Well, it appears that Amazon has completely caved in the face of stupidity. Once again, a group of people strikes out without understanding the threat or the lack there of. Amazon hasn’t killed the text to speech feature outright, but they’ve now allowed on a book by book basis the disabling of the feature. I guess at least it isn’t completely gone, but I’m disappointed in Amazon for not standing up to this blatant fear of the future. To my mind, the Author’s Guild isn’t interested in elevating books or moving the market forward, they’re simply trying to cling to a shred of hope that the world doesn’t pass them by. All of this while unwittingly attempting to kill features/products that can possibly grow the market for literature to new heights.
I doubt I would use this particular offering on the Kindle 2 (if I had one), but I tend to read most of my books via Audible (and yes, I did say read as listening or interpreting words on a page both constitute the absorption of the material). I doubt Mr. Blount’s hypothesis that in the near future, text to speech will rival truly quality voice talent and as such, the Kindle 2 hardly represents true damage to the audiobook market in it’s likely lifespan. I can see some of their concern as eventually text to speech will reach that level, but it will not occur on the Kindle 2 and truly, the growth is INEVITABLE. Standing in the way of this technology is not going to hold up the flood gates. Rather, the Author’s Guild will eventually be washed away with the flood.
It personally find it very frustrating when ANY company attempts stop the wheels of progress to prop up a business model. I would suggest that the Author’s Guild is acting no better than the RIAA or the MPAA and definitely isn’t acting in the best interests of book lovers everywhere. Technology is disruptive and that is a good thing. Learn to evolve, adapt, and improve or get out of the way…