It’s Sunday, and the seasoned Legionnaires among us know what that means:
#AskWatson
The day where I scoop up the best questions sent my way via email or social media and answer them.
Got a couple of goodies this week, so let’s dig in:
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Is D.J.J. Watson hiding some dark secret, or can you finally tell us what those initials stand for? 😊
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People are inherently nosey creatures, but luckily for this curious cat, it’s not such a guarded secret as they fear/hope.
Actually, it’s quite anti-climatic.
So what does the D.J.J. stand for?
(drum roll)
…
..
.
Daniel John Watson.
“But wait… there’s a J missing?”
Good observation, hawky. I picked this pen name for a few reasons:
1. Every big fantasy author seems to have that third initial (J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, etc.), so why not me, too?
2. The domain and social media handles were free (djjwatson.com / @watsondjj), which made it ultra appealing.
3. Using my full name would have made book covers cramped, and shortening it to my bare bones initials (D.J. Watson) would potentially have disk jockeys around the world worried.
So, there you have it.
Your Overlord and Saviour’s “dark” secret.
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What AI are you using for the audiobooks?
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This question honestly surprised me.
I’m ashamed to admit this, but I had (wrongfully) assumed many in the Legion wouldn’t have two Scooby-Doos about AI, so I refrained from bogging you down too much with the technical details.
For that, I wholeheartedly apologise. (But only this once.)
To the chap that asked this question:
I’m currently using Google Play Store’s in-house virtual voice to narrate my books.
The end result is much better than it was a year ago, but candidly speaking, it still has a little way to go before it can compete with the big boy of the space, ElevenLabs.
“So why not skip Google and jump straight to ElevenLabs?”
Simply put, I haven’t got the time right now.
It would require me to go line by line to ensure flow, tempo, mood is accurately captured, which, I’m sure you can appreciate for 150,000+ words would need a lot of hours — hours I don’t have whilst also juggling edits for Book #5, slaying orcs, being a dad, and writing these daily emails.
That said, once Book #5 is out into the world, I’m going to chain myself to the desk and crack this nut.
More good news:
Anyone who buys the first edition of my digitally-narrated audiobooks will be “grandfathered” into newer narrations later for free, which is a fine benefit indeed when you consider the price *will* hike once they are upgraded.
All I can say is that I’m quite excited to offer this format to my loyal Legionnaires.
There has been no shortage of people who have written in to ask about audiobooks, and now, in only a matter of days, I will be able to point them towards the audio versions of all of my books.
So keep an eye out.
Also, if you’re peculiar like me, and enjoy having both the e-book version AND the audiobook version side by side, then you can still grab my e-books here:
DJJW
P.S. There’s only one problem with using Google for my narration, and I’ll speak more about that tomorrow. (Seriously, I’m not happy about it.)