Bo Bennett Returns With AuthorVoices AI Relaunch

HOST: It's good to have you back, Bo. Honestly, I've been thinking about what you said last time about two years on the internet being forever. So, is this relaunch of AuthorVoices.ai just the same logic — not broken, but ready for an upgrade? And, what did y'all get wrong initially that made this whole rebuild necessary? GUEST: Well, yes, that's exactly what I said about the two years being forever on the internet, and that's what really prompted this rebuild. There was nothing wrong with it. Nothing was broken. Author's Voice did a fantastic job, but two years ago, again, was a long time. So, there's a lot of technology that's improved since then, mostly the user interface, and just making it a lot easier for users to create the books, to create the audiobooks, make it a much smoother process going from Book Buddy to Author's Voice, or just having people up load their PDF, their ePub file, and let it create the narration files for them. And then we also did many things, many other improvements that help them take their audiobook from just the files itself to an actual distributed product. HOST: So, smoother interface sounds like a big win. I also noticed the site now talks about "curated" voices — these named personas with specific accents. What does that mean practically? Are you licensing models, training them yourselves, or something else? And why should an author care about picking a particular narrator? GUEST: Well, we actually use the technology of Eleven Labs, which is by far the best in the industry for audiobooks, for audio in in general. So, when we say curated, we're referring to the the voices that we created on their system, a good variety of voices. And again, I've been doing audiobooks for, jeez, at least 15 years. Uh helping authors get their audiobooks created. And over that time, over that time, I learned what they want, what they're looking for, uh the the kind of voices that are popular and what people don't like. So, that's what I mean by curated. It's going through the system and creating the ideal personas to get the widest variety of narrators that work for virtually everybody. And when there isn't a voice available, if somebody says, hey, I need this specific accent, uh with in the specific dialect or whatever, we can do that as well. They could just ask us and we could we could uh find that voice, make it, created if it doesn't exist, and then add it to our library. So, we we've got that kind of flexibility. HOST: Okay, so you're using ElevenLabs as the engine and then customizing it. That makes sense. Now, most of those big platforms run on subscriptions, but you went with credits here. What's the strategic thinking behind that? Is audiobook production just a different kind of consumption pattern, or is this a way to get people in the door? GUEST: Well, the reason that we went with credits is because, like you said, everybody else is going with subscriptions in this market. And the majority of our authors don't need a subscription. They just want to do like their one book that they have, or maybe two books. So we don't want to we don't want to tie them down with a monthly subscription that they're never going to going to use. Um, however, we also do offer subscriptions for our high volume customers. And with that, we we have this whole special setup locally that we have like a we call it a bunch of different studios. Right now, it's two different studios that produce these voices locally in the books and and they're identical. I mean, they sound fantastic. Um, but the way we can do it, we do it in such a way that makes it incredibly cost effective. Um, much more so than than using a service like Eleven Labs. So, if we have work with publishers, and we do, that do like a book a day or even more, um, that's now not just technically feasible, but it's also economically viable. Because otherwise, before that, even at like 100 bucks a book, that may be cost prohibitive to really make a profit as a publisher. But now, with the subscription option, we we give them that flexibility to actually make money. HOST: That's really interesting — so you offer credits for the long-tail authors and subscriptions for the big publishers. Now, I have to ask — critics sometimes say AI narration hits a ceiling, especially for emotionally dense books like fiction. Do you see that limit, or do you think that's a problem technology will figure out? GUEST: Well, I would I would say uh let the let the listeners decide on that and listen to your voice and the way that you are asking these questions. Uh it's it's a it's emotional, it's uh you're you're you're stressing the right words, you're you're coming across as not just human, but a very good host. Um likewise with the narration, we've got that same technology already, and it just gets better and better and better. Now, I will admit that some authors are extremely picky, and maybe have an a bias against artificial intelligence, and and will prefer humans for that reason, and that's fine. Again, we offer human narration for that small segment. But the technology is not only there now, but it's getting better and better, so not just for non-fiction, but for fiction as well. And again, every every day I'm surprised and blown away by the new technology coming out and how impressive it is. HOST: You know, you bring it back to the listening experience, which is perfect. Now, lastly — we know BookBud offers print, audio, and distribution all in one subscription. Authors can also use AuthorVoices as a standalone. What should be the first step an author takes with Archieboy tools? You know, if they have a manuscript right now and they haven't used anything yet. Give us that practical path. GUEST: Well, if they do have a manuscript, then the best place to go is to selfpublishing.pro. And that's a great starting point because no matter where you are in your journey, you could start from there and you could find the best path for you, whether you're creating the book, whether you're formatting it, distributing it, or if you already have it and you just want to do marketing. So that is the place to go. HOST: SelfPublishing.pro is a great landing spot. Bo, thanks so much for coming back and walking us through the relaunch — it was really interesting to hear that differentiation on pricing. And thank you for spending part of your day with us. Let's get you back on soon because there's plenty more we can cover. Until next time — that's a wrap.