The way I will literally listen to certain narrators narrate ANYTHING because they’re amazing but have stopped audiobooks two lines in and bought the paperback because I don’t vibe with the voice at all - like wtf a narrator is an artist FUCK GEN AI AND FUCK YOU IF YOU USE THIS - ThreadSky

bookspotlight.bsky.social • 46 days ago

The way I will literally listen to certain narrators narrate ANYTHING because they’re amazing but have stopped audiobooks two lines in and bought the paperback because I don’t vibe with the voice at all - like wtf a narrator is an artist

FUCK GEN AI AND FUCK YOU IF YOU USE THIS

Reposted from Kate Beaton

Fuck this, absolutely fuck this, everyone who loves audiobooks loves their favourite narrators because they are great at their jobs and interpreting the author's words and they make the experience what it is www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

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heathgraysonauthor.bsky.social•46 days ago

Some narrators are mesmerizing.

brianterence.co.uk•46 days ago

That's very disappointing; Audible always had a NO AI policy.

aspiraldance.bsky.social•45 days ago

Same!!! I listen to the samples now and there are so many audiobooks I haven't bought because the narration just didn't feel right to me.

ivbell.bsky.social•46 days ago

The narrator brings so much to an audio book. And it’s such a talent. Just reading books to my kids with voices and emotions for like 15-20 minutes is exhausting!

caradelaney.bsky.social•45 days ago

"available to certain publishers via “select partnerships”."

Aww, don't I feel special now 🙄

When I got that stupid button, I checked out the samples, because I wanted to know. Some of them are *good*, and that's a fucking problem. It *will* sway people who only didn't consider it due to quality.

caradelaney.bsky.social•45 days ago

Like, the types of books this would work for? Beach books, airport books, that sort of thing, I'm afraid those will see an uptick in AI audibooks. They tend to not have a lot, if any, edge cases for pronunciation, and they're designed to be read somewhat mindlessly, so it'll likely go unnoticed.

caradelaney.bsky.social•45 days ago

To be clear, I'm not dissing beach reads (and authors who write them). They're a vital part of the ecosystem and must be treasured like everything else. But they lend themselves to AI narration quite well, and it's really unfortunate :/

sgwolfeauthor.bsky.social•46 days ago

I thought that the narrator I used for my audiiBooks did a great job. I paid her more than I’ll ever get back from the audiobook sales. But, it was definitely worth it. If you can’t afford that there are many narrators that will do a credible job for a cut of the royalties. Don’t use AI please.

unioniseorion.bsky.social•45 days ago

I will never listen to a Rivers of London book again if they replace Kobna Holdbrook-Smith with AI. (I realise that’s not on the cards at the moment but we can all see this is the thin end of the wedge.)

drsarahgoldin.bsky.social•46 days ago

I search for audiobooks by NARRATOR more than I do by AUTHOR.

slothandenvy.com•46 days ago

We were talking about narrators today in our writing group and how many people will buy solely based on narrator!

bookspotlight.bsky.social•46 days ago

Same

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