BookBaby, one of the leading players in the audiobook segment announced it has entered into a collaboration with Speechki to create audiobooks using artificial intelligence-powered synthetic voice narration, the company revealed in a press release. BookBaby said the partnership is aimed at making the entire process of creating an audiobook much faster and cheaper than what it is right now. BookBaby said with the advanced Speechki-powered technology with them, they will be able to produce the audio proof in just 5-days’ time after the author has uploaded the manuscript.
Speechki said they support 77 languages at the moment along with up to 50 synthetic voice actors. Authors will have to choose the language they wish the audiobook to be produced in along with the AI voice actor who would be narrating the audiobook. Speechki also offers human proof-listening as well as free corrections. BookBaby takes over from there and does all the work behind the scenes before issuing the audio proof in just 5 days’ time, which is just a fraction of what it would have taken with human voice narrators onboard. James Foley, BookBaby President said that voice narration is better than what human narrators are capable of.
Another positive of the partnership is that authors are paid a lot more than what other platforms agree to. “Core to that mission is making sure authors get paid the lion’s share of money for their book sales,” said James Foley. “Our program allows authors to set the retail price for their audiobooks and when their book sells, they will earn 75% of the list price. For example, if the author sets the retail price of their audiobook at $19.99, they will earn $14.99 per sale. This is a game changer for authors and publishers looking to sell their audiobooks since the de facto industry commission for audiobooks today is in the range of only 40%. Why should the retailer get 60% of the profit when all they do is list the book on an e-commerce website?”
BookBaby said it is also keen to make the most of the huge potential that the audiobook segment poses at the moment. With just about 5 percent of print books that have been transformed into audiobooks, it almost is an endless possibility that the partnership is looking to tap into. No wonder, they are looking to create a million audiobooks within the next few years. Plus, there also are a host of powerful marketing and analytics tools that authors can make the most of to track “real-time user activity on the product pages, real-time sales reporting, couponing, email list building, landing page customization options, and digital advertising programs.”
Speechki also said they are delighted to partner BookBaby in creating a system that aims to make creating audiobooks almost as easy, affordable, and fast as printing books or creating e-books.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
