It was promised for the summer, but it is now here, a wee bit late, but welcomed. Last spring Amazon had said that they would be adding more voices to their collection of virtual voice audiobook collection. They have just now done so, and I have switched the voice of my audiobooks on Amazon of a British English voice (#7). I use the British "Archie" on Google, and in general prefer the British narrators. Perhaps because the American English voice sound a maybe too, ordinary, or a story set on a distant world in the future Plus, a little too eager, and/or too hard or harsh. All I know is they just clash with the voice in my head telling the story.
As I said, this feature is a bit late, but they did go all out in implementing it. They are now offering 12 Female and 9 male voiced for American English, 3 female and 2 male Australian English voice, 10 female and 4 male British English voices, and interestingly enough, 2 Female and 3 male Southern American English voices, ya'all. Back in the spring they also said that authors would be able to have different voices for different chapters, for all those multii-point-of-view stories, but I didn't see any mention of that option just yet.
They also claimed to have improved the voices across the board. I'll just take them on their word for that. From the samples I heard, they sounded quite natural, but I don't listen to audiobooks, so I have nothing to compare them to.
Not that all this matters much, if at all, since my current sales of non-free books on Amazon, in any format, is a mere trickle. But still, that rare audiobook buyer will now hear my stories closer to what I imagine my narrators to sound like, as they spin their tales.
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