How to Listen to an EPUB with ElevenReader

Nostos can’t read books aloud yet. If you’ve imported an EPUB and you’re looking for a play button, there isn’t one. Sorry.

What I do when I want audio is use ElevenReader. It has nothing to do with Nostos, so no shared account, no shared progress, no highlights carrying over. I just upload the same EPUB to both apps.

How I do it

I keep the book in Nostos. That’s where my progress, notes and favorite passages are. When I want to listen, like on a walk or while I’m cooking, I upload my copy of the EPUB to ElevenReader and hit play.

ElevenReader takes EPUB, PDF, TXT, HTML and DOCX files. The free plan gives you 10 listening hours a month right now, which is enough for me since I still mostly read. If something in the audio makes me want to jot down a note, I go back to Nostos and write it there.

The annoying part is that nothing syncs, so every time I switch I have to find my place again. Usually I skim for a sentence I remember. It’s a bit clunky, but it works.

About those hours: ElevenLabs says they’re used the first time your text gets converted to audio, and replaying something already converted doesn’t use them again. Their ElevenReader hours page has the details. Check it before you count on the 10 hours, because these limits change.

Why ElevenReader

A lot of text-to-speech sounds good for a minute. After an hour of it I’m usually worn out, even when the voice is perfectly clear. ElevenReader’s voices are better at this than most. The pacing is more natural and they sound like they actually care about what they’re reading. ElevenLabs has put way more work into that than I could do inside Nostos any time soon.

If you want to see what it supports, there’s ElevenLabs’ guide to adding content and the ElevenReader overview.

We’re not partners, I just use it.

Why Nostos doesn’t have read-aloud yet

I do want to add it eventually.

The play button is the easy part. The hard part is the voice and what it costs. One book can be tens of hours of generated speech, so if I build good hosted text-to-speech into the subscription without thinking about it, someone who listens to one long book costs me a lot more than someone who never touches the feature. I could charge everyone more, but most people wouldn’t use it, which doesn’t seem fair. I could put a small cap on it, but that just feels stingy.

I’ve also tried cheaper local options. Kokoro is interesting, and af_heart is my favorite voice of the ones I tested. It still isn’t what I want, though. I’d like something expressive that works in a bunch of languages and stays pleasant over a whole book. That’s just my opinion from using it, so take it for what it’s worth.

So that’s where it stands. A voice that’s nice for a chapter, doesn’t get distracting, works in several languages and doesn’t cost a fortune when someone listens for hours. I haven’t found that yet, so for now I’d rather leave it out than ship something I’m not happy with.

What I’d like later

Eventually I’d like it to feel like one book, whether you’re reading the page or listening. You read for a while, put the phone down, keep listening, and then pick the text back up without feeling like you switched apps. Notes would stay with the book either way.

I don’t have a timeline for any of that, and there are still technical and cost problems I haven’t figured out. For now, use ElevenReader if you want audio.

As of 5 October 2026: ElevenReader’s free plan includes 10 listening hours per month and supports EPUB uploads. Plans change, so check ElevenLabs’ current hours documentation before relying on that.