To Audio or Not?
You know I’m not terribly techy, but I did buy ear pods during the recent Amazon Prime Sale. My daughter got me all set up with them, and on the third time trying to use them I got through all the steps! LOL The pod has this tiny button-like thing you have to push or nothing works.
Our Dell computer isn’t very old, but it didn’t have Bluetooth, and I wanted to use the ear pods for meetings. Ultimately, we had to order a “thingy.” And yes, thanks to adult children, we got it installed and working.So the reason I wanted the ear pods was so I could listen to TAINTED, my only book that is in an audio format. You’ll remember I did a thing with Draft 2 Digital and iTunes to put the book up for no charge. Yes, it is an AI voice, and I had really mixed feelings about using this technology.
For one, I’m putting actors out of business. (At one point many years ago, I thought I might like to do voice overs.) (Not that I can afford to pay an actor.) Besides, I can read anything better than some ol’ AI thing, right? However, I recently heard a presentation at my writing group from two people who did their own audio books. My stars and garters!!! The woman said: “Before you decide to get into doing your own audio books, go into your closet and read out loud for two hours every day for two weeks. If you’re not crazy after that, you might be able to do your own audio books. WOW! Have you ever read anything out loud? That’s a long time. I’ve done many short readings—10-15 minutes which in itself takes a lot of practice time, but 2 hours! Yikes!!! To get really good at it, takes a huge amount of time.And that is why paying an actor to do this work is so expensive and why it costs so much to buy an audio book with an actor.
The River.I have not been a fan of audio books. Well, until I got the sample of my book, I’d never even heard one. But I really needed to listen to all of TAINTED to decide if I wanted to do another book this way. Do I even want to leave it up after the 6 months has passed? That was part of the deal. You had to leave it up for 6 months. I mean if it’s yucky, I want to take it down. The only way to know if it’s yucky is to listen to the whole thing myself. Thus, the Bluetooth and ear pods.
View from up on the mountain. I believe my SIL took this picture.Wednesday at the mall, I listened to three chapters while I walked. Yea, me I got it to work. LOL At this point, I’m thinking, WOW! I can’t believe this is fake. She sounds like a real person. She even changes the voice a bit for characters. Not as much as a real actor would, but some. It works better when there are only two characters talking. Get’s more complicated when you add a third or fourth. There are places I thought I’d have said that differently, but I’d have to put my whole life on hold to make that happen.Now she has mispronounced at least two words so far. One is Dumas, Texas. She pronounced it as it if were French with the s in Dumas silent and it’s not. The other is also a name. John Valdez is a supporting character. She pronounced the last syllable as deez rather than dez rhyming with pez. I’m curious if there are others like that.
Our favorite ice cream shop.Now, I gotta admit I was surprised at how fun it was to listen while I walked the mall. Normally, I just look around, taking in the changes in windows, the varieties of folks you see, and think. Sometimes about the current or next book. In the early days of blogging, I found lots of topics while I walked the mall. I like to think I’ve grown past those topics. But then this is sort of about walking in the mall, isn’t it? 
So, please tell me, do you listen to audio books? Have you listened to ones that are done with AI before? Do most of the ones with actors voices change a lot for the characters? If you haven’t listened to an AI audio before, would you consider listening to TAINTED? It’s $4.99 the same price as the e-book. Here’s the buy link for the audio book:
Our Dell computer isn’t very old, but it didn’t have Bluetooth, and I wanted to use the ear pods for meetings. Ultimately, we had to order a “thingy.” And yes, thanks to adult children, we got it installed and working.So the reason I wanted the ear pods was so I could listen to TAINTED, my only book that is in an audio format. You’ll remember I did a thing with Draft 2 Digital and iTunes to put the book up for no charge. Yes, it is an AI voice, and I had really mixed feelings about using this technology.
For one, I’m putting actors out of business. (At one point many years ago, I thought I might like to do voice overs.) (Not that I can afford to pay an actor.) Besides, I can read anything better than some ol’ AI thing, right? However, I recently heard a presentation at my writing group from two people who did their own audio books. My stars and garters!!! The woman said: “Before you decide to get into doing your own audio books, go into your closet and read out loud for two hours every day for two weeks. If you’re not crazy after that, you might be able to do your own audio books. WOW! Have you ever read anything out loud? That’s a long time. I’ve done many short readings—10-15 minutes which in itself takes a lot of practice time, but 2 hours! Yikes!!! To get really good at it, takes a huge amount of time.And that is why paying an actor to do this work is so expensive and why it costs so much to buy an audio book with an actor.
The River.I have not been a fan of audio books. Well, until I got the sample of my book, I’d never even heard one. But I really needed to listen to all of TAINTED to decide if I wanted to do another book this way. Do I even want to leave it up after the 6 months has passed? That was part of the deal. You had to leave it up for 6 months. I mean if it’s yucky, I want to take it down. The only way to know if it’s yucky is to listen to the whole thing myself. Thus, the Bluetooth and ear pods.
View from up on the mountain. I believe my SIL took this picture.Wednesday at the mall, I listened to three chapters while I walked. Yea, me I got it to work. LOL At this point, I’m thinking, WOW! I can’t believe this is fake. She sounds like a real person. She even changes the voice a bit for characters. Not as much as a real actor would, but some. It works better when there are only two characters talking. Get’s more complicated when you add a third or fourth. There are places I thought I’d have said that differently, but I’d have to put my whole life on hold to make that happen.Now she has mispronounced at least two words so far. One is Dumas, Texas. She pronounced it as it if were French with the s in Dumas silent and it’s not. The other is also a name. John Valdez is a supporting character. She pronounced the last syllable as deez rather than dez rhyming with pez. I’m curious if there are others like that.
Our favorite ice cream shop.Now, I gotta admit I was surprised at how fun it was to listen while I walked the mall. Normally, I just look around, taking in the changes in windows, the varieties of folks you see, and think. Sometimes about the current or next book. In the early days of blogging, I found lots of topics while I walked the mall. I like to think I’ve grown past those topics. But then this is sort of about walking in the mall, isn’t it? So, please tell me, do you listen to audio books? Have you listened to ones that are done with AI before? Do most of the ones with actors voices change a lot for the characters? If you haven’t listened to an AI audio before, would you consider listening to TAINTED? It’s $4.99 the same price as the e-book. Here’s the buy link for the audio book: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/id1669096821
Here’s the Blurb:
Socialite and philanthropist Elizabeth Hartman needs to start a new life after divorcing her husband Gerry Richardson who’s serving time in federal prison for money laundering, a crime the Feds suspected her of being involved in. Her mother’s family vacation home in Red River, New Mexico offers just the respite she needs. Or does it? One too many deaths sent retired Dallas homicide detective and now Marshall Matt Thornton to Red River to seek a less dangerous place to serve. The New Mexico mountains promised to be that refuge until his high school sweetheart Liz Hartman arrives, bringing with her danger to his town and his heart.I really need to hear back from you about this. Thank you so much.I hope you are not melting in the heat or being swept away in the floods. And our poor friends in Canada literally burning up with fires. Truly it’s like the earth is imploding on itself. Very scary.Look for the August Newsletter next week. I’m sending it out earlier than usual because I have another marketing project to share. Summer has been busy. LOLAs always, I’d love to hear from you.P.S. Our WORD BY WORD Blog is on the blink right now, so I took it off the list below.Blurbs for each of my books with links can be found on my website https://authormarsharwest.wordpress.com/ Where you can also sign up for my blog and my NEWSLETTER MRW Press LLC (list-manage.com)Contact me at marsha@marsharwest.com , and follow me on…(20+) Marsha Riegert West | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmnhttps://www.twitter.com/Marsharwest @Marsharwesthttps://www.pinterest.com/marsharwest/ https://www.instagram.com/marsharwestAmazon.com: Marsha R. West: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, KindleMarsha R. West (Author of Vermont Escape) | GoodreadsMarsha R. West Books – BookBub
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