Amazon introduced a new auto-narrated audiobook feature recently, and I decided to try it out for The Bride Quest series. These audiobooks are available at Amazon and Audible, on their US sites only. This is a new feature so it may perk out to other geos later.
I have mixed feelings about auto-narrated, or AI-narrated audiobooks. As much as I love hiring a human narrator to perform the audio edition of any of my books, the production costs are very high. I don’t think I’ve earned back that investment on any of my audiobooks. On the other hand, these editions are more economical to produce, though they lack the perfomance aspect offered by a human narrator. It is said that some people prefer them for that reason.
The other nice thing (for consumers) is that Amz offers the audiobooks created this way as a bundle with the ebook – it’s only $1.99 more to get the audio as well as the ebook. There are pricing restrictions, and the lowest price I can set is $3.99, which is high for the novella and short story at the end of the series.
I have used the auto-narrate option at Google for audiobooks and several of my Dragonfire Novels are available that way. Unlike the auto-narrated at Google, these ones can’t be downloaded and published elsewhere – they end up being Amz exclusives. Like the Google ones, the script for the audio is generated from the ebook – unlike the interface at Google, the text can’t be edited at Amazon. Pronunciations can be adjusted and pauses can be inserted. I really like being able to edit the text at Google, but there you go. Each portal has their rules. 🙂
If you are an audiobook fan, have a listen and let me know what you think.
The audiobook covers, in this case, are the same as the ebook covers.
Claire Delacroix 