MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Author's Guild Executive Director Interview

DesiLinguist · 02-27-2009, 04:16 PM

If I understand his position correctly, I think his argument can be condensed to two interlinked propositions:

(1) If text-to-speech were as good a human reading the words, no one would buy audio books.
(2) Amazon can keep improving the text-to-speech indefinitely and some day make it as good as a human reading the words. Speech synthesis technology has been improving markedly over the last decade due to the research efforts at companies such as AT&T and Nuance.

The reason there is fierce opposition to his position is because (1) is clearly false. However, what happens if (2) were true? What happens if (2) becomes true? So, he is trying to negotiate with Amazon for something that could happen in the future now when text-to-speech is not as popular and the Author's Guild have some leverage.

I do have respect for the fact that he is trying to look out for his members: the authors who create the content that all of us appreciate and love. However, personally, I think this fight is not worth it. Amazon possesses enough business sense not to completely ignore the effects of this technology on the audiobook market (a big chunk of which they own as Audible). I think the text-to-speech technology is just an accessibility feature provided for people whose vision is not perfect. Personally, I don't think Amazon will upgrade the text-to-speech that much. Instead, I see them creating hybrid products where they will create optional eBook+audiobook bundles (for more money than the plain ebook version) and then you can listen or read.

Whatever happens, I would have preferred the Author's Guild to be honest and clearly outline the details of the argument rather than making sensationalist claims that the current text-to-speech feature could, in any way, take money away from the authors.

Just my $0.02.

02-27-2009, 04:16 PM	#4
DesiLinguist Computational Linguist Posts: 110 Karma: 100 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: iLiad BE, iPhone, Kindle DX	If I understand his position correctly, I think his argument can be condensed to two interlinked propositions: (1) If text-to-speech were as good a human reading the words, no one would buy audio books. (2) Amazon can keep improving the text-to-speech indefinitely and some day make it as good as a human reading the words. Speech synthesis technology has been improving markedly over the last decade due to the research efforts at companies such as AT&T and Nuance. The reason there is fierce opposition to his position is because (1) is clearly false. However, what happens if (2) were true? What happens if (2) becomes true? So, he is trying to negotiate with Amazon for something that could happen in the future now when text-to-speech is not as popular and the Author's Guild have some leverage. I do have respect for the fact that he is trying to look out for his members: the authors who create the content that all of us appreciate and love. However, personally, I think this fight is not worth it. Amazon possesses enough business sense not to completely ignore the effects of this technology on the audiobook market (a big chunk of which they own as Audible). I think the text-to-speech technology is just an accessibility feature provided for people whose vision is not perfect. Personally, I don't think Amazon will upgrade the text-to-speech that much. Instead, I see them creating hybrid products where they will create optional eBook+audiobook bundles (for more money than the plain ebook version) and then you can listen or read. Whatever happens, I would have preferred the Author's Guild to be honest and clearly outline the details of the argument rather than making sensationalist claims that the current text-to-speech feature could, in any way, take money away from the authors. Just my $0.02. Last edited by DesiLinguist; 02-27-2009 at 04:22 PM.