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Hi All,

I personally enjoy listening to audiobooks when I am driving. i always wished History of the Packard Motor Car Company by Kimes & Richard Langworth was an audiobook, so I have decided to convert it to an audiobook, this is a much bigger job than I had expected. The use of AI has made it easier through. I have found a good AI voice to narrate the book. (Those that know me know I don't have a great voice to narrate with)

My question is how many people would be interested in this as an audiobook. (I am not doing this as a commercial venture) I would make it available to those who want it when it is complete.


Cheers,
Mat

Mind posting a sample of the voice?

My vote is Sir Patrick Stewart for the voice over.

I’m much more likely to listen to an audio book than I am to sit down and read. I would probably listen to that while driving.

Good voice but a Shakespearean actor talking about Packard might be a little dramatic!

I have posted a sample here:

www.packardaustralia.com/Chapter_1_Preview.mp3

Sounds like a nice idea but I will throw a downer and wonder about the legalities and if you might run into issues even if it is not a commercial venture. Is there any kind of exemption made?

Automobile Quarterly itself is no longer publishing but I believe there is a good chance some of the chapter authors are still around so there are probably all kinds of copyrights held by them and whatever entity AQ turned into. With the fact you are using AI to do the voicing, just wonder if someone could get their knickers twisted and decide you are using their work for AI training purposes. If news articles are to be believed, anything with books seems to be a big no-no over here with publishers and authors forbidding AI from being exposed to their works. Most appear to be keeping a multitude of lawyers on speed dial to go after who or whatever gets their attention.

Hey Howard,

It appears the copyright is held by © 1978 Automobile Quarterly, Inc. All rights reserved. (4th page in)

I pulled one of my books apart to start scanning the pages, and part way through I realised the book is actually available on archive.org

archive.org/details/packardhistoryof0000unse/mode/2up - I'm sure everything on archive.org has already been run through an AI LLM.

I'll have to find out more, but I thought it would be a great way for people to enjoy this amazing book again.

If there is any of the authors on this forum I would love to get their thoughts on it too.

Quote:

I'm neither an author nor an attorney but I do work quite a bit with rights as a music producer. Your comment that you're sure indicates a guess but I would do whatever it takes to actually be sure and not guess. Even if they have rights, it's not necessarily something that would apply to whomever wants to use the material.

If you are using the second edition, please note that it still has some typos -- pages 346 shows a 1937 Super Eight and calls it a 1936 Super Eight, page 347 shows Bob Hope with his 1936 Eight and calls it a 1936 Super Eight, page 352 shows a 1936 Super Eight and calls it a 1937 Super Eight.

The second edition also reversed the full page photo of the original factory office building in Detroit on page 93 (I do not know how they did that), and the title of chapters three and four were swapped. In addition, the color green was left out of the printing process on pages 638 and 659. And, the choice was made to use a slightly cheaper stock of paper, with the paper size being cut down by 1/4-inch.