Getting Started

Audiobooker converts EPUB, PDF, DOCX, TXT, and Markdown books (or a folder of per-chapter files) into chaptered, multi-voice audiobooks — M4B, MP3, Opus, or FLAC — with dialogue detection, emotion inference, a review-before-render workflow, and ACX/Audible-ready mastering.

Requirements

Python 3.10+ (3.11 or 3.12 recommended)
FFmpeg on PATH — for M4B/MP3 audio assembly
A TTS engine for rendering audio — voice-soundboard (the [render] extra) by default
ebooklib (EPUB) is installed automatically; pymupdf (PDF) and python-docx (DOCX) are optional extras

Install

Zero-install (Node):

npx @mcptoolshop/audiobooker --help

Python:

pipx install audiobooker-ai            # isolated CLI
pip install "audiobooker-ai[render]"   # with the TTS voice engine

Install FFmpeg for your platform:

winget install ffmpeg   # Windows
brew install ffmpeg     # macOS
apt install ffmpeg      # Linux

Run audiobooker diagnose to confirm your environment (Python, dependencies, voice engine, FFmpeg).

Optional extras

Feature	Install	Notes
TTS rendering	`pip install "audiobooker-ai[render]"`	Required for `render` (pulls voice-soundboard)
PDF input	`pip install "audiobooker-ai[pdf]"`	`audiobooker new book.pdf`
DOCX input	`pip install "audiobooker-ai[docx]"`	`audiobooker new book.docx`
BookNLP speaker resolution	`pip install "audiobooker-ai[nlp]"`	`--booknlp on\|off\|auto`
Rich progress bars	`pip install "audiobooker-ai[rich]"`	Auto-detected at runtime

Quick start

The fastest path is one command — parse, auto-cast, compile, render, and master:

audiobooker make mybook.epub --acx

Or the staged workflow, with control at each step:

audiobooker new mybook.epub            # parse into chapters
audiobooker cast --interactive         # guided per-character casting
audiobooker compile                    # dialogue, speakers, emotion
audiobooker report                     # see what's weak before rendering
audiobooker review-export              # human-editable script
# ...edit mybook_review.txt to fix attributions...
audiobooker review-import mybook_review.txt
audiobooker render --acx               # render + master to ACX spec
audiobooker master-check mybook.m4b    # PASS/FAIL vs ACX loudness/peak/noise

The render cache means you can stop and resume at any point. If chapter 15 fails, chapters 0–14 stay cached and ready.