The One About They Just Don't Get It.

Authors irked by text-to-speech on Kindle 2

*sigh* I find it very interesting how so many in the entertainment industries (print, film, music etc.) seem to look to protectionism as their first recourse any time anything happens that might upset their bottom line just a little bit.

The latest is The Authors Guild having a tizzy over the new Kindle from Amazon.com. The Kindle(2) as it is commonly being called has a text to speech feature. TAG is throwing a fit because they are worried that the text to speech feature will cut into their audio book revenues. So they are asking their members to insist that as part of the rights package for Kindle distribution of their works that the text to speech feature be disabled.

Once again anti consumer choice nonsense rears its ugly head.

First of all have you heard text to speech lately? Well if you want a sample of some of the best click on one of the "listen to this post" links embedded around this blog. I use Odiogo. It's one of the best and most natural sounding text to speech machines I've found so far. But I won't lie. I don't think I could stand to listen to it for an entire book. Especially fiction.

But let's say that most people wouldn't mind the slightly stilted nature of artificial speech. Going all protectionist is still not your best bet.

Imagine a family with a blind person in it. They buy a Kindle(2) because they figure it's a great way to get more bang for their book buying buck. This way everyone in the household that wants to can read the book, or in the case of the blind person have it read to them. How is it not discrimanatory to essentially declare that the blind person must buy a whole seperate copy either in brail or on audio book to be able to enjoy the book?

Further more this kind of nonsense to me shows a lack of thinking and creativity.

Here's some thoughts.

First off how about lowering the price of the fricking things to make them more attractive?

Failing that what about securing higher profile readers?

Or perhaps include author interviews not available any where else?

In short, content, content, content.

Or you know, just continue to be whiny, and short sighted. I'm sure that will go over real well.