How to read an ePub aloud on Mac (Apple Books)

Short answerOpen the ePub in Books, select the text and choose Edit → Speech → Start Speaking, or press Option-Esc with Speak selection on. It uses your system voice, so set a good one first. Users report it may stop at the end of a page, so you turn the page and start again. With Aloud, select a passage or chapter and press Control-Option-S to hear it with a word highlight and export it to .m4a.

The free built-in fix

1. Pick a good voice. System Settings → Accessibility → Read & Speak (called Spoken Content on macOS 14 and 15) → System voice; download a Premium or Enhanced voice.
2. Open the ePub in Books. DRM-free ePubs can be dragged onto Books.
3. Select and speak. Select text, then Edit → Speech → Start Speaking or Option-Esc.
4. Turn the page and repeat. If it stops at the page end, turn the page and start again.

The better fix: Aloud

If the built-in tools keep getting in your way, Aloud (ours, $19 once per Mac, macOS 14 or later) is made for this:

• Select a passage and press Control-Option-S (Aloud doesn't open ePub files directly).
• A reading window with a word highlight and click-to-seek, so you can jump to any sentence.
• Speed from 0.75x to 2x, changed mid-sentence, and resume from the last sentence.
• Natural voices: your Mac's Enhanced and Premium voices, the on-device Kokoro neural voice (Apple silicon, macOS 15+), or ElevenLabs/Cartesia with your own API key.
• .m4a export to listen to a chapter later.

Buy Aloud, $19 once   Launch offer: code LAUNCH25 takes 25% off until Oct 31. 3-day free trial, no card or account.