I grew up listening to books, recorded by professional actors and actresses on cassette tape, (does anyone remember cassettes by the way?!). My listening ranged from Brontae’s Wuthering Heights through to Dick Francis’s High Stakes. I still own a huge library of spoken word cassettes which fill several shelves of a bookcase in my living room. Many of the recordings have warped with age. However, as with books I am reluctant to throw them away.
Today cassettes have been replaced by audio downloads from sites such as audible.co.uk/audible.com. CDS retain a foothold but it is digital downloads where the future lies.
Being blind, talking books are a wonderful way for me to enjoy a good story. The text to speech facility on my Kindle is wonderful. However the Kindle’s speech is robotic and can not compete with the quality of a well produced audio file.
I have been thinking for some time now about producing audio versions of some of my books. It would be wonderful to give my readers the choice of an ebook or audio version of my stories. However the costs of producing high quality audio appear, from my preliminary investigations to be prohibitively expensive, (professional actors do not come cheap nor do recording studios). I think that the idea of producing audio downloads needs to remain on the back burner unless I can sweep away an actor with my charm and get them to record my works at a huge discount. Is that my phone I hear ringing …!
My collection of short stories, The Suspect And Other Tales is currently free in the Kindle Store (the free promotion being scheduled to end later today (Saturday 29 November). My anthology, An Act Of Mercy also remains free in the Kindle Store until Monday 1 December.
You can find all of my books by following the below links, (http://www.amazon.co.uk/K.-Morris/e/B00CEECWHY/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0, for the UK and http://www.amazon.com/K.-Morris/e/B00CEECWHY/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0, for the US).
ACX.com is the author side of Audible.com, and it makes it easy to find voice actors who are willing to work on royalties rather than an upfront fee. That’s how I had my books recorded by a talented reader.
https://www.acx.com/help/about-acx/200484860
Many thanks for the information I will check out the site. Kevin
Have you listened to this one, Kevin. I was absolutely swept away the first time I heard this on the radio, and that was back in 1975 or 76:
https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1EODB_enCA562CA564&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=youtube%20jonathan%20livingston%20seagull%20richard%20harris
Have a nice day.
Thanks for the link. Its a great narration. Kevin
What a wonderful idea! I think they are useful to people who struggle to read or don’t have the concentration to do so also. I used to listen to spoken word books from the library as a kid when I felt too old for bedtime stories.
Thanks for your comment. Its nice to know that you also enjoyed listening to talking books as a child. Kind regards. Kevin
I’ll have to listen them if you do :0D
Thanks, I will certainly let you know if my books become available as audio downloads or on CD. Kevin