Brandon Sanderson vs Audible

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

The BBC radio play adaptations of The Lord of the Rings were excellent. Not unabridged though if that's important to you but they weren't intended to be that way. They're available in Overdrive if you have access.

Is there a Universal Overdrive account for all people despite what library someone uses?

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

Is there a Universal Overdrive account for all people despite what library someone uses?

Not that I know of. You can search their overall catalog but I think you need a specific account to get access.

This is the version I was talking about: https://www.overdrive.com/media/1422...ip-of-the-ring

The Prologue is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNgwV399owc

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

Unfortunately, I'm not so into hitchhiker

Then you are going to miss out on the best radio drama.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

Unfortunately, I'm not so into hitchhiker

Or for comedy without the SF satire, old Goons episodes.

There are also old 1930s detective and adventure dramas done mostly on USA Radio, but some BBC too (UK ONLY had BBC from 1921 to 1970s! Also Ireland was State radio only from 1922/1925 to 1989, though some local comunity stations from late 1970s). Search for Old Time Radio, OTR.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

Is there a Universal Overdrive account for all people despite what library someone uses?

No, it's library specific.

[leebase]

It seems like the typical self publishing decision point. If you have enough clout, you can publish and distribute on your own.

Audible MADE the audio book market (no, they didn’t invent audio books). I do a lot more “reading” because of audible...specifically.

I doubt that very many authors will do better financially for themselves releasing audiobooks any other way. I don't fault Audible for this. The market wouldn’t exist without Audible.

[Quoth]

Not true.
There were big players before Amazon took over and leveraged their almost monopoly on English ebooks (90%+).
Some still exist.

The audiobook market would be healthier if Amazon hadn't entered it. It's doing well for Amazon.

[DiapDealer]

I'm not at all opposed to someone deciding to avoid Audible for their books. I just found it very odd that an author who decided to take such a stand (because he thinks Audible's bad for authors) would proudly proclaim that he loves Audible and has an Audible subscription. Just seems a bit disingenuous.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

Is there a Universal Overdrive account for all people despite what library someone uses?

Not sure exactly what you are asking. You can create an Overdrive login and use that to login to the main Overdrive website on your computer, smartphone, etc. Then you can add your individual libraries to this main Overdrive account. You can then limit your searches to only the libraries you have entered to see if the books you want are available. But to actually check anything out, or put anything on hold, I believe you need to create individual library accounts.

In the back of my mind, I seem to remember that when setting up the Overdrive app on my smartphone there was some option to to login using your Overdrive account, or something else (maybe individual library accounts?) But that was years ago when I installed the Overdrive app and I don't remember what those details were. It doesn't matter anyway, because the Overdrive app is going away soon - to be replaced by Libby.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm not at all opposed to someone deciding to avoid Audible for their books. I just found it very odd that an author who decided to take such a stand (because he thinks Audible's bad for authors) would proudly proclaim that he loves Audible and has an Audible subscription. Just seems a bit disingenuous.

Pouring gas over the bridge but not lighting the match?

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Honestly I'm a bit confused as to what he is referring to.

... So if I gave someone e-retailing copies of files I wholly own I'd expect to get maybe 70%. But if I only own the text then 25% is very generous.
So I don't know what the Audible 45% exclusive and 25% non-exclusive refers to.

I'm Brandon's in-house editor, so I can talk about this.

Audible's ACX program offers 40% royalties for an audiobook if you produce it yourself and you distribute exclusively on Audible (who also sends it to iTunes). Or, if you don't have a narrator, ACX can hook you up with one, who will then get 20% (half of your 40%, leaving you with 20%). In all of those circumstances Audible keeps 60%.

Back when ACX started in 2011, the minimum royalty was 50% of net, and if you sold a bunch of copies it escalated up, to where if you sold 22,500 copies the royalties on anything sold above that were all the way at 90%. They still have a page explaining this.

This was essentially a bait and switch—three years later they dropped it to the current 40% flat royalty with no escalators.

Back in 2013, when Brandon first made a deal with Audible to produce the Steelheart audiobook, Audible gave a good royalty. Not as good as ACX, since Audible in this case produced the audiobooks themselves. This deal lasted for the Reckoners trilogy. And after that, Audible went to industry standard for publishers on audio—25% of net.

When we were looking for distributors for the Secret Projects' audiobooks, we approached multiple companies. We weren't going to go through ACX, but Audible's offer wasn't any better than their ACX terms.

Spotify made a better offer. And Speechify made a great offer in line with the 70% royalty offered by ebook vendors, app stores, and most other types of digital storefronts.

We have produced the audiobooks with Erik Synnestvedt, the producer used by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading for their indie work. Michael read the first book (and Erik's production was great), and Michael and Kate will share the next two.

It is not at all common for audio publishers to pay a royalty to the narrator—instead it's just a flat fee. But we are paying a royalty.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Peter Ahlstrom

It is not at all common for audio publishers to pay a royalty to the narrator—instead it's just a flat fee. But we are paying a royalty.

Yes, it's not like voice acting for audio drama or animation, it's usually work for hire, like programming, or an uncredited session musician.

I think it's good to pay a narrator a royalty, but the writer should get the bigger share.

Did you look at https://findawayvoices.com/ ?
Irish Library physical audiobooks have in the past been by them. They also partner with Smashwords (now part of D2D) who we use to sell direct and also distribute to Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Tolino etc. So we upload epub to Amazon KDP (never Select), Smashwords and Google Play Store Books which gives over 95% of English Language worldwide. We also upload a dual mobi to Smashwords for their "local" Kindle customers.

Not looked at ebooks.com or some of the smaller ebook stores.

We do hope in 2023 to have audiobooks out on all significant platforms.
Retail Exclusivity is OK for a ketchup or baked beans brand, but I think evil for books, music, video and Live sports TV.

[Patchicat]

One of my favorite authors no longer distributes audio books through Audible for that exact reason. And she rants about Amazon on a regular basis because anyone can complain to Amazon about "quality" (such as grammatical errors, spelling errors, or the reader just thinks the book should have been written differently) and Amazon will lock sales of the book until the "problems" are fixed or justified to Amazon's satisfaction, costing the author hours of work on creating new stuff. She's gone to distributing books privately to subscribers prior to releasing to retailers for that exact reason. And the only reason she's still on Amazon is because so many of her readers are on Amazon. If you're an Indie Author, Amazon is NOT your friend.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Patchicat

If you're an Indie Author, Amazon is NOT your friend.

On the other hand, Amazon with the introduction of the Kindle and their market is a large part of why ebooks have had the success they have had. And ebooks have made it MUCH easier for indie authors to make it on their own.

But yeah, Amazon's exclusivity really sucks. I remember an animator describing working for Disney as wearing golden handcuffs, I'd guess an indie author signing up for KU is similar.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

But yeah, Amazon's exclusivity really sucks. I remember an animator describing working for Disney as wearing golden handcuffs, I'd guess an indie author signing up for KU is similar.

Almost no indie author (statistically) makes even half a minimum wage on KU (KDP Select) and they'd sell more books not being Amazon only (at no extra outlay). Also KU gives less income than regular book sales on Amazon. It's a scam to benefit Amazon.

Disney animators get paid enough to live on.