Building a career from writing books requires sustainable creative practices as well as looking after your business and your health. In today's show, I talk to the wise and lovely Toby Neal and I come away refreshed, so I hope it helps you wherever you are on your author journey.
In the introduction, I expand on the latest developments in voice technology:
* Chinese AI Baidu announces that their Deep Voice AI can now clone a voice based on a few seconds of audio. [
The Next Web] I speculate that this could combine with something like Amazon Polly to enable authors to narrate their books via AI.
* By 2020, 30% of search will be voice-conducted using audio-centric technology [
The Next Web]
* In the US, more people listen to podcasts than use Twitter regularly. Advertising revenue is moving to audio. Publishers report declining ebook sales even as audiobook sales rise. [
Wired]
* YouTube live streams will soon have automatic captions using live automatic speech recognition (LASR) which is approaching industry standards for error rates and latency [
The Verge]
This podcast is sponsored by
Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the
Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors.
Toby Neal is an award-winning, USA Today best-selling author of mysteries, thrillers, and romance with over 30 titles. She's also a mental health therapist, a career that has informed the depth and complexity of the characters in her stories.
You can listen above or
on iTunes or
Stitcher or
watch the video here, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.
Show Notes
* Examples of how the high production business model can work
* Tips for gaining sales traction with a new series
* We mention using
K-lytics for categories – it's a great tool!
* Taking care of author health while producing a lot of work
* Book marketing tips and how Toby uses her team to help with that
* ‘Retailer proofing' an author business and selling direct
You can find Toby Neal at
TobyNeal.net and on Twitter @tobywneal