Audiobooks discussion

I'm deeply underwhelmed by WeRead4You. I downloaded 3 books. The segments all start with numbers, so when I go into my player, I have, for example, 001 Title 1 followed not by 002 Title 1 but by 001 Title 2. Since they divide books into small segments, that's 158 segments of one book mixed in with 96 of another and 36 of the third. I put them into separate playlists but there's still a mess on the iPod.

I can deal with this. However, the first book I listened to "skipped" a great number of times--some of them just a pop or click and a half-second data skip, but in numerous cases, it jumped to the next segment, missing several minutes. For some I could go back to the segment, note the time when it jumped, and scroll a second forward, which would get me over the skip to the missing content. This is a pain in the ass. I deleted and re-downloaded that book with no improvement. This was just swell to discover on a long flight. I bought a paperback instead.

Now, though, I'm trying to listen to the second book, which skips so regularly that it's just not worth it. I haven't had this trouble with Audible, Librivox, or iTunes. Any suggestions other than never ever giving another penny to WeRead4You?

I haven't yet bought from them but do have them bookmarked and look there for comparison when shopping. Probably only a matter of time till I dealt with them...

Sorting books on iPods can be iffy, I am presuming you are used to doing that?... but this sounds very bad for WeRead4You. Have you got back to them? What do they say?

I have listened to about half of one audiobook from We read 4 You on my ereader without any skipping. I'll return to let you know if something happens though.

Did you load the ipod from a mac or pc?

I'm a mac user and bought one book from WeRead4You. The sheer number of files was enough to make me not want to deal with it again. I ended up running my purchase through Audiobook Builder's software to get it into 2 parts instead of a couple hundred. I didn't have any skipping, but for part of it the sound quality was not very good. I don't know if that was because of my post-processing though. I've been reluctant to buy from them again.

I'm on a PC, and the sound quality was worse than Audible or iTunes. That's not enough to keep me from buying, nor is the multi-part download, but the skipping is.

I removed all WeRead4You books from my computer--Downloads, Library, Playlist, and Audiobook files, and from my iPod. I then re-loaded one. So far it has been playing fine, which is good. However, I've probably put close to 10 hours into discovering, understanding, and rectifying through the problem, which is not how I'd like to spend my time.

Good to hear they are, or at least they might be, ok. The one that was skipping, have you solved that one? Did you do anything in particular?

Well done and thanks for the update
:)

I purchased three books from WeRead4You. The first one I had no problems and in fact it downloaded in one track. It was only 4 hours long. The second one I've had problems with it just stops in the middle of the track and goes to the next one. I've tried the reload thing without success yet. I have now started the third book and half way through it without problems. It does have all the tracks, approx. 200.

Maybe they could check that track that stops, could just be 'one of those things'?

hmmm I think I'll avoid them, at least for a while. Pity

WR4Y does seem to be very inconsistent with how they track their books, something they really need to resolve.

Did some searching on the internet and found a freeware tool called ‘MP3 to iPod Audiobook Converter’ at www.freeipodsoftware.com. You can give it a list of MP3 files and it will combine them into a single M4B file that itunes/ipod will recognize as an audiobook. Took all of my WR4Y books and reduced them down to 2 or 3 files each. They seem to play ok and the quality does not appear to have been affected. Might be worth checking out.

For those with other player types there are also a lot of tools available for merging multiple MP3 files into a single MP3 file but I haven’t played with them enough to recommend one. Maybe someone else can.

Hopefully WR4Y is just having startup/growing pains and can get them resolved quickly.

As long as people return to them with complaints or problems, they can't solve something they might not know about. Somehow I can't imagine they listen all the way through each of the books offered, but maybe they do. I wonder what their quality control is?

Aprilla, what I said in my last post was what I had to do to fix one of the 2 "skipping" books. Dalene, what you're describing sounds like the trouble I was having.

I haven't yet mentioned that the first time I downloaded from them, I had "download complete" messages but only the first track had downloaded (which I didn't discover until I was away from my computer).

I do hope these are start-up pains, and I appreciate Cheetah's link.

@ Sho, did you delete all then re-download them from WR4U? Then they worked ok?
Sorry, I'm a bit slow...

:/

I deleted all WeRead4You books from my computer, including everything in the WeRead4You download folder, my iTunes Library, the playlists I'd put them in, and the audiobook files on iTunes. I also removed them from my iPod. I then re-loaded one. It is playing okay. There are still some clicks and other minor issues, but it no longer is skipping all of a sudden to the next track.

OK I get it. I guess I wouldn't mind a few clicks etc if the price reflected it... but it sounds bad for WR4U all the same.

Thanks, appreciate your patience.

Sho wrote: "I'm deeply underwhelmed by WeRead4You. I downloaded 3 books. The segments all start with numbers, so when I go into my player, I have, for example, 001 Title 1 followed not by 002 Title 1 but by 00..."

Hello Sho

I am the customer support director at Weread4you.com. I am very sorry you have had a problem with an Audiobook that you downloaded from our site. Always send an email to [email protected] with any quality issue that you ever have and we will rectify it immediately or give you a full refund if it can't be rectified. Whenever we find quality issues with files we immediately withdraw them from the site and request higher quality files from the publishers.

I can't identify your email address from this post so we do need you to contact us to let us know about technical support issues. Users with iPods should always download the M4B versions of audiobooks.

We are dedicated to supporting and retaining our customers so please contact us and rest assured all our audiobook downloads are 100% guaranteed.

Wilson

I'm quite impressed Wilson, Weread4you.com is off my 'to be avoided' list and on my 'check here' list.
:)

aprilla wrote: "I'm quite impressed Wilson, Weread4you.com is off my 'to be avoided' list and on my 'check here' list.
:)"

Thank you Aprilla.

Wilson, I appreciate your post above and offer of help. This is both welcome and appropriate. What is not welcome or appropriate is the e-mail I received from your colleague Mark. My name in your database is not the name I use on Goodreads, but Mark addressed by by the name you, not Goodreads has. He e-mailed me at an e-mail address that you, not Goodreads, have. My e-mail address is not visible on Goodreads. Thus, it appears that you read my comments in this thread and then correlated the books I identified with purchases in you database. This is the only way I can think of that you were able to identify my name and e-mail address. Had you left it at the offer of assistance above, or sent me a message through Goodreads, my response would be very different. As it is, I feel tracked down and contacted in an inappropriate manner.

Perhaps before you do something like this again, you will consider whether there might be reasons that a person does not associate their name with publicly-posted material, or separates accounts, or does not provide an e-mail address. What if I were married to someone who snooped in my e-mail and could now infer a relationship between my WeRead4You account and my Goodreads account or posts on Goodreads' partner sites? What if I don't want someone associated with one of these accounts to know about the other? What if I were reading books about divorcing an abusive person and I didn't want that person to know about it?

I appreciate that your intention is to be helpful but please, don't stalk people by coordinating information. If I had any thought that you would breach the privacy boundaries between sites, I would never have joined WeRead4You.

Sho wrote: "Wilson, I appreciate your post above and offer of help. This is both welcome and appropriate. What is not welcome or appropriate is the e-mail I received from your colleague Mark. My name in your d..."

Hello Sho

I appreciate and acknowledge your concerns. We are keen to make sure that our customers receive the right level of support and service from us.

Your full name is on a previous thread that you made on the Goodreads site.

I was concerned to see from this topic that you were unhappy with Weread4you and if we have been over zealous in trying to make you happy, I apologize.

Wilson

My e-mail address is not.

I also BOUGHT about 4 or 5 books but I can not get to UR WEB PAGE. I've been having a problems with ur website weread4you.com. When I look you guys up in the "search engine" you are not listed. Why?

It says "Oops! Internet Explorer could not connect to www.weread4you.com Try reloading: www.weread4you.

I've made several attempts to find
ur website in other search engines such as bing, google, yahoo search, but everything has failed. How can I find you again? I have 2 AUDIO books, I purchased and I can not access them. I also tried to used my mothers computer to get into your website, but I keep getting the same results. How can I get my audio books?

I have not heard my 2 books I bought from ur website thinking that I can login ur website and get into my library ACCOUNT and find them there, but I can't. I just wasted my money for nothing. Did you guys go out of business???? If so can Is there anyway I can get them. I want them and spent all this money and I do not have them.

Oh, and your customer service email that you gave "sho" to cantact customer support [email protected] on April 6,2011 DOESN'T WORK, BECAUSE I've TRIED TO SEND YOU AN EMAIL USING THAT EMAIL ADDRESS AND THE EMAIL WAS SENT BACK TO ME SAYING "EMAIL FAILURE". SO WHAT NOW??????????
Can you hep me?

My name is Emilia
My email address is [email protected]
HELP ME PLEASE, I REALLY WANT MY AUDIO BOOKS.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH UR WEBSITE ARE YOU AWARE OF THIS PROBLEM. MY COMPUTER IS NEW, I JUST BOUGHT IT A FEW WEEKS AGO SO IT CAN NOT BE MY COMPUTER. MY MOTHERS COMPUTER IS ALSO NEW TOO.

HELP!!!!!!!!
[email protected]
it there any WAY YOU CAN SEND ME MY AUDIO BOOK THROUGH AND ATTACHED FILE BY EMAIL.

LET ME KNOW ASAP
THANK YOU
EMILIA

It's not your computer. They sent emails out a month or two ago telling users to download all of their audiobooks because the site was going offline for a while (with some mention that it could be a long time). I'm now also suspecting that they went out of business, as 2 months is a long time for site maintainance.

If they have gone forever I think it is a great shame, because I thought they provided a great service. I got 7 books from them and they were all very well read, at a good price and far easier to use than audible files.

I'm sorry I can't help you with your problem, but I thought a bit of information might be welcomed. Let me know if you manage to get anything else.

Thanks Steph - I was wondering where they went too.

Heidi wrote: "Thanks Steph - I was wondering where they went too."

Yes I also got two warning emails to download my purchases because they would no longer be accessible through their site. I had bought 7 audio books from them but I am not happy with any of them. I've tried listening to 3 of them and they jump all over the place and in fact that they are not seperated by chapter when I shut it off it always loses the place I was at. One book is broken down into chapters but they are not in order so even though I paid half price at the time they are pretty much worthless. It's a shame that some people have lost their purchases totally as well as the tracking thing with using an email address not given for that purpose! Shame on weread4you and poor business practices. If they ever do come back on line I certainly will not use then again.

Lady: What type of device do you listen to books on? The chapters not in order sounds like a tagging problem, similar to what I ran across when Netlibrary brought out its software to download books in parts - that turned out quite a mess a sort out!

John wrote: "Lady: What type of device do you listen to books on? The chapters not in order sounds like a tagging problem, similar to what I ran across when Netlibrary brought out its software to download books..."

Hey John yes I remember reading your post about the troubles you had and the way you fixed it. I listen on my iPhone 4s... It shows that they are in order 1-040 but there is something wrong with some of the chapters they aren't in the order that make sense one minute I'm too far ahead or too far behind in the storyline. The other mp3's are only blocks ... say a 10 hour Block... After using flawless easy Audible unless they are free aren't worth the trouble to me. I also find the quality lacking but I can tell the difference between the levels on audible as well and find I only like the Enhanced and no lower than the 4 level...once having listened to enhanced I don't want to go lower... Spoiled rotten I know LOL So even if weread4you gets back online I won't purchase more books from them unkess they were the only place I could get a specific recording from..an even then I'd think twice.

I notice when I download audiobooks onto my Sony Ericsson and sansa clip it is usually effortless but when I download audiobooks onto my ipod touch it often takes more time and puts chapters out of order (audible is the exception - that works great with the ipod).

Heidi wrote: "I notice when I download audiobooks onto my Sony Ericsson and sansa clip it is usually effortless but when I download audiobooks onto my ipod touch it often takes more time and puts chapters out of..."
Time is what I don't have which is why I'm listening to books instead of sitting down to read them. LOL I have a sansa clip and perhaps when I have the time I'll put those Audio books onto there and use that for those titles. Thanks for the idea.

I have a friend who downloaded one of the weread4you books to her acre tablet running android. It downloaded as a zip file. She doesn't know what to do next. She unzips it but cannot open it. Does anyone know how to access the book on an android tablet.

Denise wrote: "I have a friend who downloaded one of the weread4you books to her acre tablet running android. It downloaded as a zip file. She doesn't know what to do next. She unzips it but cannot open it. D..."

After she unzips it does she go on to "download all files" from the unzipped file? I remember the first time I did this I kept unzipping but then nothing happened...until I proceeded to download what was in the zipped folder. I don't know of I'm explaining it correctly but I know there is more than one step to unzipping a folder.

Does anyone know of another site where I can get audiobooks (not out of copyright, there's plenty of them) in mp3 format like this site did? I tried audible and it was so ridiculously awkward with their weird file types and drm that I couldn't use it on my mp3 player.

Steph I have bought some mp3 audiobooks from Books on Board. I like them.

Thanks Heidi. They look good, but what is this overdrive media console that is required? I'm using linux on my computer and it says windows is needed for it, and I also have an unusual brand of mp3 player, which is part of why I'm looking for somewhere I can get plain mp3s from. Does this overdrive thing limit what I can do with the mp3s do you know?

May ask what kind of "unusual" mp3 player?

I think you can save Overdrive mp3 files to your hard drive without the console, and drag-and-drop them to your player (WMA definitely not).

Steph wrote: "Thanks Heidi. They look good, but what is this overdrive media console that is required? I'm using linux on my computer and it says windows is needed for it, and I also have an unusual brand of mp3..."

Huh? I download my Books On Board audiobooks directly into windows media player.

I do use Overdrive for my library audiobooks. If your library havs Overdrive you should do an "advanced search" and search only for mp3 audiobooks -- it will get rid of all of the wma audiobooks.

Denise wrote: "I have a friend who downloaded one of the weread4you books to her acre tablet running android. It downloaded as a zip file. She doesn't know what to do next. She unzips it but cannot open it. D..."

Thanks I'll have her try that

John: It's a Cowon S9. Audible claim to support it but I could never get it to work (but I couldn't really afford audible anyway)

Heidi: I guess if I don't need any extra software I'll certainly give them a go, thanks!

I have a Cowon D2 which has a minor glitch with audible books, but works otherwise well.

Carasel wrote: "It's not your computer. They sent emails out a month or two ago telling users to download all of their audio books because the site was going offline for a while (with some mention that it could be ..."

Hey Carasel

Thank you for ur reply. It is a shame because I had about 3 or 4 books that I had not read. I never got the email from them saying that they were going to shut down. I cannot believe that I lost all my books. It never occurred to me that they were going to go out of business. I hate this. Thanks for letting me know.

Denise wrote: "I have a friend who downloaded one of the weread4you books to her acre tablet running android. It downloaded as a zip file. She doesn't know what to do next. She unzips it but cannot open it. D..."

Yes, the same thing happened to me close to the time that they were going out of business, but of course I did not know they were going out of business. I remember downloading on of my audio books and it downloaded as a zip file, and the book would not go in my kindle. I used to be able to download the audio books all the time from there website, but this time i couldn't. Every time I downloaded it would not down load correctly, I thought it was my laptop. I grew frustrated until I stopped and thought I fix the issue later when i had more time, but when I went to visit their website I couldn't find them anymore. Wow, I can't believe I lost a lot of money to have these books and now I do not have even one. And the ones I didn't even read, How horrible.