More Bad News Regarding Spotify for Authors

I understand that those who cover publishing news only report the basics, and I'm thankful to them for them doing it. However... 

I got the same news flash regarding Spotify for Authors from two different newsletter sources--in case you haven't heard, an author can use Spotify to create an audiobook for free. That news was right up my alley, since I have no funds.

Unfortunately, I hit a snag immediately. My EPUB exceeded Spotify's upload limit of 500,000 characters. (The novel is only a bit over 114,000 words, which is average.) I was advised to trim my number of characters. Well, nope, I'm not about to delete words from my novel. So, good old AI gave me a workaround. I could split my manuscript in two, create EPUBs of each, then eventually combine the two halves into one book.

Sound easy? 🤣Still, I did that, then I uploaded Part 1 to Spotify. It asked me for all the book details plus the cover image (which, BTW, has to be at least 2,400 x 2,400 pixels). I filled all that in, then was taken to the voice selection.

And here's where my experiment ended. 

Spotify offers two--count 'em--two female American voices. I hate them both. Each sounds like a little girl is narrating my book.

"By restricting the tool to a specific, curated selection of ElevenLabs voices, Spotify manages its infrastructure costs and licensing fees." 

So, the service is free "sort of". It's free if the author doesn't care how her audiobook sounds. 

Not to be picky, but those reporters could have added one line telling us that. It would have saved me a bunch of wasted time and needless effort. Yes, we need to do our own research, blah blah blah, but damn!

It gets worse. Authors are entitled to five free books, but the "Part 1" I already uploaded counts toward my five, even though I deleted it.

I guess the bottom line is, if it sounds too good to be true...yep!

My other option would be to use ElevenLabs to create my audiobook, which purportedly costs $99.00. I don't have $99.00 lying around. And the way my royalty checks are going, it would take me approximately a year and a half to accumulate that amount (really).

I did, however, accomplish one of my stated goals, which was to try the service and report back. 

My final grade is F. 

Of course, it might work out fine for you. Perhaps your book doesn't exceed the max character count. If you need a male voice, perhaps Spotify's two offerings are adequate. Or you might be looking for an immature female voice, depending on your genre.

Unlike other reporters, I've provided the important details. so you'll know what you're getting into.

Now I'm on to deleting all the unnecessary files I created.