June is Audiobook Appreciation Month. With that being the case, I can think of no better topic to discuss: non-human narrated audiobooks.
Hate them? Love them? Indifferent? I can’t help but think of it all as sophisticated text-to-speech (TTS) technology. Indeed, a tool that has served a critical role in my book publishing process since 2011. I started using NaturalReader software to record my finished stories and correct errors, usually around the fourth and final draft way back then. Indeed, I continue to use NaturalReader, along with a host of other tools, including Word itself, to read my stories back to me during the final edits phase.
To know me is to know I once listened to eBooks read by my Kindle devices. Now, I rely on Alexa to read eBooks to me. But do I love non-human narrated audiobooks? Hardly. However, it would be terribly disingenuous of me to say I hate them.
In view of my longstanding and previously disclosed history with text-to-speech, when presented with the chance to produce audiobooks in collaboration with Apple when it rolled out its digital voice narration capability in early 2023, I was eager to give it a try, trusting as I did that the voice actors said to be involved in the voice generations were fairly compensated. Whether they were or not is not for me to say. What I will say is that I hated it. It was touted as a six-month minimum commitment, so minimal risk, right? I could not wait until I could end the contracts. Yes, the audiobooks sold a few copies worldwide, but I found Apple’s assigned prices outrageous for a product that was merely tolerable and over which I had no control. In some cases, prices were as high as $9.99 for novellas.
In that same spirit of embracing text-to-speech technology, I was also eager to take part in Google Play’s rollout of digitally narrated audiobooks. I found far more success there and some enjoyment as well. The process was more transparent. I had more control over the finished product, and I could set my own prices. Indeed, I own and often listen to several of them. They are no longer available for purchase, however, despite their past contribution to my bottom line.
This brings me to Amazon KDP’s rollout of virtual voice narrations. Who among us did not know that it was just a matter of time? I am a wide author with limited visibility on Amazon these days, even for my eBooks. As Amazon’s pay-to-play business model is my abhorrence, I would have no reason to suppose the visibility of a virtually narrated audiobook would be any different. I am only writing about KDP because it’s a confirmation of what we have long known was coming and now that it is here, it looks like it’s here to stay.
In other areas of text-to-speech technology, I have been playing around with various tools offered by ElevenLabs, Speechelo, and the likes. From what I have discerned, copious amounts of work are required to produce full-length audiobooks effectively. For short voice-overs, not so much.
Something I have done is experiment with using some of ElevenLabs’ synthesized voices with my own natural voice to see how it plays out. Here’s a ‘dual narration’ snippet that I put together a while back. Happy listening!
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