“Turn the page for BookTok. Spoken Empowers Authors & Readers in the Post-TikTok Era”

Turning the Page for TikTok Authors

Over the past several years, seemingly unknown, emerging authors have skyrocketed to success with their self-published works. Viral reactions on TikTok turned novels into an Amazon bestsellers, proving the platform’s unparalleled power in launching authors. But with TikTok facing a looming ban in the U.S., thousands of other author-creators are grappling with the potential loss of a vibrant community and vital marketing tool.

TikTok gave authors a direct line to readers, democratized book promotion, and catapulted careers overnight. As the platform nears its uncertain fate, authors are left asking: What’s next? The answer lies in adapting to the evolving trajectory of the creator economy.

Spoken—a self-publishing, social, and streaming audiobook platform—offers authors and their readers not just a place to survive but to thrive.

BookTok and The Creator Economy

BookTok didn’t just amplify authors—it reshaped the book industry by bringing stories to life for a new generation of readers. Viral trends sent novels soaring up bestseller lists, while younger audiences embraced reading through short, engaging storytelling. The potential ban leaves a gaping hole for authors who built their success on the platform and for readers who found their next favorite books in the scroll.

For authors, TikTok offered a direct line to readers, bypassing traditional gatekeepers and enabling authentic connections. For readers, it transformed their experience of discovering and celebrating books. Videos showing emotional reactions, plot twists, and heartfelt recommendations fueled a sense of community that print ads and marketing campaigns never could.

But the creator economy thrives on adaptability. As publishers pivot to platforms like Instagram and Threads, Spoken emerges as the platform where both authors and readers can thrive in the next era of storytelling.

Spoken: A Home for Writers and Readers Who Love to Listen

Spoken is not just a replacement for author and reader communities on TikTok; it’s a new frontier for stories to thrive. It’s where writers and readers who love to listen can connect in meaningful ways – A place where listening the new reading.

1. Transform Stories into Audiobooks with Ease

Spoken’s AI-powered narration tools allow authors to create professional-grade audiobooks, turning TikTok-style serialized stories into fully realized audio experiences. Readers can now immerse themselves in their favorite tales anytime, anywhere.

2. Monetize Every Minute

Authors no longer need to rely on fleeting virality. Spoken’s Unified Network and Affinity Model™ ensure writers are paid for every minute their work is streamed, creating sustainable income. Readers, in turn, support their favorite creators directly through their engagement. Monetization will become available after the conclusion of the beta (mid-spring)

3. Build Community Through Shared Listening

Spoken builds on TikTok’s spirit of community with features that connect readers and writers in new ways. Readers can discover curated content through tags and profiles, engage in discussions about their favorite works, and even leave reviews that fuel meaningful conversations.

4. Retain Creative Ownership

Authors retain full control over their work, while readers enjoy an ever-expanding library of unique and self-published content. On Spoken, everyone has a voice, and every story finds its audience.

For Readers: Why Listening is the New Reading

Readers embraced BookTok because it made storytelling interactive, personal, and fun. Spoken takes that to the next level by making stories more accessible through audio. Whether you’re multitasking during your day or relaxing at night, audiobooks on Spoken allow you to enjoy stories in a format that fits your lifestyle.

Discover More, Share More

On Spoken, you’ll find not only the best new stories but also a platform designed for interactive discovery. Share your favorite moments, connect with fellow fans, and explore genres you never thought you’d love—all while supporting the writers who bring these worlds to life.

Unspoken. Until Now. Empowering Authors and Readers Alike

For authors and readers mourning the potential loss of BookTok, Spoken offers a place to rebuild—and go beyond.

• For Writers: Spoken makes it easy to create, share, and monetize your stories without sacrificing creative control.

• For Readers: It’s a space to discover immersive, high-quality storytelling, connect with your favorite authors, and explore a world where listening is the new reading.

Spoken is more than a platform; it’s a movement that unites writers and readers in the shared love of stories.

Join Us. Make History.

The creator economy rewards adaptability, and as TikTok’s story ends, Spoken invites you to write a new one. Whether you’re an author building your brand or a reader discovering your next obsession, Spoken is the platform where stories find their voice, and community can thrive.

The next chapter begins now.

Listening Is

Believing Is

Listening Is Believing Is

Spoken Beta V0.7.5: Project Mastering And Email Account Creation.

When you have a release as momentous as 0.7 last week, it's good to have a bit of a breather release in the interim… but even interim release 0.7.5 deserves some celebration. 

With the rapidly expanding breadth and depth of our voice library, compounded by the amazing custom-designed voices offered in Spoken Studio, it’s really important not to lose sight of an Author’s main objective.

To give their writing its voice. And we want to do that in the best, easiest way possible.

To ensure the highest quality and integrity for projects published on the Spoken Network, we’re thrilled to introduce "Mastering" as an option for all projects to meet and exceed audiobook streaming standards. 

In addition, due to popular demand, and to provide even more flexibility, we’ve added the ability to create your user account on Spoken with an email address and password instead of requiring users to utilize Google or Apple authentication. 

Let’s dive in.

AUDIO MASTERING

You now have the choice to utilize Audio Mastering when publishing your project. This  thoroughly tackles inconsistent voice volumes and background noise to deliver clear, uniform audio across your work. It is especially beneficial when using Multi-Character / Multi-Voice (MCMV) where there’s a greater likelihood of audio disparity. Spoken's mastering also ensures every Spoken work meets modern audiobook and streaming standards, providing the best playback fidelity (across all types of speakers, be it headphones, car, phone, etc.) for the most consistent listening experience.

Note that adding mastering adds significant time to complete your last "Publish" step, but we'll email you when it is complete. You can estimate the amount of time as roughly ½ as much time to master your work as the length of your longest installment's audio.

EMAIL/PASSWORD LOGIN

Along with Google and Apple account logins, new users can now register using an email and password.

“FINISH UP” IS NOW “PUBLISH”

With additions such as Audio Mastering, and more to come, The “Finish Up” tab has been relabeled “Publish”.

NEW STUDIO OVERVIEW VIDEO

OTHER FIXES

• iOS image uploads

• Audio playback fixes

• The ability to stop the passage generation and narration processes
  

Spoken Beta V0.7: Full Audiobooks And Custom-Designed Character Voices

Our previous release, V0.6, brought full audiobook support via manual chapter or installment additions. With V0.7, we’ve reimagined how Spoken can support authors on their journey to create, publish, and share audio of their writing with two incredible (and historic) features along with a host of other meaningful enhancements.

For the first time in human history, you can now upload, analyze, narrate, and self-publish an entire novel-length audiobook in a single sitting. Second, if you can't find the perfect voice in our growing library of voices, you can generate a custom voice designed exclusively for you based on your character as you wrote them! 

Here’s a bit more about how it works. 

At a high level, Spoken conducts an unprecedented novel-wide analysis to classify and summarize the entire novel, setting the stage for the other v0.7 transformation: voice selection.

If you choose to go with a single narrator, we will now suggest voices that are best for your genre. However, If you choose Multi-character / Multi-voice (MCMV), we’ll analyze the description and context, in your work, for every single character, then create a mathematical representation of their perfect voice. 

This enables two things. First, we’ll be able to surface the existing voices from our library that best match your character. If you can't find the perfect voice, however, you can now generate a custom voice, designed exclusively for that character, and usable only by you, their author.

All of that said… Let’s dive in to everything juicy about V0.7.

Here is the main spread of powerful enhancements Spoken brings with V0.7

• Support for entire manuscripts with <InstallmentMarker> tags

• Enhancements to the Project Manager in Spoken Studio

• Voice Selection Upgrade: Character-Based Voice recommendation

• Voice Selection Upgrade: Custom Voice Generation based on character

• Create custom author introductions at the beginning of each new project

• Private reviews capability from the Spoken review team.

• Tightened Profile page UI 

• Link to our "Bio" site in settings for easy access to Spoken socials

• Improved Search function

• Certain issues with frozen narrations have been significantly improved

• Improvements to Staff Picks

FULL NOVEL MANUSCRIPT UPLOAD

There is no longer a maximum of 12,000 words per upload. Users can now upload a full manuscript of up to 500,000 words.

There is one thing an author needs to do to prepare their novel for upload: 

Add Installment Markers <InstallmentMarker> to your work to designate the beginning of each of their installments or chapters. A few examples might look like: 

<InstallmentMarker> Chapter 1

or

<InstallmentMarker> Part 3

or

<InstallmentMarker> Chapter 35: The Final Countdown

We are working to better automate the detection of installment markers, but in order to get chapter separation exactly right, we require the addition of installment markers. Spoken Studio will guide you.

Progress indication notifications for full manuscript uploads: 

Narrating an entire manuscript takes time, so we’ve ensured that you’ll receive notification updates for each completed step along the way during the creation process. You’ll receive these in-app. When a given processing step is complete you’ll receive both an in-app, and email notification inviting you to move forward in your process.

PROJECT MANAGER

Spoken Studio is now more intuitive than ever. Each step in the process is now designed to engage the writer in a more authentic self publishing experience. 

We’ve concentrated all file upload, analysis and installment/chapter management in the Project Manager. Similar to a table of contents, the project manager will display the project’s classification, summary, channel tags, comparable works, safety analysis, and its installments. 

Adding, deleting, and managing your installments is handled within the project manager.

VOICE SELECTION, LIBRARY VECTOR MATCH

With an expanded library of almost 200 voice actor voices, our vector match service will take an in-depth description of your character, and create a mathematical model called a vector in order to surface the voices that best match your narrator (if single narrator) or each speaking character (in the case of MCMV).

VOICE SELECTION, CUSTOM VOICES

The description of each character's voice may also be used to generate a voice prompt which can generate custom voices for your character, three at a time. You can fine-tune your prompt to generate the perfect custom voice, which, once chosen, will be exclusively yours, and as unique and dynamic as your stories.

AUTHOR INTRODUCTION

"This. Is. Audible."  Meh. Imagine the diametric opposite of that as the introduction of your work on Spoken. Imagine your title and your author name narrated by your selected narrator’s voice. Now, imagine being able to have your own personal introduction, in your voice. Or, include BOTH the title introduction by your narrator AND your personal introduction. That's exactly what you have available on Spoken.

PRIVATE REVIEWS

Spoken is dedicated to curating the best possible listening experience for our users, and we know that AI audio narration can be tough to perfect. We’ve introduced private reviews so our content team can reach out to writers privately with recommendations, such as narration recommendations or error corrections, that might help strengthen an already amazing creation.