Computer voiced narration

[skip.knox]

Has anyone tried their hand at using text-to-speech tools to produce a narration of their book? Some of the latest tools are surprisingly good, and I'm tempted by the ability to upload my own voice then let the AI tools do the reading. But I imagine they will not get pronunciation right on invented terms, foreign language phrases, and so on. And that correcting those bits (I do have a simple recording setup) might be more trouble than it's worth.

So, I ask here: has anyone used such tools? Natural Reader is one example, but there are others popping up monthly.

 

[pmmg]

I have not.

In the brief time when I was looking at it, I found it to still be costly, to the point that I wondered why not just use a real person. But that was a good while back.

 

[skip.knox]

$110 a year (to pick just one at random) or even $240 a year (to pick another) is far, far less than hiring a narrator. I tried narrating my own, and they aren't kidding about how it takes three or four hours for each finished hour, so narrating it myself is also off the table.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[pmmg]

I'd have to look again, but I had 93K words and I think $1200 was not uncommon on the sites with the AI voices.