Fun Times with A.I.

 *sigh*

It's a double edged sword. It's bittersweet. It's...…absolutely maddening. I have a love-hate-but-mostly-hate relationship with this whole A.I. concept. Take for example this image with the title on it above. It was created using A.I. in Photoshop but I have to ask, "Why the frick does she have a Klingon forehead on her nose?" It's a great mystery. I didn't tell A.I. to create it, and yet, image after image, it created them like that. And this whole editing for audiobook using Virtual Voice. I'm shaking my fists in frustration over its pronunciation of the name Gia. Any human in the world would say it as "Gee-uh." But A.I.? It says it four different ways OTHER THAN the normal way. For example -- !!!!-ia!, Jai-uh, **garbled speaking**, and G**skips and pauses**Zee!! (And there aren't even exclamation marks either.) So, what do I do? I edit the pronunciation, telling it that it needs to say it as "Geeuh." And it says it beautifully. I save the pronunciation and then go back to listen to the sentence over. Half the time, it has corrected itself to the proper pronunciation....But the other half?????

Refer to the pic above.....Just without the Klingon forehead nose.

"Well, Em," the sane problem-solving reader will say. "Don't use Virtual Voice. Hire a real live voice actor. Problem solved."

I'd love that. Really I would. And so apparently would thousands of audiobook fans. For instance, take a gander at these Reddit posts I found discussing KDP Virtual Voice last year, which I happened onto while trying to see if KDP Virtual Voice will add other accents to their AI repertoire, such as Scottish and Irish. (No such luck, in case you're wondering.)

I found a few more items people posted more recently such as: 

So, I get it. Among the readers out there, self-published authors are "notorious" for being broke, not putting quality stuff out, being lazy, and therefore aren't worth reading, listening to, or supporting in any way, shape, or form, except to say how terrible self-published authors are.  Of course, I am a self-published author. And I have read and heard other self-published books and audiobooks. Some of them.....Well.....I can see how that reputation is formulated but there are some real good authors who are self published and are amazing. The only reason those authors don't have traditional publishers behind them is likely because they've submitted and queried to traditional avenues, only to get the "Thanks but your work isn't what we're looking for at the moment." 

If you think it's easy to publish any body of work out there to fiction publishing powerhouses, please, by all means, go to their sites and check out the kind of work their publishers and editors want right now. It's actually a narrow category these days. 

My work fits under those queried "Thanks but no thanks" categories. I have quite a few of those emails telling me I'm not the plots they are looking for. So, my reasons for self-publishing is that since my work doesn't fit what publishers are currently looking for, I'll publish them myself so they can get read. I just don't have the benefit of a whole bunch of marketing, advertising, tech help, designs, and the weight that the traditional publishers have. 

"But Em, you can still hire people to do that, from Fivrr, like editors....And designers.....and voice actors."

You're right. I can. But I'm not a trust fund baby or a billionaire. I'm a very middle class stay at home mom raising and schooling my three bundles of joy with a disable veteran hubs. Editors get paid by the word and the type of editing you require, which as I discussed before, would run me about $4,000 on average for ONE read-through. If I corrected it all and wanted another read through/edit round, that'll be another $4,000. 

But an audiobook? 

To those audiobook snobs who look down their noses at authors who choose to use Virtual Voice... Depending on the voice actor, production of an audiobook costs anywhere from $6,000 to $15,000 on average to use the ACX platform Audible records with. Sure. I'd LOVE to have voice actors reading recording my books but...If you divide those costs by like a thousand, then I could afford to do it. I've even considered who I know personally that is great at acting or voice acting and would love to break into audiobook recording but...alas, I know no one.

And to those who think I'm over exaggerating.... Here's what Google AI said when I asked them (Hmmmmm, perhaps the AI is banding together?)

OR to put it more simply: 

So let's call that an average of $625 per finished hour of audiobook is what a voice actor makes. (I know what you're thinking. I should totally go into voice acting. The sucky thing is, I'm a horrible actor.)

My 11 books that are available on Audible at this moment run at about 195 total hours, and be closer to 250 hours when I finish editing these other two. But for now, let's go with what's available. 

So, given the rate of $625/finished hour, times 195 hours, I would have had to spend just under $122K for JUST the voice actor for my eleven books. (My average book is 17.5 hours long.  Times that by $625, and that's about $11,000 per book.) That doesn't include the production and equipment use. I get it. You have to spend money to make money. One day, when I'm ridiculously rich with my books turned into movies and TV series, yeah, I'll be able to afford to have the perfect voice actors record my books. But until then you can help me spread word by rating, reviewing, and telling all of your friends about my books if you've enjoyed them. That's my reality right now. 

So, until then, know with each of my books you listen to, I've shaken my fists in frustration and yelled at the laptop and then changed the pronunciations to read, "she" instead of "Gia" ( or the word "does" or several other words that you may notice) because at this point, I have a mostly-hate relationship with A.I. It's totally going to wear us down by making us frustrated and triggered at intentional mispronunciation of the most common words out there and then laugh at us, in the most creepiest laugh it can muster. I'm convinced that is how it's going to cause the downfall of humanity --  through stress of hearing words said the wrong way, even after its been corrected multiple times. It’s just that diabolical.

*sigh*

Until next time.... There is always an adventure in an Em Brooks book. Thank you for sharing the journey with me. 

Check out my books at Amazon -- They are available on kindle, Kindle Unlimited, paperback, and Audible!!!  If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, they are free to read, and if you subscribe to Audible Plus, they are free to listen to! Have fun everyone!