please refer to our Terms of Service for all further details.)
Is my email safe with you?
Your e-mail and verification code are encrypted before they are transmitted to and stored on our secure database. We respect your privacy and do not tolerate spam. We will never sell, rent, lease, or give away your information to any third party. Please refer to our Privacy Policy for all further details.
Who owns the rights to voiced scripts?
The rightful owner of any voiced script is the rightful owner of the manuscript that it is based on. Unless we have your explicit, written permission, we will never sell, rent, lease, or give away your voiced script to any third party or make it publicly available through our website.
Can I distribute and/or sell my voiced script?
You can if you are the rightful owner of the manuscript that it is based on. We do not check copyrights of manuscripts we receive. You may distribute and/or sell a voiced script if you may distribute and/or sell the manuscript that it is based on. It is your responsibility to make sure that you have the necessary rights before you distribute or sell any voiced script produced by voicedscripts.com.
Can I sell my voiced script as an audiobook, for example on Audible?
Currently, audiobook marketplaces such as Audible do not accept computer-generated audiobooks for sale, how ever human-like the narration may be. Yet, this may change in a few years, given the rapid advancement of the text to speech technology.
Can I have a voiced script produced of someone else’s manuscript?
You can. However, in this case, the voiced script will be for your personal use only. Any distribution and/or sale will be prohibited. It is your responsibility to make sure that you have the necessary rights before you distribute or sell any voiced script produced by voicedscripts.com.
When and how do I pay for my voiced script?
After submitting your manuscript, on the confirmation page, you will be shown how much the voiced script will cost based on the character count. Once you confirm agreement with the price and choose to have your voiced script produced, you will be asked to pay for it by credit card or other means we offer, before you can download the natural text to speech mp3 file.
Is there a money-back guarantee?
Yes, there is! We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. No questions asked. Please refer to our Terms of Service for all further details.
What are on demand credits?
To cover our payment processing costs and other overheads, we have a lower limit to the remittance we can accept. To help you save these when you purchase a voiced script that costs less than this limit, we offer pre-purchasing of on demand credits. That means, you can buy credits, and subsequently pay for each voiced script you create from that credit. With on demand credits, you really pay for what you use. Moreover, we provide additional character credits when you buy with on demand credits.
Can I listen to a sample of my script?
Absolutely! We will create for you free samples of your scripts of up to a total character count of 6,000, before you make a purchase. When you pay for a voiced script, we'll provide you additional sample credits.
What if I decide not to pay after I listen to the sample?
This is perfectly fine. If you are not convinced of the quality we offer, you do not have to pay. However, please do note that you may not distribute or sell the free sample, if you decide not to pay for the product.
When do I get a coupon?
When you purchase a voiced script, we provide you a coupon for the amount of characters that you paid for, to create a second voiced script of the same length. You can use it to perfect your first creation or to synthesize another one for free.
How much is my coupon worth?
With a coupon, you can create a second version of the same length (actually, even 5% longer) of a voiced script you paid for, for free. A coupon earned this way is valid for one week and for a single use. You can find out the actual dollar value of a coupon by visiting your account.
What if I discover that I made a mistake in my manuscript?
We recommend that you listen to the voiced script while at the same time reading the manuscript you submitted, as soon as you download the mp3 file. Then, make sure to correct all the errors you hear, and re-submit the manuscript for a final round of processing. We provide you a coupon just for this purpose.