Amazon announced today that it will let publishers decide whether they want the new Kindle e-book device to read their books aloud.
The text-to-speech feature allows Kindle owners to have books read to them in a male or female computerized voice. The president of the Authors Guild, Roy Blount Jr., recently contributed an essay to the editorial page of The New York Times laying out the guild’s objections to the feature, which he said undermined the market for the professional audio books that are sold separately.
You’ve Got to Be Kidding!
I know many people value and listen to Audio Books…..and many of those same people are Very Particular about the readers of those audio books they listen to. This is about a human performance…not a “canned” voice.
So now “Kindle” is going to speak (arf arf) in an electronic voice! Wow, how terrible! I can barely stand to listen to electronic voices on the telephone… I can barely stand to listen to audio books… But that is me!
What about all those very particular people who prefer a Real Live(?) recorded Human voice? Huh?
Sorry (well I’m not) but, too much is too much….audio books are human performance pieces, not electronic performance pieces…. Amazon needs to think this out further.
>^..^<