Audiobooks

[Martin Hash]

Many people don’t know that among other things, I’m a writer. I used to tell my dad that when I’d written 3 novels, I could call myself a novelist. Well, I’m currently working on my 4th novel. My wife, Gwynne, agreed that I could call myself an “amateur” novelist even though I do make a teeny tiny bit of money doing it. A couple people have told me they’d read my books if there was an audiobook version. I looked into it and that costs way more than what I’ve made so far; I’d have to narrate them myself. This year’s New Year Resolutions included doing just that. First I tried to use a text-to-speech converter; several in fact; ones that said they sounded just like a human talking; I called bullshit after doing 1 book, and would have given up but coincidentally, as YouTube suggestions are wont to do, a brand new A.I. voice cloner came on the market. The samples on the video sounded amazing and it was free to try!

First thing I had to do was read 30 minutes in my own voice and pacing, then I had to upload that and wait until they sent me an email saying that my clone was ready. I got the email the next day, downloaded the app and banged away at the keys trying to figure out how it worked because the documentation was for what they thought people would use it for and I wanted to make a multi-hour audiobook. Luckily, I was a Tech software developer for years so the bugs didn’t frustrate me; I just kept doggedly trying to find a way around them, and eventually did.

The narration does sound just like me, even Gwynne couldn’t tell. I could because the A.I. only got the emphasis, spacing & pronunciation of strange words correct about half the time. It was good enough that I did all 3 books in 4 days. Just for fun, each book has 30+ minutes of my real narration spread throughout; that way people can try and guess when the A.I. is reading or when I’m doing it? Frankly, I don’t think anybody will listen but it’s still an accomplishment I found entertaining and take pride in.