book-to-audiobook 0.1.17

Convert ebooks (EPUB, PDF, TXT) to audiobooks (M4B/MP3) with chapter markers

Book to Audiobook

Convert ebooks (EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, PDF, TXT) to audiobooks (M4B / MP3) with chapter markers.

Prerequisites

• Python >= 3.11
• FFmpeg
• Calibre (optional, for MOBI/AZW3)

Install

pip install book-to-audiobook

From source:

git clone https://github.com/hugcosmos/book-to-audiobook.git
cd book-to-audiobook
pip install -e .

Quick Start

# Web UI
book2audio serve                          # http://localhost:8000

# CLI
book2audio chapters book.epub            # preview chapters
book2audio convert book.epub -c 1-10     # convert chapters 1-10
book2audio doc                            # full command reference

CLI Reference

Run book2audio doc for detailed help, or book2audio <command> --help.

Command	Description
convert	Convert ebook to audiobook
chapters	List, view (-t N), and edit (-e N) chapters
voice	Manage voices (list/add/delete)
config	Manage configuration
library	Manage audiobook library
serve	Start web server
doc	Show full documentation

Convert

book2audio convert book.epub
book2audio convert book.epub -c 1-10 -p edge-tts -v zh-CN-XiaoyiNeural -s 1.2
book2audio convert --book-id a74e947e332e -c 11-20
book2audio convert book.pdf -p qwen3_mlx -l en-US

Chapters

book2audio chapters book.epub                    # list chapters
book2audio chapters book.epub -t 3               # view chapter 3 text
book2audio chapters book.epub -t 3 --head 20     # first 20 lines only
book2audio chapters book.epub -e 3               # edit chapter 3 in $EDITOR
book2audio chapters --book-id abc123 -e 3-5      # edit chapters 3-5

Edited text is saved separately (original never modified). Conversion uses edited text automatically. Edited chapters show [edited] tag.

Web UI

Open http://localhost:8000. Drag & drop ebooks, select chapters, configure TTS, convert. Chapter text can be edited inline via the edit button on each chapter.

CLI and Web share the same library — books, edits, and conversion records persist across both.

TTS Providers

Cloud

Provider	Setup	Cost
Edge TTS	No config needed	Free
ElevenLabs	B2A_ELEVENLABS__API_KEY	Paid
Baidu TTS	B2A_BAIDU_TTS__API_KEY + B2A_BAIDU_TTS__SECRET_KEY	Paid
iFlytek TTS	B2A_IFLYTEK_TTS__APP_ID + B2A_IFLYTEK_TTS__API_KEY + B2A_IFLYTEK_TTS__API_SECRET	Paid

Local — Qwen3 TTS via MLX (Apple Silicon)

On-device, no API key. Requires Apple Silicon Mac (M1+).

pip install hf-transfer
export HF_HUB_ENABLE_HF_TRANSFER=1
# China users: export HF_ENDPOINT=https://hf-mirror.com

Model	Size	Quality	Memory
0.6B-CustomVoice-8bit	Default	Good	~0.6GB
1.7B-CustomVoice-4bit	Larger	Great	~0.85GB
1.7B-CustomVoice-8bit	Larger	Great	~1.7GB

Set via Settings page or book2audio config set qwen3_mlx.model_name <model>.

Supported Languages

Chinese (zh-CN/TW/HK), English (US/UK), Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Italian.

Configuration

Environment variables with B2A_ prefix, or book2audio config set:

book2audio config show
book2audio config set tts.provider edge-tts
book2audio config set qwen3_mlx.speed 1.2

Variable	Default	Description
B2A_HOST	0.0.0.0	Server bind address
B2A_PORT	8000	Server port
B2A_UPLOAD_DIR	uploads	Ebook storage
B2A_OUTPUT_DIR	output	Audio output

Project Structure

app/               # FastAPI web app (routes, templates, static)
cli/               # Click CLI commands
core/              # converter, models, parsers, TTS providers, audio builder
config/            # Settings (pydantic-settings) + user_settings.json
uploads/           # Uploaded ebooks + chapter edits + meta.json
output/            # Generated audiobook files

Disclaimer

Edge TTS: This project includes edge-tts as one TTS provider, which connects to Microsoft Edge's online text-to-speech service. This is not an official Microsoft API and may violate Microsoft's Terms of Service.

Users can choose alternative providers (ElevenLabs, Baidu, iFlytek, or local Qwen3 MLX) to avoid Edge TTS. Use at your own risk — the authors are not responsible for any violations of third-party terms of service.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.