"A wise man speaks because he has something to say, a fool speaks because he has to say something.”–Plato

Do you listen to audiobooks? I reserve them for roadtrips, but rumor has it that some of my friends listen to them as they workout or drive around town. This led me to ask my publisher about getting audiobooks made from my titles, which led to them saying, "go for it."
So I'm making an audiobook or two.
Naturally, the first thing I do is look through my list of audiobooks, trying to remember which ones I like best and why. I prefer hearing the author speak for an autobiography or similar book, but for fiction I like professional narrators. The guy that reads the Jack Reacher books especially. Even at 2X he's easy to understand.
Next I looked at how long this is going to take. It looks like the pros estimate 4-6X the length of the final product is spent making it. This book should be around 5 hours to read, so 20-30 hours. Hmm.
Then I look up what to do about the numerous graphics I explain in the book. And what about some nice little musical interludes between sections or chapters?
This leads me to a robot voice tool. What if I train an AI voice tool to read the book for me? Will that save me some time and still be listenable? I mean, will anyone listen anyway?
Well, one thing I know is it won't be happening today. Last night I went out with friends, watched some basketball, and I'm a little froggy this morning. No one wants to listen to this voice. I guess that's another thing to consider. Vocal consistency. Like the pros.
Speaking of pros, the guy who read my novel "The Legend of Mad Gringo," was great. I didn't even recognize what I wrote. It was that good. You can listen to it yourself here. (I have some promo codes if you want to go all in. . .just let me know!)
I'll keep you posted on my audio progress. It'll happen. Someday.
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