The Fastest Way to Write a Book That Actually Works

Ever wonder what the fastest way to write a book is? Hint: it’s not typing 200 words per minute and developing carpal tunnel.

In this video, Dale Roberts, an accomplished indie author, host of Self-Publishing with Dale on YouTube, and loyal Rev customer, shares his secret weapon for transferring the thoughts in your head into written word. Be sure to give Dale’s video a “like” and hit that subscribe button if you found the information useful.

Video Transcript

Are you trying to write your next book but aren’t a proficient typer? Are you having issues in getting those words out from you brain down into the keyboard? Well, I’ve got good news for you today, because there’s a service out there that’s going to help you get your book from your head into your manuscript.

I am going to share with you my secret weapon here, not only on YouTube, but in writing as well. It’s called Rev.com and in their words, “Rev makes transcribing your audio or video recording easy and economical. At the touch of a button, our team of transcriptionists take your audio or video recording and transcribes them to 99% accuracy. Simply upload your files or use our iPhone transcription app and get a complete transcript in as soon as 12 hours.”

Well, this is all well and good, but what does this have to do with writing your book without having to type it out? I know there’s a lot of you out there that aren’t able to quite use the keyboard. I am fortunate that I can use it myself, but, here’s the deal. I’m a better talker than I am a typer. Put your hands up if you agree with me on this one. Are you a better talker than you are a typer? Well, I think that this service is for you.

What exactly does Rev do? Let me go ahead and explain it to you.

Using Transcription to Write a Book

Essentially what you can do is record your video, be it on your mobile device or on your laptop or desktop and you’re going to upload those video files either to, say, YouTube or Vimeo or even send it directly to Rev, and what they’ll do is they’ll personally transcribe the entire thing, no matter how long it is or how short it is, they’ll handle it. Here’s the really cool thing. For most all of their services, it costs one dollar per minute of transcribing. Let me repeat that for emphasis. For every minute you speak on video, it’s only a dollar for them to transcribe that. Now, I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty freaking stellar.

Now, what are you going to do with that transcribed manuscript? You can take that transcript and edit it into a full book. Boom, there you are. But Rev’s services doesn’t end at transcriptions. In fact, if you’re actually watching this YouTube video, I highly encourage that you hit the closed captioning on here because you’re going to see some of the results from using Rev.com for their next service, captions, otherwise known as closed captioning.

Closed Captions

You hear this referred to quite a bit, closed captioning for the deaf or hard-of-hearing. But, I’m going to give you a startling fact. A lot of people on social media are typically flipping through a lot of their feeds. Closed captioning is an easy way for them to consume your content without having to turn the sound on. So, anybody that might actually be on a bus for commuting, or they’re just lying in bed at night and don’t want to disturb anybody, they’re able to consume your content, watch your video, and read the closed captioning. This is a win-win for anybody that wants to use Rev’s service.

Translation

Rev translates into over 30 different languages. It’s pretty startling that they cover that much and they personally vet every single one of their translators to make sure that they’re high quality and that the work that they put out is as accurate as possible. Though this service is a bit more expensive at about 10 cents per word for manuscripts, or $3 per minute of translated content on video, this could definitely pay off if you’re trying to reach a wider market.

The Pros and Cons of Rev.com

Though I share pros and cons in most of my review videos, I’m hard pressed to find anything negative about Rev.com’s service. There was one instance that I went back, and I checked some closed captioning on a video to discover that about two minutes of content was not properly captioned. I reached out to Rev’s support and they took care of that instantly.

Now, this is the big plus about Rev.com – their speediness. Not only are they 99% accurate, they are also quick at doing it. So, if I have a three to five-minute video, it’s typically taking them about an hour to two hours at best, sometimes I’ve seen some captions get finished within minutes of me submitting it.

For longer files, it’ll take typically 24 hours for them to get back to you, but it’s really, really awesome. For Rev.com, I wanna go ahead and give them my thumbs up and my self-publishing stamp of approval.

About Dale Roberts

Dale Roberts is an accomplished indie author and host of Self-Publishing with Dale on YouTube. Since 2014, Dale has pursued a full-time career in self-publishing books and now shares his experience on his YouTube channel devoted to building a successful self-publishing business. His specialties include book publishing, video production, public speaking, and networking. Appearing on numerous YouTube channels and podcast interviews, Dale is always looking for ways to reach a broader audience to share the value of self-publishing books.