Playing with Audio Robots

Earlier this week, Jason and I finished watching Lost in Space on Netflix. I absolutely loved the show, but I did have more than one chuckle that the main robot character in the series, the companion of Will Robinson, was named simply Robot. All the other robots got much more interesting names (also by Will. I think Robot’s bland name was the result of him being the first one found).

However, despite the unremarkable moniker, there was a lot more to Robot than met the eye. He is a wonderful character.

And now, I can say the same thing for Google Play Books auto-narration services.

The Friday Night Date Dress is now in audio

I mentioned last week that I was experimenting with the digital narration service currently being offered by Google Play Books for free.

I went in with very low expectations, not even sure I’d come out with something that would work for fiction.

I was wrong.

Not only did the listening experience surpass my expectations, I found I actually enjoyed listening to the story this way.

About my only complaint is that there is no way to tell the AI to emphasize certain words, which can make some sarcastic or emphatic sentences come out a little flat. But really, that’s not a big deal, especially not with this particular title.

This morning, I published the digitally narrated audiobook of The Friday Night Date Dress. And, because I want you to be able to try it free just like I did so you can make up your own mind, this audiobook will be free for the foreseeable future.

So wander on over there (click on the image), listen to the sample, and, if that piques your interest, please give the whole audiobook a try.

As for me, I’ve already decided to create digital audiobooks of my contemporary titles, at the very least. Maybe I’ll even try it for the fantasies. And I’ll be offering these digital audiobooks for prices comparable with my eBooks.

I’m hoping this will mollify people who always ask if the book is in audio long enough to be able to afford human narrated versions of all my titles at some future point.

Happy Friday! And please, let me know what you think about the digital narration. It’s a whole new world, folks!

P.S. This isn’t my only audiobook that’s out. I have another digitally narrated short story, All I Want for Christmas, created last December through DeepZen. In my opinion, this new Google one is already a better product—that’s how fast the technology is improving.

I also have a human-narrated fantasy novella from my Rise of the Grigori series, The Waterboy.

In case you’re reading this in the far future, you can click here to see which of my titles are currently in audiobook.