UK AI start-up DeepZen has partnered with Ingram Content Group to provide AI-generated text-to-speech audiobooks. DeepZen explains in their release that they have licensed voices from voice actors and narrators, “capturing all of the elements of the human voice, such as pacing and intonation, and a wide range of emotions that produce more realistic speech patterns.” The AI uses those licensed voices for machine-created narration that features “seven different emotions.” The production process “combines AI technology with human editing” and takes approximately three weeks to produce an audiobook. Samples from their audiobooks are provided here. DeepZen ceo Taylan Kamis said, […]
Archives for September 2021
HBG, S&S Won’t Return to Office This Year
Following up on our recent return-to-office update, Hachette Book Group ceo Michael Pietsch announced to staff yesterday that they will not be expected to return to the office in 2021, and a 2022 date isn’t set (the company will still give four weeks’ notice beforehand). “Concerns about Covid-19 and the Delta variant, the possibility of transmission even by fully vaccinated individuals, the lack of a vaccine for children, and other factors led the Office Reopening Task Force to this decision,” he said. Offices are currently open “with capacity restrictions, for fully vaccinated employees who want to use them.” Also, Simon & Schuster […]
Sara Gran Launches Dreamland Books
Author Sara Gran has founded the independent publisher Dreamland Books. The publisher will release Gran’s forthcoming books, beginning with The Book of the Most Precious Substance in trade paperback on February 8, 2022, as well as two to four titles per year by other authors. According to a statement, “Dreamland Books was born both out of Gran’s life-long love of books (and years of working with them as an author, collector, retail bookseller, and rare-book dealer) and her frustration with the increasingly corporate culture of the new, mega-conglomerate publishing houses. The goals of the press are both creative—to publish extraordinary […]
Harper Still Plans to Reopen Office in October, Without Vaccine Requirement
Even as some publishers delayed their office reopening plans, Harper Collins is sticking with its program to reopen facilities in New York, Princeton, and Montage, PA on October 4, with employees working there 2-3 days per week. A spokesperson said, “We are moving ahead with the next phase of our gradual return to in-person work beginning the week of October 4. This is a pilot period during which we hope to learn more about how hybrid work functions at Harper Collins. Coming into the office during this interim period is not mandatory.” While working from the office is officially voluntary, some […]
People 9/21
Kirstin Berndt joins Portfolio/Sentinel as publicity manager; she was previously at Simon & Schuster. Heather Faulls joins as marketing manager; she was previously at Abel Bainnson Butz, LLP Landscape Architects.
National Book Foundation Names 5 Under 35
The National Book Foundation named their 5 Under 35 fiction writers for 2021. Chair of the NBF board David Steinberger said, “Each year, we take great pleasure in honoring five authors whose debut titles provide a first look at their exceptional talent as fiction writers. Their remarkable books are an achievement, and it’s a privilege to welcome these authors into the National Book Foundation family and to ensure their work reaches an even wider audience.” Caleb Azumah Nelson, Open Water (Black Cat) Selected by Brit Bennett Nathan Harris, The Sweetness of Water (Little, Brown) Selected by Charmaine Craig Lee Lai, […]