The entertainment industry claimed that the sky was falling when the VCR made it possible for people to record television programs and movies in their homes. And now? They print money selling DVDs, often to the same people who recorded the shows and liked them so much they wanted better reproductions. The music industry wailed about MP3s, but when cheap, legal MP3s became available online, they turned into a whole new wing of the industry.

As an author, I see the talking Kindle as being one more reason for a reader to want to buy my ebook. One more use of technology to expand my possible audience, and perhaps help keep my work out of the dustbin of obscurity. Most writers never do get audio licenses for their work, and even those who do might well benefit from the “free advertising” of a machine voice’s reading.

So by all means, let’s have the conversation with Amazon and others. But if the authors come off as trying to prevent our customers from making a reasonable use of the content they’ve purchased, we’re likely only to alienate the very people we want to have on our side.

My bottom line: Anything that makes people want to buy my books is good. And if they like the sound of that machine reading my book aloud to them, that’s fine by me. It might even make them want to go out and buy more of my books.

Every author, agent, and book or audio publisher should read this article and use it as a template to take action.

Richard Curtis