De Marque adds ElevenLabs AI narration to 1.8 million titles
The move targets a language gap where French publishers offer roughly 20,000 audiobook titles against more than 750,000 in the U.S.
Here's the honest translation of "the economics did not work": your backlist in French, Spanish, or a dozen other languages was never getting a human narrator, full stop. Now it can get an AI one through Cantook, whether you asked for that or not. If you're distributed through De Marque, this week's job is simple — find out if your titles are opted in by default or only by request, and check what an ElevenLabs narration actually pays you versus a human audiobook edition. Watch, don't panic, but don't assume silence means you're excluded.
Why it matters to you: If your publisher uses Cantook, your non-English titles may be eligible for AI narration whether or not anyone asked you first.
This story ran in the Coral Wire edition of Wed, Sep 30 2026, when the Coral Index stood at 58/100 (Tailwinds building).
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- De Marque to Offer AI Audiobook Capabilities Via ElevenLabspublishersweekly.com
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