Authors Guild president: Kindle's a swindle
By Nilay Patel 
posted February 25th 2009 1:54PM
posted February 25th 2009 1:54PM
What does this mean for you? Well, probably just higher prices in the short term, as we're guessing publishers will start increasing ebook license fees to cover what they think they're going to lose on audiobook sales, and Amazon and other ebook retailers will just pass those costs along. Lame, sure, but it's not the crackdown some were hysterically predicting -- Roy's pretty clear that the Authors Guild doesn't care about parents reading to kids or text-to-speech for the blind, just the Kindle's impact on the audiobook market. We'll see how Amazon and the Guild resolve this one over the next few months -- in the meantime, point your Kindle to the read link and blow Roy's mind by having Tom read the op-ed to you.
Well, what do you know? I think "douche bags" is actually what they want to be known for! So their marketing worked.
(What makes me sure? Well, if they wouldn't want to be known as "douche bags" they wouldn't act like they were ones, right?)
I am going to point my Kindle at lyricswiki.org and listen to my music free of charge via text-to-speech. Because it sounds just like the original performers.
I LOVE THIS COMMENT!!! Slices right into it.
Wow... that's genius.
Computer audio will not likely achieve this goal within the next 20 or even perhaps 30 years. There are far too many subtle nuances in the English (and of course all) language. The amount of processing power it would take to effectively synthesise both individual character voices (remember the device has to recognise who is speaking at which point - doable with character bookmarks i guess), emotion, narration. It's also got to work out how to interpret the prose, difficult! Also some people just have the knack of reading books aloud, it's often great to hear a book being read by the author (notably poetry tends to be better if read by the poet) or by someone who's had acting tuition.
It's an interesting point, but for a feature that is available on any computer - linux, mac or pc - it's not really worth complaining about. Authors should probably get more royalty (i reckon a book is harder to write than an album and per unit profit is less than music), but Kindle isn't going to cripple the audiobook market. Audible says you can listen to audiobooks on your Kindle anyway so i don't see this being a problem for now.
Actually, this could be a new profit opportunity for audio book guys if they work with the technology. As the technology progresses, it should be possible to customize the generated voice to match a given person's voice, like the author or whoever. Wouldn't it be cool if you could get everything read to you by James Earl Jones instead of the flat computer voice? They could sell the customized voices and gain back some of the profits they might lose in audiobook sales. And let's face it, a lot of content is never going to be given the full audiobook treatment, so this could be a help if you want to, say, get your magazines read to you while you're driving to work. The customized voice market could be pretty big all on its own.
Ah Unions, the backbone of America! What they have done for the big three, they can now do for book publishers!
I wonder if they have actually listened to that voice reading from the Kindle 2? I would slip into a coma vey quickly trying to pay attention to that. I bought the Kindle to READ on. People who buy audiobooks will keep doing it!
This guy has a valid point. So, while you are yelling at him for being "greedy" and "whining" just keep a few things in mind:
1) When you create something in this country, you are free to keep people from doing with it what they will. If you were to create something for the purpose of selling: art, music, a transmission, whatever; you should get as much money as possible. Don't worry, the market will decide a fair price. Anyone who says different doesn't value their time or their ability. So, if I sell an e-book to a person who's device can display AND say my words, I'm going to charge what I can for it, and I'd consider a discount for the person who's device only displays or only says my words.
2) The are going to change their business model. You'll probably be paying more for Kindle books soon.
3) This is really important for us, as the internet generation; the barriers to theft of work are very low. But, if you don't pay someone for the works they want to sell you (on the terms they want to sell them), you have exactly one recourse, don't consume it. The option to consume anyway without acquiescing terms agreeable between both parties is theft. Plain and simple.
At the end of the day, if you, collectively, make the market unfavorable enough then, your favorite authors and musicians will search out greener pastures (as they should). You may not get to hear or see or read them again. You work and expect to get paid, so should they.
1) If text to speech is a problem, why has the authors guild never had an issue while it was on computers, but only has an issue when it is on a portable device?
2) By your rationale, authors should get to charge extra for viewing the text in a larger font size for comfort or those who are sight-impared. That's an "optional extra feature."Or a musician could mandate that you listen to his album's songs in the album order or not at all. At what point is control of features too great? At what point does the content creator extert too much control over the device?
3) Why waste time attacking paying customers when there are people out there at this very second downloading torrents containing thousands of unprotected books?
4. The market is a two way street. Some authors may decide to be jerks and pull their books - and some won't. Guess who will be applauded by fans.
5. Authors should find a way to use and exploit this feature rather than trying to quash it.
The biggest flaw is in the beginning of your argument. You write: "1) When you create something in this country, you are free to keep people from doing with it what they will."
And that's simply not right. In most(!!) of the cases you can do exactly what you want with it. You can resell, lend, borrow, destroy, change and improve it. Nobody will care.
Only - and this is the big problem - with "intellectual property" we try to do it otherwise. So there we restrict the use. This is neither naturally not desirable since it both prohibits innovation, creative improvements and distribution of works.
And don't give me the crap about "authors compensation" most authors were cheated on by the content industry which happily claims income from "innovative licenses" and more than often fails to pass it on (e.g. if you are unlucky enough to have an old enough contract).
If nothing else this should drive audiobook makers to work harder at making their product different from (and better than) a text-to-speech service. They make better products, they stay in business, and the consumer reaps the benefit. But instead, we get the Authors Guild crying and complaining over a threat which is still nascent.
any work force that has a guild or union makes me hope they all die in a fire and suffer financial collapse. Authors guild can suck it, UAW can suck it.
Poppycock I say!
The authors guild should be happy that amazon is bringing their trade into the 21st century and making books more accessible for everyone.
How about now improving audiobooks so you can listen to an audiobook on a Kindle or similar future device and have it follow along (highlight) the text, so you can be reading it too. This is often helpful, and could be especially helpful to kids learning to read. Now your audiobook has an enhanced purpose, making it still marketable. Maybe they should think of ideas like this rather than be sue happy.
They should just change the name to the douche bag guild and be done with it. Or would this douche bag have us paying the blacksmith's guild every time we buy tires, to cover their lost profit? Hell, ebooks are overpriced already, which is why nobody buys them. How much of the cost of a paperback is in the actual media it's printed on, the printing of that media,and the associated cost of packing and shipping that media from printing press to the retail location? I'll guarantee that it's at least 75%. When ebooks cost 25% of what printed ones do, then I'll stop downloading them for free and buy them. Freakin' thieves!
when are they going to sue PC mfrs and software companies? computers can do the same thing.
I just got a kindle 2, and I tried the text to audio feature. I don't think it's going to replace audio books, but now with attitudes like Blount's, I hope it does.
I have purchased audio books.
I have purchased ebooks.
I have never purchased both for the same content.
Their lost revenue argument is BS.
How about the idea that this could bring many books to blind people that they would not have access to otherwise?
There is a HUGE difference between having a computer synthisized voice read me a book, and listening to an audio book recorded by a person. The voice actor who reads the book adds something to the book that no computer synthisized voice can, charector! Listening to any Harry Potter book read by a computer vs being read by Stephen Fry and it is a whole different book!
Thats were the "wouldn't otherwise have access to" comes in. I am speaking to books not available as audiobooks.
I just got my kindle today. And guess what I'm doing with it right now, authors guild? I'm TRYING to sync my audible audiobooks to it. Although it's not working because the audible manager software is complete crap and keeps crashing on me. WTF!
At least I still have the text to speech...
The guy is forgetting one point... AMAZON OWNS AUDIBLE! Why would Amazon want to do anything to damage Audible's business? Guess what? They arn't. There's a huge difference between a professional recorded and voiced audio recording of a great American novel, and the computer-generated voice coming out of a Kindle. They are totally different experiences.
I agree. My first impression when I heard about this new feature was that the audiobook market was going to take off, as hundreds of thousands of people affluent enough to buy a luxury item like the Kindle got to experience listening to books in a way that would "prove the concept" to them. These are people who are willing to pay for the quality of the experience (e.g. e-ink display, rather than readin off a phone or monitor). The idea that someone interested enough in a quality reading experience to buy a Kindle will be happy to listen to text-to-speech regularly is silly. If I was head of the Author's Guild, I would be splashing advertisements inviting customers to enjoy text-to-speech, and if they want the real experience of listening to the book, consider the professional audiobook. Text-to-speech is the gateway drug that could drive future revenue and growth in audiobooks. As someone who has never listened to an audiobook, I was intrigued.
Text to speech is for the blind. No one would choose text to speech over a professionally voice acted audio book.
FIXED: "authors think they are entitled to a fair share of the value that audio adds to Kindle 2's version of books."
That remains to be seen friend. Don't quit your day job.
Their next target - kids in schools. Yep, kids won't be able to do book reports and present to the class unless they pay a royalty to the publishers.
Listen up Amazon lawyers! There's a surefire way to bring this douchebag and his cronies down in flames.
Denying access to text-to-speech functions is the same thing as denying access to people with disabilities, particularly those who have challenged sight. You could also consider people with ADD amoung others. I'll let you get creative.
Microsoft incorporated lots of access features for the disabled in XP (and perhaps earlier versions), chief among them the text to speech.
Let's face it, nobody likes text to speech in its usual form, unless they desparetely need the increased functionality.
I knew someone who had poor sight, but fantasic computer skills and relied on this very text to speech function to get by day to day. Before Microsoft he used external hardware text to speech boxes for Apple II and the like.
I find it interesting that liberal minded people like actors and musicians don't come to the aid of the needy. Of course the answer is two-fold. One...they generally don't care and/or don't care enough to think beyond their wallets. Two...needy is subjective. The rights of people with disabilities (accept AIDS patients) isn't as important as the rights of the worlds poor, illegals or gays. Nothing new about that though...
As someone who has to use text to speech to read anything, I find this whole thing ridiculous. I have become accustomed to the computer voice, but it will never replace a person reading to me unless they really improve the computer voices. The new Tom voice is okay, but I think that Alex on my mac sounds better. I like the arguement that this will be helpful to people with learning disabilities, and maybe someday they'll make it fully accessible to the blind. The authors guild needs to get over it.
As a commuter who probably isn't going to have time to read a book unless it is an audio book, I would like to say that there are many best sellers that I might like to hear that are inexplicably unavailable in an audio edition. (What does Elizabeth Wurtzel have against audio books, for example?)
But please note that the Author's Guild is like the NRA for writers, and required to espouse extremist pro-writer positions. They are not really convinced that libraries are a good idea, for example.
This is just crazy. I think it's right to compensate artists, but how can they possibly argue that it's wrong to use something they themselves sold you? If they don't want books on Kindle, go ahead and stop offering them. I have a hard time believing that the Kindle's text-to-speech is good enough to put any voice-actors out of business, those are the people who really have something to lose if/when this technology matures.
But there's no way text-to-speech will compete with a full-on audio Drama.
Hang on a second, it's about time I checked...
*finds that bigfinish.com has titles for the second season of Stargate audio dramas*
yay!
And all those stories are audio-only. Take that, Kindle!
I almost want to buy a Kindle 2 just to piss Authors Guild president Roy Blount Jr.
What's next: is the Authors Guild going to go after people reading books to little kids?
When is the shrink-wrapped user's agreements going to appear on books?
Will libraries be fined because they violate a books one-installation policy?
To the Authors Guild: PLEASE GO AND F*** OFF
(I have written three books and I simply don't care.)
As long as eBooks are not much cheaper than real books, I won't buy any. So if they want to increase the price because of potential losses, go ahead, it won't make me a customer...
What no one seems to be asking is, "What is the difference between an author royalty for a book sale versus an audiobook sale? Is there much of a difference? It sounds to me that Roy Blount Jr. doesn't realize that his stance will REDUCE author income. How many audio-book purchasers also buy the same title as a paper or ebook. I suspect very few. So it's still one sale, whether it be paperbook, ebook, or audiobook. All this will do is reduce ebook sales, which will have a negative impact on total sales. If I were a published author, I would seriously consider new leadership for the Author's Guild. Authors are paying dues (do they pay dues?) and getting soundly ripped off.
Audio books are a billion dollar industry? What's that, like 5 books? They are way too expensive and while this alternative is early and doesn't sound great, it's a fair workaround.
So does this mean the author's guild wants to charge me every time I read my kid Goodnight Moon because the copy I have only covers print royalties and not audiobook royalties? What is the difference if I get a computer or a human to read me a book? Sounds like more attemps to grab whatever undeserved cash they can out of my pockets.
I respect his opinion because he is Roy Blount Jr. Otherwise I honestly wouldn't care.
Man! - can the packaging be any bigger? All so they can have their logo embossed below the device with their logo on it.
I'm guessing that most people don't buy both audio and text versions of the same book...so as long as they are buying one of them I don't see the problem. They are still paying for the content. The focus should be on the content, not the delivery mechanism or how the content is digested.
I've never even seen this piece of junk... tech outside of USA... what's the big deal with Kindle?
Mr. Blount needs to get a new job. It seems to me like he’s trying to find a new way to fleece the consumer. As a consumer, I’m tired of getting ripped off by the publishing industry. $30 for a new book? Give me a break. I can’t afford that kind of hobby…it would cost me $900 a year if it wasn’t for the public library. Everyone wants to be a millionaire overnight, especially at the cost of the working slobs and the consumers. Give me a break Mr. Blount.
-joe miklovic
Its just a new technology. Eventually audiobooks will become obsolete because everyone will have some method of text to speech. There is no amount of legal action that could stop that. People will find a way to save money. Did the people selling washboards sue the inventor of the washing machine? That's a rhetorical question but this is America, someone probably did.
An audiobook is a copy of a book, in audio format. An e-book is also a copy of a book, in electronic format.
In the case of text-to-speech, there is no copy of the book in audio. It's real time interpretation of whatever is written on the page, regardless of what that may be. Just like reading out loud to yourself.
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Old companies doing batshit insane stuff to keep their profits rolling in? I think i've heard this before somewhere ..
Just want the earbuds, but will take the Zune too!