I am an Audiobook

I love my little narrator studio; it’s exactly the space I was hoping to have. Just a lava lamp in the corner is missing, and perhaps a brighter light behind the laptop.

But what was I thinking?

Of all the rooms, the attic room without a window seemed perfect at first—and it is—but, sadly, no window also means no fresh air—just a lot of sticky, warm air during the summertime.

My narrator studio is a sweat box.

Before: A bit messy, not very organized. An attic room for seasonal decoration, old pictures and other unwanted (unloved) stuff. I was forced to go through all of it—and it was needed. I sorted, downsized, reorganized and voila. I had freed a corner.

The room has carpet. Now I only had to worry about the walls and ceiling. With a tight budget, I went through our linen closet in search of an older quilt. My husband brought home old furniture blankets from his work, and I spent $20 for two large trash bags of ‘sound insulation’. Mix-and-match items, but who cares, right?

The narration corner in the making:

And voilà:

I had fun, and it worked beautifully but I couldn’t finish narrating “Losing it All” because it got too warm—too quickly. Any other room in our home has too much background noise, not to mention the sound of dogs barking and playing or just walking, cars driving by, the phone ringing, a clock ticking. I closed my narration room in May, couldn’t finish recordning my own book.

I tried the virtual voice offered by Amazon KDP and found one I liked, but it made so many mistakes.

AI used the pronunciation marks as a guide for the tone—it was often (too often) terribly wrong. It couldn’t even get words like ‘Weimaraner’ right, and other simple things like ‘hawk’ or ‘conman’.

The Amazon AI voice was a complete turnoff. Every wrong pronunciation and the cheerful tone before a questionmark, made me flinch. I listened to my own book and hated it. If I feel that way, how would potential readers feel?

I love audiobooks, and I had to ask myself an honest question:

Am I willing to spend money on an audiobook that’s read by AI?
The honest answer: “No.”

Have I ever listened to an audiobook narrated by an AI voice?
The honest answer again: “No.”

That means I am judging something I know nothing about, and that’s the one thing I try to avoid.

Quite a predicament.

I needed a book. It didn’t take long, and I found one I was interested in, written by a fellow blogger, narrated by Amazon’s virtual voice. I bought both, the eBook as well as the audiobook. A package deal.

The blogger had chosen to let a British artificial voice narrate the book. Smart move! This way, the wrong pronunciation can be blamed on the Brits. 🙂

I read the ebook first. I liked it. Then I listened to the audiobook. It was too fast, and the author didn’t take the time to correct the AI voice or work with it. Maybe I am too critical? The British accent covered some, but not enough. It was a turnoff.

The Amazon Studio gives authors the possibility to work with the voice, and so it began. I listen to my own book so often now that I don’t ever want to hear or read it again but, it worked.

Weimaraner is spelled Wymaraner for AI.
Boudin sausage: Boo-deen sausage.
Con man: Kon-man,
Hawk = haag

And other funny stuff. I giggled like a little girl and enjoyed the spelling-trip.

I changed most of the question marks to a normal period sign. Added a pause, small or long…frequently. Not just between paragraphs but also after sentences, when the emotions changed.

And voilà, after the fifth attempt, I finally could stand listening to my own book.

It was a very interesting experiment. One that taught me a lot about AI and about myself.

The weather is cooling down. Soon my attic-narration room will have a normal temperature. I will finish narrating my first book, and I will narrate my second book right away.

AI is an option, but not MY preferred solution.

However, I completly understand why Indie authors choose to go this route. Narrating a book is time-consuming. Hiring a narrator is not cheap. $1,000 is the starting price, and from there it goes up, and up, and up.

The length of my book: 7 hrs. and 37 minutes of listening time.

This translates into 50-80 hours of production time. It takes rather expensive equipment: microphone, audio interface, headphones, silencer, microphone shield, all the good stuff. I bought most of it used.

Still, I spent over $400 just for the equipment. I am telling you, being an indie author is a pricey hobby (but it’s fun).

I am still not sure what to think about the virtual voice. I know what I think about AI, so it’s kind of a no-brainer:

“I tried AI narration, learned how to make it work, and still decided I want a human voice—mine.”

By the end of the year, my book will be…read by me…accent, sarcasm and all.

Until then, if you want to listen to it, but you don’t want to use your Audible credit, let me know and I will gift you a copy…if…you promise to give me an honest review on voice as well as on content.

What an interesting experience it all is. How blessed we all are that we have so many choices.