Ep. 314 - Audible, AI and Your Voice: Academy Voices One Week In, with Gabby Nistico and Angela Ohlfest

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One week after the new Academy Voices website went live, Gabby, Angela and I got together to talk about how it's going, what's coming next, and the news everyone has been asking us about: what's being said about Audible letting listeners interact with characters in the narrator's voice, and ACX's new room tone rule.

(00:00) One week in, and the new site is holding up.

(01:23) How week one went. New authors posting per-finished-hour work, authors bringing their audio over, and narrators using the tools bundle or buying tools as they need them.

(03:21) Fewer questions than the old site. The fifteen-minute check is now a recommendation if you've already done books with us, and contracts are created automatically when you accept an offer.

(04:48) Coming soon: an Academy Voices store and app, so listeners can buy audiobooks straight from the people who made them.

(08:39) Seeing your sales almost in real time.

(10:00) Is an AI-enhanced headshot OK? I check every profile myself. Subtle editing is one thing. If people can tell straight away it was made by AI, don't use it.

(14:38) You'll get an email whether or not you were cast for an audition on the new site.

(16:03) Selfie headshots are fine. Get your whole face in, and hold the camera up high.

(17:38) Short stories under 5,000 words? Yes, we have those.

(19:08) What's going around on social media about Audible and interactive characters, and the questions nobody has clear answers to yet: the author's rights, the narrator's consent, and pay.

(22:56) If your voice gets used for hours of conversation, should you be paid for that time?

(25:52) Why listeners still want a real person.

(26:58) ACX's room tone change. It's now 1 to 5 seconds at the start and the end of every file, and our audio checker has been updated to match.

(30:26) Why the change worries us, starting with retail samples that open on four seconds of silence.

(36:20) An author who tried AI narration before coming to us, and why AI narration isn't free.

(38:17) Don't forget the listener.

(38:44) Duet narration on Academy Voices. How to audition, and why each narrator signs their own contract.

(41:29) Moving your account over: use the same name and email.

(41:57) Can you opt out of voice replicas on ACX? We don't know yet, and that's part of the problem.

(43:15) What authors and narrators earn on our own store. Academy Voices keeps 20 percent.

(44:31) Auditioning for a duet without a partner? Audition anyway.

(46:22) A safe space for human narration.

(47:17) Disclosure and consent, and how writing tools are blurring what counts as AI.

(48:48) Getting the word out, with a press release once the store is ready.

(50:03) Should the Academy Voices app carry podcasts?

(52:14) Distributors and AI-narrated books.

(54:00) Running a convention? We'd love to come.

Academy Voices is $9 a month or $97 for the year. https://academyvoices.com

Our live classes are open to anyone during Free Class Week, 12 to 15 October. https://www.avosjourney.com/free-class-week-october-2026?src=podcast

When you're ready to train with us, here's VO Journey Academy. https://www.avosjourney.com/join?src=podcast

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