Audible delays and Amazon's audiobook virtual voice

[alhawke]

Nothing new about Audible delays, right? But it's getting very delayed. I publish via Findaway so for those of you who publish on ACX, let me know.

My newest audio book has still not published via Amazon and is in all other markets for the past two months. Nor has a newer boxed set over the past month.

I'm wondering if it's due to AI? The Amazon beta audiobook service looks extremely easy to use on my KDP dashboard and even got me considering clicking a button and moving forward. Any of you submitting any titles of your own yet to this? Could this new service be flooding the market with new titles?

[Bill Hiatt]

It's certainly possible.

That said, I recently got an invitation to respond to a why-aren't-you-using-the-audiobook-AI-beta survey. It seems unlikely to me that Amazon would bother with such a survey--unless a lot of people they invited to the beta didn't start creating audiobooks.

There was a freeform response at the end, so I stated I wouldn't use such an Ai program unless Amazon certified that any training process followed the principles of consent and compensation.

[alhawke]

I'm surprised, and worried, about how easy it is to now make AI audio via the KDP beta service. It's extremely worrying imo for human narrators.

Why? When I was looking to do audio, I really had no idea how to go about it. Now... Look. Just press a button and your work can be created.

[Bill Hiatt]

Depending on how good the voices are and on how much correction is necessary, it might be easy. I guess we won't know until we try.

I'm worried about narrators, too. I'm also worried that this is another attempt to centralize all content on Amazon. Unless other outlets allow the use of Amazon's Ai-generated audiobooks, that means those products will only appear on Amazon--unless an author did a separate process for Google and then for any other channels that offer a similar service. That sounds like a real time killer. Or someone might do AI for Amazon and human audio for all other outlets, but I wonder if anyone would really do that. If you're going to pay for a human narrator, anyway, why not distribute that way on Amazon as well?

[alhawke]

I bet it will go wide eventually. Probably with some stipulation of less royalties, like ACX vs Findaway now, or something.

Another thing to consider is the technology. I suspect any AI created audiobook in 2024 is going to be much poorer in quality than 2030. If not 2025. The technology is definitely not at its zenith yet. So if you're going the AI route, do you wait?

[PJ Post]

This is where Patreon and YouTube and other engagement channels work well.

You can use AI to narrate and publish a chapter at a time or even a scene at a time. It's easy to turn them into radio plays with different voices if you want. You can experiment and your fans will probably love it. It doesn't need to be an all or nothing proposition like it is on Amazon. Sure, all you have to do is push a button there, but then you're just jumping into the churn along with everyone else. There is so much opportunity for our IPs.

We need to stop churning out IPs as fast as possible and start focusing on their earning potential individually. We need to stop selling Amazon and start selling ourselves. A book release should be an event.  /rant


Check out:

https://elevenlabs.io/.

https://elevenlabs.io/projects

It's a bit expensive, but pretty amazing.

[TimothyEllis]

Looks like Australia isn't getting the Audio beta like we didn't get Vella.

You can use AI to narrate and publish a chapter at a time or even a scene at a time.

It's a bit expensive, but pretty amazing.

I'm not interested in expensive online sites.

What I want is a pay once download I run on my computer.

I've got 3 million words to audio, and they means needs to be cheap.

I thought the Amazon thing might be the answer, but no offer to use it yet, even though I would.

[PJ Post]

I'm not interested in expensive online sites.

What I want is a pay once download I run on my computer.

I get it. The world has decided subscriptions are the way to go. I'm not a fan either, but here we are.

If you go to YouTube and search Elevenlabs, you'll find some videos reviewing other alternatives, including free ones. They might not be as good, but they just have to be good enough, right?

[TimothyEllis]

I'm not interested in expensive online sites.

What I want is a pay once download I run on my computer.

I get it. The world has decided subscriptions are the way to go.

Actually, it's not the subscription, but how limited they are. I've something like 3 million words to do, and the last one I looked at had a limit of about 20k a month. Totally useless.

Paying more puts you into hiring a narrator territory anyway, so there is no benefit.

[PJ Post]

The free ones should work, but yeah, it's typically a character-based pay scale. The Elevenlabs plan that really works for writers is $99 a month. Of course, the other thing to keep in mind is how fast you can actually convert those three million words. It's not as simple as it sounds; for example, you have to listen to all of it to make sure there's no glitches. It's still a lot of time consuming work. The upside is that you're not dependent upon anyone else to get it done. We'll, except the app company, of course. Fortunately, we have options there.

[Bill Hiatt]

Another thing to consider is the technology. I suspect any AI created audiobook in 2024 is going to be much poorer in quality than 2030. If not 2025. The technology is definitely not at its zenith yet. So if you're going the AI route, do you wait?

Precisely because the technology will improve, I'd be inclined to wait, at least for a while.

For some time, authors have been narrating individual chapters and posting them on YouTube. I don't know about now, but at one time, people did experience some success with that. However, real fans might actually prefer hearing the author's voice rather than an AI voice. Back in the day, I had requests for audiobooks in my own voice. That does seem like a way of establishing a more personal connection. Of course, it takes some investment in equipment and environment to meet audiobook standards, as well as a lot of time narrating, but if you're just doing a chapter as a sample or teaser, the time commitment wouldn't be as great, and you wouldn't have to meet an audiobook's exacting standards.

[PJ Post]

You can also train AI on your own voice. So many options.

[Bill Hiatt]

That might be a timesaver, though AI still can't do me as well as I can do me, so it would depend on how much correcting I had to do.

Also, I'd need to make sure that my training AI on my voice didn't give anyone else access to my voice.

[PJ Post]

That might be a timesaver, though AI still can't do me as well as I can do me, so it would depend on how much correcting I had to do.

Also, I'd need to make sure that my training AI on my voice didn't give anyone else access to my voice.

There's some weirdness there for sure, but the upside might be worth it. I'm still exploring my options.

But every time I think I've sorted it out, the tech evolves or a new company shows up or something changes the game.

[alhawke]

Using AI with your voice is an interesting angle. I could see this saving a lot of time for those who do that with their audios. It could save a huge amount of time, potentially. But you'd still probably have to indicate that it was AI created.

[Bill Hiatt]

And if I recall correctly, Amazon isn't currently accepting any AI generated output for audio except its own--or am I wrong about that?

[The Bass Bagwhan]

Similarly, I published an audiobook on Findaway and it quickly reached all outlets except Audible. Findaway has a note on (my) dashboard explaining there are "significant" delays in Audible. I think that whatever you do, at the moment you still need to provide Audible as an option, so I'm waiting on this before doing any promotions.

I'm guessing it is a flood of AI audiobooks that's causing the problem, but it's also weird. You'd expect that Audible has built in to the AI creation all the necessary parameters to meet quality control. Things like noise floor, room noise, and minimum/maximum volumes are surely automatically applied with the AI? So what's to check?

FWIW, if you want to publish an audiobook in episodes, Spotify would work perfectly and you'll be paid royalties immediately.

[alhawke]

Thing is, this is the first time the delay has been this bad. I had a blitz of findaway releases last year and the delay was always a month. "Coincidentally" KDP now has that neat button to press AI audio on. I'm thinking this is the culprit. ??

[PJ Post]

Spotify pays next to nothing for music, how does it treat books?

[TimothyEllis]

Thing is, this is the first time the delay has been this bad. I had a blitz of findaway releases last year and the delay was always a month. "Coincidentally" KDP now has that neat button to press AI audio on. I'm thinking this is the culprit. ??

I had a Findaway audiobook added to Audible a bit over a year ago. It took 3 months to not show up there. And then I removed it before it did.

So the delay time from Findaway has certainly been worse.

No AI button for me though. 

[Bill Hiatt]

I think it's possible that Amazon may not have gotten the AI button completely sorted. Initially, it showed one of my books as ineligible. The message indicated that either the ebook setup wasn't complete or the book had no TOC. It's been out since 2016, so the setup was completed, and of course, it wouldn't have been accepted without a TOC.

I came to the conclusion the book was really ineligible because it already had an audiobook. But a couple of days ago, it flipped over to eligible. So I'm not sure what's going on.

The audio is still listed as a beta. To me, that suggests that not everyone has access yet. And the fact that Amazon nudged me by email about why I wasn't creating any audiobooks yet suggests that initially, they weren't flooded. Rather, they had a lot of people not using the option. But all of this is speculation. Who knows what's really goining on?

[alhawke]

Spotify pays next to nothing for music, how does it treat books?

At the moment, very well. The royalty I've received was like a 1/3 of my asking price which is up there with Chirp (BookBub's audio service). But this could be why that whole contract debacle happened. They could be planning to drive royalties down to pennies, like they've done with the music industry? They lost a lot of writers, so I hear, from their recent contract rights grab mess. I've read they had to freeze their cancel/delete button.

I had a Findaway audiobook added to Audible a bit over a year ago. It took 3 months to not show up there. And then I removed it before it did.
So the delay time from Findaway has certainly been worse.

It's been one month for mine to show up on Audible all last year. I just had my audiobook finally transfer yesterday  But it was after 2 1/2 months. So I really have my suspicions over this new beta service. Whatever the case, I'm releasing back to back with three upcoming books so I'm hoping they get accepted quick. I'm not looking to get on Audible for royalties--they're very low wide--as much as I'm looking for the extra visibility for the audio being available.

No AI button for me though.

Audible might be targeting the US market first.?? But who knows what there qualifications are. I have no idea why some of my books are approved for transfer while others, in series, aren't. And some of them noted as available already are audiobooks on Audible.

[PJ Post]

All of this is short-term. AI is going to disrupt everything, and by the looks of things, pretty fast. I'm curious where readers/listeners will go for true original content.

I wonder if there is enough time to work within the current system (narrate, package, upload, etc.) or if it makes more sense to figure out the next thing and begin working within those parameters.

[alhawke]

I wonder if there is enough time to work within the current system (narrate, package, upload, etc.) or if it makes more sense to figure out the next thing and begin working within those parameters.

Trouble is, I don't see how to figure out the next thing. I think the technology for AI narration is in its infancy. So if you choose to create an audiobook on Audible now (or Apple or GooglePlay), it's not gonna be anywhere near as good as it could be in a few years. This is a reason to consider pausing AI plans.

For me, I'm moving on. I have a great narrator and she fits my series. She's also able to perform differently with a wide array of voices (something the technology can't do as well yet).

[CaptnAndy]

When I received the invite, I decided to give the Amazon Virtual Audio books a try, as a means to tap into a new market segment. So far, I have 6 of my 25 Live as Virtual Audio books. I've had some books go ineligible after I updated the eBook manuscript to include my latest book in the back matter. Two of the books in my 5 book Coastal Event Memories series are Live, but the other 3 show missing TOC, even though all 5 are formatted identically, and the TOC works in the preview. Amazon is working on this issue, but they haven't responded so far.
I'm also waiting to see what kind of promotion Amazion will offer for the Virtual Audio Books. They have $1.99 price for customers who bought the Kindle eBook.

[alhawke]

They have $1.99 price for customers who bought the Kindle eBook.

Thanks for the update. Let us know if you find the work worth it in the end.
Pretty concerned here that the ease of audio release and this price for listeners could remove, or seriously curtail, human performers from the market. 
Were you happy with the final product? Was it easy to create? It looks like drop and click.

[PJ Post]

Trouble is, I don't see how to figure out the next thing.

It's whatever you can imagine.

For me, I'm moving on. I have a great narrator and she fits my series. She's also able to perform differently with a wide array of voices (something the technology can't do as well yet).

Elevenlabs can do different voices within a single project, as well as vary the amount of emotion in the tone. It's pretty amazing, and of course, it's going to get better. But truly unique voices may be a different thing. Voice actors also bring a collaboration vibe to the party, which for projects like this is usually a good thing. I used a voice actor for my radio plays, so I get it. Just looking at the AI workflow is exhausting, but revising the prose into a script took a lot of work too.

[CaptnAndy]

I found the editing /review process user friendly. There were several age 30-40 voices, both male and female. Where I had to edit the AI were numbers (0800 to oh eight hundred), letters (HE to H E, or High Explosive), and some words (Mk 1 to Mark one). It also mispronounced words that were a typo or misspelled.
If you change the eBook manuscript after the Virtual Audio Book is live, it will be automatically updated to the Audio book. I haven't yet checked to see if my audio edits will still be applied.
This is still a work in progress for me, and I'll pass on anything new I learn.

[ashleycapes]

Amazon/audible were about 52 days behind every other retailer with my last few audiobooks (earlier this year).

Took a lot of my patience :D

[PJ Post]

Elevenlabs is now working with Disney.

[alhawke]

Amazon/audible were about 52 days behind every other retailer with my last few audiobooks (earlier this year).

That's what I saw with my most recent release too. I thought maybe it was due to AI? But maybe it's just normal delays.
Now I'm waiting for a boxed set to transfer over. So far >1month.

[ashleycapes]

Amazon/audible were about 52 days behind every other retailer with my last few audiobooks (earlier this year).

That's what I saw with my most recent release too. I thought maybe it was due to AI? But maybe it's just normal delays.
Now I'm waiting for a boxed set to transfer over. So far >1month.

I think the AI slop is definitely a factor in the delays

[Bill Hiatt]

Yes, if only because it would tend to increase the sheer volume of submissions, probably by a lot.

[CaptnAndy]

I just received the following reply to my KDP Support request:

"Please accept our sincerest apologies for the delay in resolving the issue you are experiencing. Upon consulting with our Technical Team, I have learned that rectifying the situation is requiring more time than we initially anticipated. Rest assured, they are diligently working towards a resolution.

We truly regret any inconvenience this may be causing you. I will ensure to keep you updated with the latest progress at the earliest convenience."

I'm not holding my breath.

[alhawke]

I just received the following reply to my KDP Support request:
"Please accept our sincerest apologies for the delay in resolving the issue you are experiencing. Upon consulting with our Technical Team, I have learned that rectifying the situation is requiring more time than we initially anticipated. Rest assured, they are diligently working towards a resolution.
We truly regret any inconvenience this may be causing you. I will ensure to keep you updated with the latest progress at the earliest convenience."
I'm not holding my breath.

Were you submitting it for publication? Did any of them process and go through?

[CaptnAndy]

See my earlier post. Some did and others in the same series are still not eligible.