I fell in love with audiobooks when my kids were young. We would stop at the library before a road trip and choose a few for our drive. I still love audiobooks. Many times it’s a good audiobook that gets the chores done and the house clean. These days I use Audible or the library’s Libby app.

June is the Audio Publishers Association’s Audiobook Appreciation Month, and we’re heading into our summer reading season on the tails of Amazon’s recent announcement

that it will allow AI narration for certain audiobooks. Audible will also work with select publishers for AI production. Other publishers have already started down this path, but Amazon — which dominates the market for book sales — is a key player for understanding how AI narration will change the landscape for audiobook lovers. It’s why I wanted to talk to Robin Whitten, editor and founder of AudioFile magazine.

Listening to stories for entertainment is nothing new. “It’s sort of come around and gone around again, with the style of narration,” Robin said. Audiobooks have actually been around since 1932, when the American Foundation for the Blind first recorded books on vinyl records. Radio storytelling and audio theater productions were wildly popular from the 1930s to the 1950s, only to decline with the rise of television. Today’s audiobooks are reminiscent of those radio plays, minus the tapping shoes and clinking dishes for sound effects. Distinct voicing between characters requires audiobook narrators to emotionally connect with the story.

“There are choices made every second by those narrators,” Robin stressed. “The tone, the pace, the emphasis. They really understand what the emotional content of a story is.” AI technology will no doubt get better as it learns, but it’s not there yet, and its use has huge implications for the industry. AI narration simultaneously makes audiobook production more affordable while potentially flooding the market with questionable quality. One thing remains clear: Audiobooks with high-quality narration are more popular and better received. To achieve consistent high quality, human narration is a must.

I remember the first time a friend recommended an audiobook over the print edition because it was such a good listen. It as Julian Rubinstein’s “Ballad of the Whiskey Robber,” a true crime book published in 2004. I have recommended it again and again. The power of good storytelling cannot be understated. Robin said it this way: “Do you want a story told to you without a soul? Did the author write it without a soul?” Robin started AudioFile over 30 years ago because she believes in the power of storytelling as a human experience. “It’s a creative process, and it’s a creative experience,” she said. “And if you mess with that … then, you know, you’ve lost a lot.”

AI narration is a terrifying prospect for many who work in the industry. While it drives production costs down, there’s a very real fear that AI-produced audiobooks will devalue human talent and drive professional narrators out of a job. Robin hopes that “we can maintain that insistence that we have human voices telling us human-written stories.”

The Audio Publishers Association has worked with industry leaders to create AI narration naming guidelines for audiobooks. The guidelines do not make judgment or offer an opinion on the decision to use AI for audiobooks. Instead, the guidelines “are designed to be transparent for publishers, retailers and distributors, while offering clarity for consumers, allowing for informed choice and ensuring continued trust in our audio products.”

The hope is that an agreed-upon industry standard will clearly label audiobook productions that use AI for narration. Like everything else, it will be up to consumers to direct what happens in audiobook publishing by voting with our wallets.

Storytelling is inherently human, and we should support the creative spaces that do it well, like audiobook narration. Whether you’re for spring cleaning, or road-tripping with the family, I hope you’ll celebrate Audiobook Appreciation Month and enjoy the uniquely human experience of great storytelling.

Do you know anyone who’s doing cool things to make the world a better place? I want to know. Send me an email at Bonnie@WriterBonnie.com. Check out Bonnie’s weekly YouTube videos at https://www.youtube.com/bonniejeanfeldkamp. To find out more about Bonnie Jean Feldkamp and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.