I spent a few minutes today on Amazon, to check on reports that some Kindle titles now have text to speech disabled. Among the authors who are “turning off” text to speech in Kindle editions of books are President Obama, Vice President Biden, Toni Morrison, the Pope, Stephen King, Maya Angelou, Mother Teresa, Isaac Asimov, Tom Brokaw, P.D. James, Robert B. Reich, George Will and Ann Coulter, to mention a few.
Random House is claiming all of its ebooks have text to speech disabled.
Random House FAQ:
Do your ebooks have the text-to-speech feature disabled prior to purchase?
Yes, all of our eBooks have the text-to-speech feature disabled.
In looking at Random House titles, it seems as only some listed on Amazon are identified as having text to speech disabled, yet. There are soundproof books from several publishers, many of which are owned by Random House. Given the concentration in the publishing industry, it is difficult to keep track of who owns what.*
Here are examples of the new soundproof Kindle titles:
Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama’s Plan to Renew America’s Promise (Kindle Edition)
by Barack Obama (Author)
Publisher: Three Rivers Press (September 8, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (Kindle Edition)
by Barack Obama (Author)
Publisher: Crown (October 17, 2006)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (Kindle Edition)
by Barack Obama (Author)
Publisher: Crown; Reprint edition (January 9, 2007)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics (Kindle Edition)
by Joe Biden (Author)
Publisher: Random House (July 31, 2007)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level (Kindle Edition)
by Sally Md Shaywitz (Author)
Publisher: Vintage; 1 edition (December 24, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Tea Time for the Traditionally Built: The New No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Novel (Kindle Edition)
by Alexander Mccall Smith (Author)
Publisher: Pantheon (April 21, 2009)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Supercapitalism (Kindle Edition)
by Robert B. Reich (Author)
Publisher: Vintage (September 4, 2007)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
A Mercy (Kindle Edition)
by Toni Morrison (Author)
Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (November 11, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Beloved (Kindle Edition)
by Toni Morrison (Author)
Publisher: Vintage (July 24, 2007)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Song of Solomon (Kindle Edition)
by Toni Morrison (Author)
Publisher: Vintage (July 24, 2007)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
The Stand (Kindle Edition)
by Stephen King (Author)
# Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (June 24, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
The Road (Kindle Edition)
by Cormac Mccarthy (Author)
Publisher: Knopf (March 20, 2007)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
True Detectives: A Novel (Kindle Edition)
by Jonathan Kellerman (Author)
Publisher: Ballantine Books (March 24, 2009)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Letter to My Daughter (Kindle Edition)
by Maya Angelou (Author)
Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (September 23, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Kindle Edition)
by Maya Angelou (Author)
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (April 21, 2009)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Outlander (Kindle Edition)
by Diana Gabaldon (Author)
Publisher: Dell (October 26, 2004)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Your Heart Belongs to Me (Kindle Edition)
by Dean Koontz (Author)
Publisher: Bantam (November 25, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Odd Hours (Kindle Edition)
by Dean Koontz (Author)
Publisher: Bantam (May 20, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Forever Odd (Kindle Edition)
by Dean Koontz (Author)
Publisher: Bantam (June 29, 2007)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
The Da Vinci Code: A Novel (Kindle Edition)
by Dan Brown (Author)
Publisher: Anchor; 1st edition (March 18, 2003)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Snow Crash (Kindle Edition)
by Neal Stephenson (Author)
Publisher: Spectra (August 26, 2003)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Foundation (Kindle Edition)
by Isaac Asimov (Author)
Publisher: Spectra; Revised edition (June 1, 2004)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity: A Memoir (Kindle Edition)
by Bill O’Reilly (Author)
Publisher: Broadway (September 23, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America (Kindle Edition)
by Ann Coulter (Author)
Publisher: Crown Forum (January 6, 2009)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning (Kindle Edition)
by Jonah Goldberg (Author)
Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (January 8, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior (Kindle Edition)
by Ori Brafman (Author), Rom Brafman (Author)
Publisher: Doubleday Business; 1 edition (June 3, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life (Kindle Edition)
by Alice Schroeder (Author)
Publisher: Bantam (September 29, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
The First Billion Is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America’s Energy Future (Kindle Edition)
by T. Boone Pickens (Author)
Publisher: Crown Business; 1 edition (September 2, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
The Return of History and the End of Dreams (Kindle Edition)
by Robert Kagan (Author)
Publisher: Knopf (April 29, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Kindle Edition)
by Mother Teresa (Author), Brian Kolodiejchuk (Author)
Publisher: Doubleday Religion (September 4, 2007)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Jesus of Nazareth (Kindle Edition)
by Joseph Ratzinger (Author, aka Pope Benedict XVI)
Publisher: Doubleday Religion (May 15, 2007)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street (Kindle Edition)
by William D. Cohan (Author)
Publisher: Doubleday (March 10, 2009)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
The Wisdom of Crowds (Kindle Edition)
by James Surowiecki (Author)
Publisher: Anchor (August 16, 2005)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies (Kindle Edition)
by M.D., and Cameron Stauth Kenneth Bock (Author)
Publisher: Ballantine Books (April 29, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons (Kindle Edition)
by Tim Russert (Author)
Publisher: Random House (May 23, 2006)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Kindle Edition)
by Stieg Larsson (Author)
Publisher: Knopf (September 16, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Boom!: Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the ’60s and Today (Kindle Edition)
by Tom Brokaw (Author)
Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (November 6, 2007)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (Kindle Edition)
by Jeffrey Toobin (Author)
Publisher: Anchor; Reprint edition (September 30, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
The Private Patient (Kindle Edition)
by P.D. James (Author)
Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (November 18, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Getting Past No (Kindle Edition)
by William Ury (Author)
Publisher: Bantam; Revised edition (April 17, 2007)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Rogue (Kindle Edition)
by Danielle Steel (Author)
Publisher: Dell (February 24, 2009)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
His Excellency: George Washington (Kindle Edition)
by Joseph J. Ellis (Author)
Publisher: Knopf (October 26, 2004)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation (Kindle Edition)
by Joseph J. Ellis (Author)
Publisher: Vintage (December 16, 2003)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
A Short History of Nearly Everything (Kindle Edition)
by Bill Bryson (Author)
Publisher: Broadway; 1 edition (October 26, 2006)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil (Kindle Edition)
by Kristin Ohlson (Author)
Publisher: Random House (April 10, 2007)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
One Man’s America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation (Kindle Edition)
by George Will (Author)
Publisher: Crown Forum; 1 edition (June 3, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Kindle Edition)
by Tim Weiner (Author)
Publisher: Anchor (May 20, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
A Time to Fight: Reclaiming a Fair and Just America (Kindle Edition)
by Jim Webb (Author, and US Senator)
Publisher: Broadway; 1 edition (May 19, 2008)
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
How many books are now text to speech disabled in Kindle 2? It is hard to say. The Authors Guild is now actively campaigning for authors to “turn off” text to speech. A Google search with the term:
“Text-to-Speech: Not enabled” site:www.amazon.com gives 343 hits today. It will be interesting to see how this number changes over time.
UPDATE
According to a note by L. Furrow’s in an Amazon.com forum on this topic, Random House publishes under the following different names:
*Crown Publishing Group = Amphoto Books, Back Stage Books, Billboard Books, Broadway, Crown, Crown Business, Crown Forum, Clarkson Potter, Broadway Business, Doubleday Religion, Harmony Books, Potter Craft, Potter Style, Ten Speed Press, Three Rivers Press, Tricycle Press, Shave Areheart Books, Waterbrook Multnomah, Watson-Guptill
*Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group = Alfred A. Knopf, Anchor Books, Doubleday, Everyman’s Library, Nan A. Talese, Pantheon Books, Schocken Books, Vintage
*Monacelli Press
*Random House Publishing Group = Ballantine Books, Bantam, Delacortr, Dell, Del Rey, Del Rey/Lucas Books, The Dial Press, The Modern Library, One World, Presido Press, Random House Trade Group, Random House Trade Paperbacks, Spectra, Spiegel & Gray, Villard Books.
*Random House Audio Publishing Group = Listening Library, Random House Audio, etc.
*Random House Children’s Books = Kids@Random (RH Children’s Books), Golden Books
*Random House INformation Group = Fodor’s Travel, Living Language, Prima Gaames, Princeton Review, RH Puzzles & Games, RH Reference Publishing, Sylvan Learning
*Random House International = Arete, McClelland & Stewart Ltd., Plaza & Janes, RH Australia, RH of Canada Limited, RH Mondadori, RH South Africa, RH South America, RH United Kindgom, Transworld UK, Verlagsgruppe RH
*Random House Large Print