I was re-listening to one of the computerized text-to-speech recordings yet again on YouTube when I started perusing the comments section. Several people there said they had difficulty understanding the computerized voice for various reasons including having some sort of disability. It occurred to me that we should have professional (or at least professional sounding) audio books created so the material would be accessible to a great deal of people who cannot read well (or at all) or have difficulty understanding a computerized audio transcript. Another added benefit would be for people who value the convenience of listening to the material in situations not possible to read (such as listening to audio books on long car rides, exercising, doing housework, etc etc). I think many people would be much more willing to listen to an audiobook than to actually sit down and read the text itself.
I know there are hurdles to overcome and it is most likely expensive (after briefly researching the cost). So I am proposing that this community could start a donation or even a kickstarter to fund the project. Due to the cost / added convenience of audiobooks and also the free availability of the text transcripts, I feel it would be appropriate to sell said audiobooks rather than provide them for free. In that case, all sales would go to LLResearch (of course). However, ideally I would like the audiobook to be free and distributed through peer-to-peer networking such as bittorrent or put up on YouTube if the costs to produce the audiobook were somehow mitigated.
Now the reason I am suggesting we hire a professional is because I know it is very difficult to have an end result that is clear and easy to understand. I would be open to the idea of someone from the community do the actual narration but I think it's underestimated how difficult it is to read clearly, concisely, correctly pronounce all vocabulary words, read at a good pace, with good variable tone (not monotone), and with good recording equipment in a noiseless background environment. Even a professional narrator will make mistakes that will cause them to re-read sections of a book that extend the overall creation time. After the book(s) are recorded, someone has to edit it all down which is a whole other can of worms that can take equally as long as it does to narrate the book.
So it is a great deal of work and/or cost to create.
{I would actually be willing to be the narrator if I didn't have some shortcomings when it comes to narration. I have a tendency to read too fast, become nervous / self-conscious, and my pacing can be all over the place (eg I have a tendency to end sentences early then stumble along). I do not have sufficient recording equipment although I would be willing to purchase a high quality microphone to connect to my computer (my headset may be sufficient quality) . I also would have challenges with background noise which would limit how many hours I could devote to the project (plus my computer fans may be picked up in the background). I suppose if anyone is interested, I could make a few sample recordings and see what people think.}
Edit: Another benefit of having professional audio books is we actually may end up with a significantly larger audience overall if they are published on websites such as Amazon/Audible
I know there are hurdles to overcome and it is most likely expensive (after briefly researching the cost). So I am proposing that this community could start a donation or even a kickstarter to fund the project. Due to the cost / added convenience of audiobooks and also the free availability of the text transcripts, I feel it would be appropriate to sell said audiobooks rather than provide them for free. In that case, all sales would go to LLResearch (of course). However, ideally I would like the audiobook to be free and distributed through peer-to-peer networking such as bittorrent or put up on YouTube if the costs to produce the audiobook were somehow mitigated.
Now the reason I am suggesting we hire a professional is because I know it is very difficult to have an end result that is clear and easy to understand. I would be open to the idea of someone from the community do the actual narration but I think it's underestimated how difficult it is to read clearly, concisely, correctly pronounce all vocabulary words, read at a good pace, with good variable tone (not monotone), and with good recording equipment in a noiseless background environment. Even a professional narrator will make mistakes that will cause them to re-read sections of a book that extend the overall creation time. After the book(s) are recorded, someone has to edit it all down which is a whole other can of worms that can take equally as long as it does to narrate the book.
So it is a great deal of work and/or cost to create.
{I would actually be willing to be the narrator if I didn't have some shortcomings when it comes to narration. I have a tendency to read too fast, become nervous / self-conscious, and my pacing can be all over the place (eg I have a tendency to end sentences early then stumble along). I do not have sufficient recording equipment although I would be willing to purchase a high quality microphone to connect to my computer (my headset may be sufficient quality) . I also would have challenges with background noise which would limit how many hours I could devote to the project (plus my computer fans may be picked up in the background). I suppose if anyone is interested, I could make a few sample recordings and see what people think.}
Edit: Another benefit of having professional audio books is we actually may end up with a significantly larger audience overall if they are published on websites such as Amazon/Audible
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