Comments on: Authors Guild Challenged By RRC http://www.bestebookreaders.com/authors-guild-challenged-by-rrc/ Everything Ebooks Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:51:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Dargiehttp://www.bestebookreaders.com/authors-guild-challenged-by-rrc/comment-page-1/#comment-418 Dargie Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:17:04 +0000 http://k.indled.com/?p=634#comment-418 I'm an author and I support text-to-speech absolutely. It is, as was so aptly noted, no substitute at all for an audio book. It allows me to read when I have the time and listen when I don't. Text-to-speech lacks both inflection and a good way to differentiate between homonyms. So in addition to TtS having an often distracting flatness, it occasionally requires some translation. In the last book where I made use of TtS, the word "wind" which in context meant a movement of air, was pronounced as if it was the word for what you do to your watch. Not difficult to figure out but again, distracting. While you may disagree with the way a reader pronounces something in an audio book, it's not the same thing. And that's the bottom line: It's not the same thing. Trying to make it so does disservice to both audio books and TtS.Sometimes it's about common sense. I’m an author and I support text-to-speech absolutely. It is, as was so aptly noted, no substitute at all for an audio book. It allows me to read when I have the time and listen when I don’t. Text-to-speech lacks both inflection and a good way to differentiate between homonyms. So in addition to TtS having an often distracting flatness, it occasionally requires some translation. In the last book where I made use of TtS, the word “wind” which in context meant a movement of air, was pronounced as if it was the word for what you do to your watch. Not difficult to figure out but again, distracting. While you may disagree with the way a reader pronounces something in an audio book, it’s not the same thing. And that’s the bottom line: It’s not the same thing. Trying to make it so does disservice to both audio books and TtS.

Sometimes it’s about common sense.

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