Audiobook Creator — Windows 11 Setup Guide

This guide is written for someone who has never used Python or the command line. Follow the steps in order and you will be generating audiobook chapters with your gaming GPU.

What you will need

Requirement	Why
Windows 11 PC with a modern NVIDIA GPU	Fast audio generation using CUDA
~5 GB free disk space	Python, PyTorch, and the AI voice model
Internet connection (first-time only)	Downloads packages and the Kokoro voice model

Step 1 — Install Python

Go to https://www.python.org/downloads/
Click the big yellow "Download Python 3.12.x" button
Run the installer
IMPORTANT: On the very first screen of the installer, tick the checkbox that says "Add Python to PATH" before clicking Install Now

If you missed that checkbox, uninstall Python from Windows Settings and reinstall it with the box ticked.

Step 2 — Get the project files

You should have a folder called audiobook_creator (or similar) containing the project files. Make sure it includes these files:

setup_windows.bat
run_gui.bat
run_audiobook.bat
requirements.txt
gui_proper_noun_player.py
create_audiobook_lightbringer.py
Audio Text for Novel Lightbringer\    ← your chapter text files go here

If you received a ZIP file, extract it first so the folder is not inside another folder.

Step 3 — Run Setup (one time only)

Open the project folder in File Explorer
Double-click setup_windows.bat
A black terminal window opens and runs through these steps automatically:
- Checks Python is installed
- Creates a private Python environment (.venv folder)
- Downloads PyTorch with GPU (CUDA) support — about 2.5 GB, this takes several minutes
- Installs the remaining packages (kokoro, spaCy, etc.)
- Downloads the spaCy English language model
- Downloads the Kokoro AI voice model — about 330 MB
When it says "Setup complete!", press any key to close the window

You only need to do this once. If you run it again it will safely skip anything already installed.

Step 4 — Review Proper Noun Pronunciations (GUI)

Before generating the audiobook, it helps to check how unusual names are pronounced.

Double-click run_gui.bat
The Proper Noun Pronunciation Auditor window opens
Select your book from the dropdown at the top
Click ⚙ Extract & Generate Audio — this scans the text and creates a short audio clip for every proper noun found (takes a few minutes the first time)
Click any word in the To Review list to hear how it sounds
If it sounds wrong, type the phonetic spelling in the box at the bottom and press Enter to save a fix
- Example: type Kneephi instead of Nephi
If it sounds correct, just press Enter without changing anything
When you are done reviewing, click ⇄ Apply Fixes to Text to save a corrected copy of the source text

Keyboard shortcuts:

Key	Action
Space	Replay current word
Enter	Mark correct (or save fix if text was changed)
Escape	Reset the fix box, go back to word list
s	Stop audio
↑ / ↓	Navigate the word list from the fix box
Delete	Move a word back to Review from Correct or Fixes

Step 5 — Generate the Audiobook

Double-click run_audiobook.bat
A menu appears — type the number of your choice and press Enter:

Option	What it does
1	Generate all chapters — can take many hours, safe to leave running overnight
2	List detected chapters only — instant, nothing is generated
3	Generate a short preview clip of each chapter — quick sanity check
4	Generate specific chapters — enter chapter numbers separated by spaces

When finished, .wav files will be in the output_audiobook_lightbringer folder

Troubleshooting

"Python was not found" → Python is not installed, or you forgot to tick "Add Python to PATH" during installation. Uninstall and reinstall Python from https://www.python.org/downloads/ making sure to tick that box.

The black window opens and immediately closes → There was an error. To see it: press Win + R, type cmd, press Enter, then drag the .bat file into that black window and press Enter. The error message will stay visible.

Audio generation is very slow (taking hours per chapter) → The GPU version of PyTorch may not have installed correctly. Re-run setup_windows.bat — it will reinstall just that part.

"No .txt files found in Audio Text for Novel Lightbringer" → Make sure your chapter .txt files are inside the Audio Text for Novel Lightbringer subfolder, not loose in the main project folder.

The GUI says "No manifest yet" → You need to click ⚙ Extract & Generate Audio first for that book.

Antivirus blocks the .bat files → Right-click the .bat file, choose Properties, and click "Unblock" at the bottom. Then try again.

Output files

Folder	Contents
`output_audiobook_lightbringer\`	One `.wav` file per chapter
`output_proper_nouns\<book>\`	Pronunciation data (JSON files)
`proper_nouns_audio\<book>\`	Cached word audio clips

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