I love audiobooks; I've listened to a massive number of them, I've read, recorded and edited for Librevox, I briefly looked at moving into audiobook production

I love audiobooks; I've listened to a massive number of them, I've read, recorded and edited for Librevox, I briefly looked at moving into audiobook production while I was a dubbing mixer on TV programs - and I'd still love to do it if I could. But audiobooks suffer from some of the same malaise as the publishing industry in general - in that it's both blessed and cursed by Amazon. Audible has a stranglehold on the audiobook market - but as Brandon Sanderson recently said "The deal Audible demands of ... [authors] ... is unconscionable". The fact that they only pay 40% of the sale price to the author for an _exclusive_ deal (25% if not exclusive) is frankly criminal. It's bad for authors, but the knock-on effects on the industry where one player has a 90% market-share and a exploitative relationship with the creators is considerable. About 12 years ago I spoke to one of the leading audiobook production studios about contract work editing audiobooks. The hourly rate they paid was terrible - barely a working wage. Worse still, the rate was based on per finished hour rather than per hour worked, so the liability for a poor quality reading / recording was entirely put on a contractor who had no control over it. Other engineers who were working in the field basically did the job for beer money between other gigs. So - I can't imagine that AI won't replace a great deal of audiobook production - but that's because even now, with best-selling authors the economics barely work thanks to one behemoth of a player. With lower volume books it'll be a labour of love or an AI reading that is the only viable means of production. [1] https://www.brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2022/ https://www.brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2022...