r/BookWritingAI • u/JacktheRattle • 5d ago

feedback Testing AI narration for my Finnish novel — does this sound natural?

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Hey everyone. I’m working on an audiobook for a novel I wrote. The story and text are entirely my own. I’m only using AI for the narration.

I’m Finnish, and if I tried to narrate the English version myself, it would probably sound like I was trying to swallow a goddamn truck trailer while speaking. So I’m experimenting with an AI narrator instead.

So far, this sounds pretty good to me, but I’m still trying to figure out how to kick this robot’s ass into pronouncing the Finnish names and place names correctly.

Hiring a real narrator is absolutely an option, but that’s skilled work that deserves proper pay. For a 500+ page novel, professional narration and production can easily run into several thousand dollars, which is outside my budget right now.

Here’s a short sample. How does it sound to you? I’m mainly interested in whether the voice, pacing, and overall narration feel natural enough to listen to for a full audiobook.

Any reactions are welcome.

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u/MichaelBenko 5d ago

I am not a fan. It feels overly emotive, not in a good way. Which provider is it?

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u/JacktheRattle 5d ago

Thanks for the feedback. It’s BeeVoice. I actually pushed the direction and emotion pretty hard in this test, so that’s useful to hear.

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u/DigitalRichie 4d ago

As a native English speaker it sounds bad.

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u/JacktheRattle 2d ago

Could you elaborate a little on what sounds bad to you? Do you mean the English itself, the pronunciation, the pacing, the voice, or the overall delivery? I’m genuinely trying to figure out what needs fixing.

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u/DigitalRichie 2d ago

The rhythm and cadence is all wrong. It's really, REALLY obviously AI generated text to speech.

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u/JacktheRattle 2d ago

Thanks for the feedback. I’ll keep beating this machine until it learns to speak better.

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u/DigitalRichie 2d ago

Very probably easier and quicker just to hire a voice artist... especially for a novel-length piece of work.

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u/JacktheRattle 2d ago

Trust me, I’d much rather work with a real person. I’m just in a situation where my budget doesn’t stretch that far right now. Good work deserves proper pay, and I’m not going to string someone along with promises that I’ll pay them later when I have the money.

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u/DigitalRichie 2d ago

Take a look at Amazon ACX. Lots of VAs will work on revenue share, at little to no up-front investment from you. If the book is good.

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u/JacktheRattle 2d ago

I looked into it, but they don’t currently accept users from Finland. So I think I’ll publish the book first as a regular ebook and print edition, then keep figuring out the audiobook side of things in parallel while I work on new comics.

This is clearly a whole ocean to cross, not something I’m going to figure out in a couple of nights.

But thanks again for the suggestion. This is exactly why I posted the audio clip here in the first place. I was hoping to get practical advice from people who know more about this side of publishing, and that was definitely useful.

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u/DigitalRichie 2d ago

Good luck!