Audiobooks mp3 files not showing up in iTunes or on shuffle?

Question

I recently purchased some audio books that are mp3. They were a zip file, and I extracted the files, but they won't show up in iTunes. I attempted to just drage the files onto my shuffle (which appeared to work, as I received a "copying" message), but they aren't showing up there either. Help!

Answer 1

Starting from scratch...
Extract the files from the zipped folder. In Windows 7, right-click the zipped folder and select Extract All...
You should be given an option about where you want to put the extracted files. If not, or it you need to move those files, the usual place to put them is in the Music/iTunes/iTunes Music folder. I suggest that you put audiobooks in a folder named Audiobooks (to keep things organised). You must move them before importing them into iTunes. If you move them afterwards, iTunes will lose them. If there is not currently an Audiobooks folder in iTunes, then create one. So looking into the folders, the path should be as follows:
Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Audiobooks/<artist name>/<album title>/ and then the individual MP3s.
Once you have the MP3s where you want them, it should be possible to drag the folder into iTunes. Alternatively, in iTunes;
so that you can then select Add Folder to Library;
and simply navigate to the folder that has the audiobook files in and add.
That's it. They are now in your iTunes Library.
However, you will probably find that the files import into your iTunes as Music files, and you may want to change them to Audiobooks. To do that, in iTunes, find the files you have just imported, highlight all of them and then select File/Get Info/Options>Media Kind and change the Media Kind to Audiobooks.