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Stuart White posted an update
Here’s a wee controversial discussion topic, folks.
Virtual Voice Audiobooks! KDP are now offering this beta service to selected authors and books (but it will role out wider soon), for those who wish for their books to become audiobooks via a virtual voice.
Pros; you can have an audiobook of any book, at low cost (royalties and terms etc are a killer tho)
Cons; issues with voice, pacing, tone, etc and voice artists losing out on a lot of gigs potentially
Any strong thoughts here? Lots of indie authors are going down this route already, and I suspect traditional publishers will potentially do this at some point, too, with the potential for profits without large initial outlays to have them professionally produced.
Wendy Davis10 Comments-
I don’t think I’d want to listen to an audiobook created by a virtual voice. Surely it would be emotionless. It could possibly work for non-fiction.
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It’s a no from me.
I’ve stopped reading audio books before because I couldn’t get on with the narrator, can’t imagine how much worse that would be with an ai voice.
I also think ethically it just doesn’t hold up. I can see why indie authors would be tempted but it is definitely taking away work from paid actors. We’re all (I’m assuming here) against ai taking our work as writers, and I feel we should have the same stance for others in the creative fields.
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Personally, I find it really saddening that this sort of thing will undoubtedly increase and potentially become commonplace. And I would want no part in contributing to it, even if it may seem part of an inevitable future. This is in the same way I want no part in the use of AI art – because whatever personal benefits there might be to using such services (affordability being the most obvious one), it would come at the cost of other creatives, and, without meaning to sound too grandiose, it would come at the cost of creativity itself.
I think Abi’s sentiment puts it best: we’re all surely against AI taking our work as writers, so I feel we should keep this same resolve in our support for people in other creative fields.
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Thanks for your thoughts folks. So let’s say, again theoretically (as I agree with what you’re saying), that your trad publisher says they are buying the audio rights as part of your deal but is not explicit about the production etc and then they make a virtual voice version available- you can’t do anything about that as you sold you rights. How do you feel? or if the choice is simply have your book AI narrated or no audiobook at all?
Asking as this feels like an inevitable future, not because I support it.
Also worth noting that some human narration is terrible, maybe even worse than AI. Sorry, playing devil’s advocate a little bit because I think it’s always worth opening our minds to alternatives even if we don’t agree with them or want them.
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?@Stuart White? if I found out my trad publisher is producing an AI audio book of my story because it was in the terms of my deal, I would learn from it by making sure all future deals don’t allow it. It wouldn’t change my opinion on things; I’d just think I hadn’t been diligent enough when signing. And if they said the only way I’m getting an audiobook is if it’s AI narrated, I’d personally just say no to the audiobook, in the same way I’d say no to AI illustrations if they said they were the only way my book would be illustrated.
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??@Stuart White?? For me, the issue of quality is not relevant in whether I’d be OK with supporting it or not. This would definitely be an argument from the other side, especially as the technology improves (e.g. ‘look how realistic AI narration sounds now’ or ‘it sounds even better than the real thing’) but this would have no bearing on my choice.
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@ColsMovingCastle i wonder (and I hope it doesn’t) whether if profitability in publishing keeps getting lower and it becomes universal that AI does most audiobooks (and again I really hope not) whether we’d become resigned to accepting that in the same way we’ve become resigned to accepting ridiculously low royalties and poor communication and no marketing from publishers. I totally agree with everything you’re saying but in reality there are so many authors desperate to be published now that if you say no to a deal, they’ll just pick someone else up, and the fear is the powerlessness that authors have over what happens to their work after they sell the rights, whether that’s the cover, the marketing etc etc, will continue into audio rights (which I know can be negotiated and sold separately etc but you get the jist). The power imbalance in this world in general and specifically in publishing means it will always be profit over people unfortunately
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It’s a no from me as well.
As a teacher I have many students who use audio books. They will abandon a book if they do not like the voice. On many of our high stakes assessments students are subjected to robotic AI voices. I hate it. They hate it. I do understand the technology will always be improving, but reading aloud authentically is a gift. There are so many gifted voice actors -AI should not take work from them!
In my contract I retained the rights to the audiobook because I was afraid of this. (I am with a super small publisher.) I would like to create the audiobook myself -someday if equipment and money become available!
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It’s a no from me – storytelling is an art in itself and virtual voices cannot measure up to the warmth that comes from a human touch. I struggle enough with audio books that have a narrator I don’t like the sound of.
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As a creative who is deeply worried about the threat not just to creative careers but creativity ITSELF posed by the misuse of AI, I am really very strongly opposed to AI voices reading audiobooks full stop – these are tools that, used in this way, could fundamentally weaken our creative ecosystem.
I was reading an article in The Bookseller a while ago (https://www.thebookseller.com/news/futurebook-2024-prh-audios-amanda-dacierno-on-experimentation-with-ai-in-audiobooks) which explores what PRH are doing with AI and audiobooks which makes for interesting reading on this… There are some things here that I can accept as being potentially reasonable (using AI narration for parts of a book actually ABOUT AI to make a thematic point, for example, or using AI to join the segments of Michelle Obama’s audiobook which she had to record in different studios on different days, or using Siri’s actual voice if Siri has dialogue in a book). Perhaps more worryingly, they also say that there are no “red lines” when it comes to AI and audio, but temper than by emphasising author consent and support. How true that really would be in our late-stage capitalist world remains to be seen…
In the meantime, though, and PRH’s carefully worded statements aside, I understand why the idea of a cheap and easy audiobook might be tempting for an indie author, but I can’t help but think it is ethically challenging for a number of reasons – not least it would mean that an author has just handed over their entire novel to an AI to learn from…! what a great way for these big tech companies to legally get authors to willingly hand over their work without compensation for a LLM to devour…!In answer to the questions of what I would do if my trad publishers decided (and were allowed – which they are not!) to make an AI version of my audiobook, my answer is the same as Colin’s: I’d push back extremely strongly, and make sure all future contracts were absolutely watertight on that front.
I think its worth saying, too, that agents are already on this (my agent pushed for EXTREMELY robust AI protection on every front in my contract – including on this subject!). The balance of the industry may be stacked against authors, but agents are fighting our corner on the trad side. I’d also say that on the Indie side, the rise in indie podcasting and the proliferation of associated more affordable tech means that it is becoming (slightly!) cheaper for writers to record their own audio. Not free, obviously, and professional voice actors are expensive (for good reason!!), but more accessible than it used to be…
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