What's your opinion on AI narration for audio books? > Likes and Comments

This posting is to ask your opinion of AI narration of audio books.

Recently, Amazon invited co-author Richard Starks and me to use a beta version of its AI narration program to produce an audio edition of our novel, 'In A Town Called Paradox'. We took Amazon up on its offer (with some reservations), and in just 15 minutes we had an audio version of our novel posted on our Amazon page.

Here's the link to the free excerpt of the audio on the 'In A Town Called Paradox' Amazon page.
http://www.amzn.com/B08LG9XZL9

What do you think of it? The narration is not perfect, but do you think it's acceptable to readers? Perhaps you'd like to post your opinion here. Thank you.

Let's talk about A.I. in general. I don't care for A.I. But I'm wise enough to know some people love it, or shall I say, "embrace it." Any amount of help one can get, they feel they should take it.

That being said ...

I will not advise you or anyone else to use it or not use it.

The general rule of thumb is to ALWAYS fully, and I do mean, fully disclose you have used it. It's not fair to readers of any material, fiction or nonfiction, not to know.

Other than that, go for it if that's what you want to do. Make sure you let your readers and listeners know upfront that it's A.I. generated, whether you're using it just as a vocal aid or both vocal and the writing of the material. Follow the same rule with video trailers.

But if your final product comes out choppy or is in any way incoherent, please seek a professional. They are worth the money. Please don't skimp on quality. You've worked hard on your manuscript. Don't jump ship now and settle for a raft when you can steer the ship in those extra miles.

Donna
https://rb.gy/b7fwne

I listened to the audio. It's flat, emotionless. But you can't expect more from A.I. Not your fault. That's just A.I. It all depends on what you want, or rather, the reaction you want from your listeners.

Subjective.

It's all up to you.

Donna

Hi Donna
Thank you for your comments and taking the time to listen to the audio clip. As you probably saw, the audio edition is well-flagged as an AI narration. Agreed. This must always be done.

Are you satisfied with the output of this A.I. generated narration?

What web platform did you use?

Donna

Not entirely satisfied, no. We acted on an amazon 'invitation' to use a free beta version of its AI narration program. We thought it was worth the experiment. The cost of producing a professionally-narrated audio edition of the particular novel to which amazon applied its 'invitation' means it would be a poor investment for us, given the sales that the audio book would have to generate to cover the narration costs. Audio narration costs also holdback larger publishing houses. At least that's one justification one of our publishers has given us for its lack of interest in exercising the audio rights it holds to one of our other books.

I listened to AI samples, decided against that, and am encouraged by early reader reaction to the human narration of my thriller. It's still being distributed and, if I might broaden the discussion, I'm trying to figure out marketing and promotion. For someone of the hard copy/ebook era, going audible enters a strange land. Any suggestions or thoughts on sites or approaches will be appreciated.

We should all reject AI in any creative capacity.

R. wrote: "We should all reject AI in any creative capacity."

I fully agree with that statement. Writing is supposed to be a HUMAN creative activity, not an exercise in intellectual laziness or dishonesty. For those who say that AI will make it easier and faster to 'write' stories, I say that this would only prove their own lack of imagination and talent as authors. If you can't write your own stories by yourself, then find another line of work. I am not going to buy a product that is essentially little more than an assemblage of sentences and words collected around the Internet by a computer.

Miriam wrote: "This posting is to ask your opinion of AI narration of audio books.

Recently, Amazon invited co-author Richard Starks and me to use a beta version of its AI narration program to produce an audio e..."

I listened for a bit, but an entire book voiced like this would be too annoying to continue. "She" doesn't emphasize words correctly and leaves weird pauses. Would much rather listen to a human with some emotion in her voice.

Hi Michael
Just a note. The book itself - 'In A Town Called Paradox' - was written by real, live writers. It's the fifth book the authors have co-written - often a three or four year effort to research and write.

Miriam wrote: "Hi Michael
Just a note. The book itself - 'In A Town Called Paradox' - was written by real, live writers. It's the fifth book the authors have co-written - often a three or four year effort to rese..."

Please do not misunderstand what I wanted to say, Miriam. What I was against was not about that book or its author but rather the use of AI to do the audio version of it. That use of AI for that purpose resulted in what April described in message # 10 as 'annoying' and 'emotionless'. I myself am an author and wrote dozens of books and AI should have no part in a creative work.

AI is a subject that can bring out good and bad. It depends on how you use it. If you use it for editing (because for fiction writers, Grammarly is not the greatest, considering it is not set up for writers) it would be good but for those expecting it to write your book for you without any input from you, good luck as it goes off on a tangent. For narrating, what I heard no. There needs to be some emotion, especially in fiction books.

I listened to about 50%. Other than being flat, you can actually still hear the disharmony of the generated voice even tho they've gotten better in the last years. Oh and, it does sound familiar, is that because I recognize the model it is based on or because I heard too many YouTube etc clips with AI voices?

Having said that, yeah I can imagine a real human voice audio book production to be costly as you not only have to pay the person narrating but also the studio if one is needed. So considering the AI route is understandable from that point of view.

But I would much prefer humans to "work art" (even good narrating is art) than AI to replace everything

Hi Ela
Thank you for your comments. Yes. AI is getting better but it's still far from perfect.

A.I. narrates without emotion. Ebb and flow is practically nonexistent.

You'll need to evaluate your goal. Do you want reader engagement? If so, A.I. may not be the way to go. You'll need to give this much thought.

I'd research prices for narration, then save up if you have to.

Donna
https://rb.gy/b7fwne

Miriam wrote: "This posting is to ask your opinion of AI narration of audio books.

Recently, Amazon invited co-author Richard Starks and me to use a beta version of its AI narration program to produce an audio e..."

OK. If this is representative of AI narration, then I'll definitely give it a pass. It's a good try at attempting realistic vocal inflection. But It fails on average about once every 40 seconds. In a 4-minute sample, that's not a lot. But an awkward pause or improperly emphasized word every 40 seconds for 10 hours would be terrible to have to listen to.

I have 20 hours to record 10 hours of useable audio and another 20 hours for putting it all together in Audacity. That would include the time it takes to tune my voice to be consistent from chapter to chapter. I'll probably take out a little of the high end, too, in order to make my voice a little more pleasant to listen to for 10 hours.

40 hours is not a big price to pay, to avoid what I heard in that AI audio clip.

Maybe there are better AI apps. But so far, I have not heard one.