Experimental. Artificial Intelligence and Audiobooks. Louis Shalako.

The ebook preview feature on Kindle Direct Publishing.

Louis Shalako

Okay. Ladies and gentlemen.

So, I am uploading and publishing A Stranger In Paris, Inspector Gilles Maintenon Mystery #9, by Louis Shalako.

Those will be in multiple ebook formats as well as a couple of different sizes of paperbacks from print on demand publishing sites.

Things have changed in the six years since I last published a book in ebook and paperback.

It’s a bit of a learning curve, I have problems with a cover here and a glitch in the formatting there. A bit of a learning curve. (In other words, fuck, ladies and gentlemen. - ed.)  Like many such learning curves, there are the odd rabbit holes and unexpected opportunities that might be exploited. It is also possible to get side-tracked and confused, to lack focus and lose sight of the ultimate goal, which is to write books and stories, have fun, and if possible, make a bit of eating money...all these publishing platforms have preview features, and KDP revealed one line, Chapter Thirty-Three, that was in a different size and font. I do not want to publish an ebook or paperback with one line in a different size and font, ladies and gentlemen. I did manage to fix that…

We're in the quality control stage.

***

I downloaded 'TotalEbookViewer' and it's not very good. I signed into Nook, looking for Nook for PC. The site directed me to the Microsoft Store, who (or which) does not appear to have it. I had it at one time, maybe I should search my own computer for it. I don't know, it just didn't look very nice and I am checking quality control on a new book.

I also downloaded Kindle, epub and PDF files from Smashwords. The PDF looks good in Kindle Reader for PC. Kobo accepts various formats, unfortunately not PDF. I don't think Kobo has a preview feature for ebook uploads, which is unfortunate. (Turns out they do. - ed.) My POD text looks fine in the Lulu preview. Getting a paperback book cover through there may be a little more challenging, even though I have done a few before. I'm saving KDP for last, as they are the biggie and that is where the greatest sales potential is because of the vast volume of traffic. It is also where you have the greatest competition, which means the readers are swamped for choice.

This is my book on the Lulu POD preview. It looks okay.

***

When publishing, I like to preview every page, and I have provided some pics of what that looks like.

I just converted to an audiobook on Google Play. It sounded surprisingly good for what I take to be AI. I saw that new option when I went to upload my new book. Once I got that done, I went back and had another look.

Here’s the thing. I have one hundred and fifty titles on Google Play, novels, collections and short stories, under five different pen names and in all kinds of genres.

All of that potential...revealed.

All I really hoped for was to finish my twenty-third novel, which took three winters to write and over which I have slaved and sweated and yeah, whatever. All one has to do is to click on a few buttons. All one needs is a fresh ISBN number for each new audiobook. All one needs is to find the original ebook marketing image, which seems to work well enough for an audiobook. All of a sudden, one has doubled the number of products, all of them available for the occasional customer to take a shine to and maybe spend the money.

This is Artificial Intelligence, possibly exploiting me but also a bright, shiny new tool, one that however briefly, can leverage my own productivity.

Those books and stories are already written. They already exist—all I have to do is to pick a voice, set a price, listen to a few short sections, edit some of the front matter, which is repetitive and not necessary.

All I need is a bit of time, a bit of time away from the regular, part-time job and running errands about town.

We'll see what happens with all these audiobooks, ladies and gentlemen...

***

Smashwords has epub downloads in something called ReadAloud, and I did download that (A Stranger In Paris), and I did listen to it. It’s not very good, which is why Google’s voices (and you can choose from several), kind of surprised me. With a long list of titles, I can use a female Aussie voice, for example, on a Constance ‘Dusty’ Miller story and a young American male voice for an Ian W. Cooper story.

It looks like I have my work cut out for me, what with all those ISBNs and cover images crowding my desktop and filling up my file folders.

 

END

 

Poor old Louis is on Google Play along with some pen-names.

See his art on Fine Art America.

Check out this other story here.

 

Thank you for reading.