Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 85

Digital Voices: Good, Bad, or the Devil?

I’ve mentioned before that I am not keen on the idea of computer-generated audiobooks. To sum up, I think that the technology will create a sound that is a perfect mimic of a human voice but one that will still land in the uncanny valley territory. I do think that the technology will have its uses, but I don’t think it will replace human narration.

I also dislike the idea on a philosophical level. The Big Tech moguls seem to want to create a world of perfect automation. The trouble is this vision of the future is a complete fantasy – automation is fine and dandy until something breaks or the power goes off or the Internet goes down. (As the current state of the US economy shows, we could use a lot more truck drivers and plumbers and a lot fewer Big Tech CEOs.) It’s like when non-farmers offer various Galaxy Brain Energy ideas on how to improve farming, and the actual farmers laugh themselves sick because they know the idea is 1.) bad, and 2.) will fail catastrophically. AI-narrated audiobooks seem to fall into that category of Galaxy Brain idea.

Anyway. That was a bit of a digression. Back to audiobooks!

All that said, I freely admit that my dislike of AI-narrated audiobooks could be curmudgeonly bias on my part. A good example is Alexa. I don’t use Alexa, Siri, or any of the other voice assistants, because I don’t like the idea of spending my time around an always-on microphone. Indeed, I find it slightly sinister. And my formative experiences with computers were back in the command line days, so deep down part of my brain thinks we should all go back to the command line.

However, I cannot deny that I have met many people – particularly elderly people or people with chronic illness that impairs their vision or mobility – for whom voice assistants like Alexa and Siri have considerably improved their quality of life. This was especially true in 2020 and 2021 when the worst of the pandemic restrictions were in full force. So it’s always good to remind myself that my opinion isn’t necessarily objective fact.

This relates to audiobooks because Google Play Books launched a free trial of an AI audiobook narration service. If you have a book on Google Play Books that doesn’t have an audiobook associated with it, you can use Google’s AI narration to generate an audiobook of it that you can then sell on the Google Play store. You can also sell the resultant MP3 files elsewhere, though that may be a moot point, since Audible and Findaway do not allow computer-generated audiobooks on their storefronts at the moment.

In the interests of 1.) testing my own preconceptions, and 2.) seeing if it was any good, I decided to give it a try.

I chose SILENT ORDER: IRON HAND for the experiment, because out of all my main fictional settings (FROSTBORN, THE GHOSTS, CLOAK GAMES, DEMONSOULED, and SILENT ORDER) SILENT ORDER definitely has the weakest sales, and so therefore I am very unlikely to ever make a human-narrated audiobook for it because the sales for the rest of the series wouldn’t justify it. To put it in perspective, the ebook sales of all ten SILENT ORDER books for June 2022 combined would cover the about 45% of the cost of narrating just the first book in audio. So it’s not like the experiment would have screwed anyone out of narration work on SILENT ORDER because there most likely wasn’t going to ever be any narration work on SILENT ORDER.

Anyway, the process of generating an AI audiobook is very simple. Basically point and a few clicks. You choose the book, select the voice and accent you wish to use, make sure that you have the appropriate sections of the book selected for narration, and that’s pretty much it. The servers grind away for a few hours, and then the Google Play dashboard generates an AI-narrated audiobook.

My opinion of the result…it is okay-ish. It sounds just like someone reading the book in a normal voice devoid of emotion. Listening to a few sentences, I suspect most people would not be able to tell that it’s not a human voice. However, if anyone listens for longer than just a few sentences, it becomes immediately apparent that it’s a computer generated voice because of the complete lack of emotion and absence of variation in the inflection. The voice I chose sounds a lot like the guy who used to do the voiceovers of the All-State Insurance commercials here in the US, and the trouble is that this is exactly what it sounds like – someone calmly reading the voiceover for an insurance commercial. This includes the violent or emotional scenes in SILENT ORDER: IRON HAND, of which there are many, so in the middle of an angry conversation or a gunfight, it still sounds like someone offering you a good deal on insurance over the radio. (“Surrender or die, Captain March! Also, did you know that you could save 17% on your starship insurance?”)

So the technology is better than it was, but it’s still lands in the uncanny valley – something that is close enough to human that it triggers an alarmed response in the lizard brain sector of the human mind.

My frank opinion is that the majority of serious audiobook listeners will hate AI-narrated audiobooks and refuse to buy them, and I don’t think the end product is good enough that I would feel comfortable charging money for it.

Granted, I expect the technology will have its uses. I heard about the new Google Play Books program on the Creative Penn podcast, and Joanna Penn argued that she expects to see the “bifurcation” of audio rights. Like, right now, a book has “audio rights”, and that covers any audiobooks. Eventually, there will probably be different kind of audio rights – machine-read and human-read. A vast majority of books will never have human-narrated audiobooks, so machine-read ones could fill the gap. Relating to the way that audio assistants like Alexa and Siri have helped people with vision and mobility challenges, I can definitely see how this kind of technology would be of immense benefit for people in those situations. In fact, given disability access laws, maybe the endpoint will be that eventually all ereader apps will have a “read aloud” button, and then you can choose between a human-narrated book (if available) or a computer-generated one.

But we all must make up our own minds on the topic. I put the AI-narrated audiobook of SILENT ORDER: IRON HAND on YouTube, and so you can listen and decide for yourself!

-JM

 

CLOAK OF SPEARS rough draft done!

I am pleased to report the rough draft of CLOAK OF SPEARS is done at 104,000 words, which means it will probably end up as the second-longest Nadia book after CLOAK OF IRON.

Next up – I totally need to finish proof listening to the audiobook of CLOAK OF SHARDS. May and June have been shockingly busy months (but summer is always a busy time, isn’t it?), so audiobook proofing keeps getting squeezed out. But I’m going to finish listening to the remaining chapters all in go today.

Then it’s time to get started on the bonus short story for newsletter subscribers! As you might recall, Tythrilandria won the website poll, so she will be the main character in the short story. It will be set in the time between CLOAK OF SHARDS and CLOAK OF SPEARS, and the plot will involve Tyth and Nadia having to host an Elven leader from Kalvarion. Naturally, trouble ensues.

Meanwhile, let’s see the cover image for CLOAK OF SPEARS below! The book should be out in July if all goes well.

-JM

The Pulp Writer Show, Episode 121: Reader Q&A

The Pulp Writer Show returns from hiatus! In this week’s episode, I’ll answer reader questions that have arrived during the six weeks since I last recorded a show.

I’ll also talk a bit about Amazon returns and the end of the iPod era.

As always, you can listen to the show on Libsyn, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Amazon Music.

-JM

CLOAK OF SPEARS progress update

I am starting the week at 77,000 words of CLOAK OF SPEARS. That puts me probably around 75% of the rough draft.

I’m afraid this week is going to feature a lot of Mandatory Home Repair on my part (apparently replacing rotten boards is a good thing), but I’m still hoping to hit 100,000 words by the end of the week if all goes well.

-JM

Tythrilandria wins!

The short story poll is finished, and Tythrilandria has won. So when CLOAK OF SPEARS come out, the bonus short story that newsletter subscribers will get for free will feature Tythrilandria as the main character.

I think she and Nadia will go to the mall. Trouble will ensue.

Victoria Carrow came in as a close second, so when I write the book after CLOAK OF SPEARS, I think the bonus short story will be about her. But we have a few months before that yet.

-JM

CLOAK OF SPEARS progress

I passed the 70,000 word mark of CLOAK OF SPEARS today.

I think there’s a good chance it’s going to end up as the longest of the CLOAK books, a record previously held by CLOAK OF IRON.

I’m still hoping to have it out in July, but between the length and various Real Life things I need to attend to, it might slip until August.

-JM

FROSTBORN: THE SHADOW PRISON audiobook now available!

I am pleased to report that FROSTBORN: THE SHADOW PRISON is now available in audiobook, as excellently narrated by Brad Wills! You can get the audiobook at Audible, Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon AU, and Apple.

This means that after five years, the entire FROSTBORN series is now available in audio, and additionally all 37 books with Ridmark Arban as a main character are now in audiobook format.

The combined length of the series is really long. Like, if you’re looking for an extremely long series to listen to, I’ve got you covered!

The FROSTBORN series: 169 hours.

The SEVENFOLD SWORD series: 138 hours.

The DRAGONTIARNA series: 134 hours.

So the combined audio length of all 37 Ridmark books comes to 441 hours. To put that into perspective, there are 168 hours in a week, which means it would take just under two and a half weeks to listen to the FROSTBORN, SEVENFOLD SWORD, and DRAGONTIARNA series from back to back. Of course, a lot of people listen to audiobooks while commuting, so it even if your commute time every week is about ten hours, FROSTBORN alone would last you for nearly four months of listening.

I’d like to thank the three narrators who read the 37 books – Steven Brand, Steven Crossley, and Brad Wills – and also the production teams at Podium & Tantor, and Neil Kesterson & Mara Kesterson of Dynamix Productions. A lot of people worked hard on the audiobooks, which explains why it took five years to get the entire FROSTBORN series into audio.

If you want to start listening, begin with FROSTBORN: THE GRAY KNIGHT, or if you’re an Audible member, you can listen to DRAGONTIARNA: KNIGHTS & THIEVES for free.

-JM

 

Who should be the main character in the next CLOAK MAGE short story?

I’m about 1/3 of the way through CLOAK OF SPEARS, and when the book is done, I’m going to write a short story that I will give away for free to newsletter subscribers.

Most of the time, the CLOAK MAGE short stories are “Nadia Goes On A Side Quest”, but this time I think I will write a short story about one of the side characters.

Which means it’s time to test the new poll plugin I got for my website! Vote on one of the four characters – Tythrilandria, Victoria Carrow, Simone Deneuve, and Neil Freeman – and whoever wins the poll will be the main character in the short story!

The poll will be open through Saturday, June 19th.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

-JM

CLOAK OF SPEARS progress update

I am closing out the week at 42,000 words of CLOAK OF SPEARS, which puts me at Chapter 8 of 22. (I think the book’s going to be 22 chapters, but we’ll see.)

CLOAK MAGE is primarily urban fantasy with just a touch of science fiction, but sometimes I can tell a different kind of story within that framework. Like, CLOAK OF WOLVES was a murder mystery, CLOAK OF ASHES was about someone getting framed for murder, CLOAK OF BLADES was a heist novel, and so forth.

CLOAK OF SPEARS will be sort of international globe-trotting thriller. It will have five POV of characters.

1.) Nadia (the main POV).

2.) Neil Freeman.

3.) Russell.

4.) Victoria Carrow.

5.) Mr. Hood.

Also! The recording for the audiobook of CLOAK OF SHARDS is done, and I will start proof listening to that next week.

-JM

DRAGONTIARNA OMNIBUS ONE anniversary sale!

It’s now been one year since I wrapped up the DRAGONTIARNA series with DRAGONTIARNA: WARDEN!

To celebrate, DRAGONTIARNA OMNIBUS ONE is only $0.99 USD for the rest of the month! You can get it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon CA, Amazon AU, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and Apple Books.

Combined for the first time in one volume are the first three books of the internationally bestselling DRAGONTIARNA series: DRAGONTIARNA: KNIGHTS, DRAGONTIARNA: THIEVES, DRAGONTIARNA: GATES, and the bonus short story SHIELD KNIGHT: THIRD’S TALE.

Ridmark Arban has defeated both the mighty Frostborn and the evil of the Seven Swords, and now he only wishes to live quietly with his family.

But Ridmark’s oldest enemy, the Warden of Urd Morlemoch, has not forgotten him.

And the Warden knows a dangerous secret.

For the dragons are returning…

-JM