Virtual Voice for An Audiobook—Yes or No?

Larada Horner-Miller

2 years ago

Virtual voice for an audiobook of mine? Yes, or no? KDP, Amazon’s self-publishing branch, sent me an invitation in November, 2023 to participate in a Beta version to do my eligible ebooks. Finally, a couple months ago, I opted in to do it. Let’s talk about the process.

I have recorded three audiobooks myself, creating a home recording studio in a walk-in closet in our master bedroom. Those titles are Let Me Tell You a Story, Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir and lastly, This Tumbleweed Landed, listed below to purchase. Also, in 2022 I recorded another book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?, but have only seven of thirty-one chapters revised in a final copy. That’s the year shingles hit me and I stopped mid-stream.

I thoroughly enjoy recording my own books because I love re-reading them, being surprised and thrilled at my words and thoughts.

So, the idea of having someone else record my books didn’t appeal to me at first, but I love to experiment and I have been a “technology nerd” for years, so I thought I’d give it a try. I selected When Will Papa Get Home?, a historical fiction I self-published in 2017. I planned to do an audiobook for this book after I finished my Bitter or Better audiobook.

In the process of using KDP’s offer of a virtual voice, I received no email or notification it was done. I just finished a promotional for this book for Father’s Day and noticed the audiobook was in “Draft” format, so I realized they had done it.

Pick a Voice

Next, I went into the audiobook setup and had eight voices to choose from: five feminine voices and three masculine voices. Two of the feminine voices had British accents, so they wouldn’t work. All choices ranged in age from thirty to forty which seemed to work. I chose the seventh voice.

Audiobook cover

KDP offers to create a cover for the audiobook, showing a sample of the e-book and the audiobook, but it doesn’t show you what your cover will look like—lots of free offerings that make me wonder.

KDP Select Enrollment

Because my book is enrolled in KDP Select, automatically they enroll my audiobook in Audible Plus.

Pricing and Royalties

Next, they talk money. They give you the choice of setting the price. With the other audiobooks I’ve created, they gave a suggested price—not here. But they do give a price for the audiobook as a Standalone and then an eBook add-on price with royalties for all. Here they list the Amazon.com royalties and the Audible.com royalties which is 40% of the price. ACX.com also offers 40% royalties for audiobooks they distribute. FindAwayVoices.com offers the best royalties—80%!

Virtual Voice Studio

Finally, I arrived at the heart and soul of this setup—listening to how the virtual voice sounds speaking my words. When I heard my name, Larada, read, I realized I had to edit the pronunciation. So, I typed in “La Rayda” for the edit and it seems to be close to how my family pronounced my name. I have the option of editing the “Voice speed,” also. Also, I can add “Pauses” if need be.

This book has Spanish sprinkled throughout, and I just listened to sections that have some Spanish to see how the virtual voice did. On some of it, the pronunciation worked, but the word “hijita” didn’t because the “j” in Spanish sounds like “h.” Also the “i” in Spanish sounds like the English “ee.” So I’m going to have to do some major editing of this audiobook because of the Spanish words.

Finally,

I listened to snippets of several chapters. Yes, the Spanish pronunciation creates some issues, but for the most part, the feminine voice I selected sounds great and uses inflection to emphasis crucial points in the story.

I’m still not sure about this because of ownership rights to the audiobook. I need to do some more research because I don’t want to give up ownership to the audiobook. Their contract says, “you retain all ownership rights in and to the copyrights and all other rights and interest in and to your Books, and we retain ownership in the AVV (Audiobook with Virtual Voice) Edition file.”

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GWHSFAK69P2537YR

That doesn’t sound good to me at all! What do you think? Would you do it?

My Audio Books:

This Tumbleweed Landed

Buy Let Me Tell You a Story Audiobook

Buy Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

Enjoy my interview on the podcast, T he Writing Table