Help with audiobooks

Question

if i have an audiobook on my computer already, how do i get itunes to recognize it as an audiobook? someone told me to convert the files to mp4 format, but i don't know how to do this.

Answer 1

The poster above is correct, audiobook format is a .m4b file. However you can accomplish this within iTunes, you just need to convert the file into an ACC file (.m4a) and manually change the extension from .m4a to .m4b. I have includede procedures below:
Configuring iTunes -
Before you convert the files, iTunes must be set properly. In the iTunes menu select the following:
Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Importing
Make sure “Import Using” is set as “AAC Encoder“.
Change “Setting” to “Custom” and set the following options:
Bit Rate: 128kbs, etc.
Channels: Stereo (fixes an issue with homemade mono files on some iPods)
Check “Optimize for Voice“
Instructions
Add the files you want to convert to your library. Once they are there, select the file(s), right-click, and select “Convert Selection to AAC“. This will add the newly converted files to your library.
Once the conversion is complete, remove the original files from your library. They will no longer be needed for this process.
You can also remove the newly created files from your library, but when you are asked, be sure to select “Keep Files“, so they are not deleted off your hard drive.
The files are created under “My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music” (unless you told iTunes otherwise), so open up that folder.
You will notice that the new files have the .m4a extension. They must be renamed to .m4b.
Now that the files are renamed, you can add them to your iTunes library once again.