Audible. Please Stop.
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
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Audible is seemingly one of the most uncontroversial companies on the planet. They just host a library of audiobooks allowing millions of people to learn and grow and thousands of writers to make a strong living. But, the reality of Audible is not quite the same. You see, Audible has built up an insane monopoly over the audiobook market. Usually, such monopolies would make anti-user decisions but Audible doesn’t do that. In fact, they treat their users extremely well because that’s where they get all of their power. Instead, they choose to screw over the thousands of writers that make the entire platform possible by forcing extremely unfavorable revenue-sharing deals. For larger authors, this isn’t too big of a deal as they not only have more leverage to negotiate but reaching a bigger audience is much more important to them than maximizing the revenue-sharing percentage. The same, however, can not be said for indie authors who are just trying to make ends meet by selling a few hundred or a few thousand copies. This video explains the dark side of Audible and a noble writer who has chosen to start a strike against the giant.
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Timestamps:
0:00 - Author’s Strike
2:07 - An Audible Protest
5:29 - Unbreakable Monopoly
8:55 - Exploring Alternatives
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I personally think that authors should form an alliance and create their own platform for delivering audio books. I think if enough authors joined in they could get the backing to do it.
I'd be up for it!
I mean this is the only real solution but you would need deep pockets to get it off the ground
@@southcoastinventors6583 now,Sanderson has this possibility!
@@southcoastinventors6583 not really. AI audible book where you customize the voice will be made. Feed it text (legally or not) and boom, your personal reader.
So unionize?
That's why monopoly is always bad. Bad for consumer and bad for innovation and growth.
How it is bad for the consumer Audible is a great service with a great ebook reader it really in this case bad only for the author but generally monopoly equal bad service or slow innovation
@@southcoastinventors6583bad for creators but good for consumes still makes it bad all around. If creators can’t benefit from the platform, they won’t be incentivized to create, which makes it bad for consumes because less content to consume
Monopoly can only be applied to things that are finite and physical, such as real estate, etc. When it comes to technology, software and platforms are quickly outdated and replaceable. People don't have to use these platforms and can create new ones.
It is bad for a customer for a long-term perspective, when authors will have no incentives to write books at all. Or at least make any audiobooks
@@kappatoflash yea bro, thats why every youtube and twitch replacement works so well huh? Once you have a userbase it is near impossible to get people to another platform. Too big to fail.
My mom is an author, who has had audible exclusive deals for some of her books, and when audible says that they give authors 40%, that is a lie. They take away a lot of the money for advertising (which is dumb because that’s the point of paying audible at all). And, she ends up getting about 20%
@whitmanmalemannice slippery slope I can’t recall a time in history when someone would use this as an excuse……..
@whitmanmalemanthat's...completely unrelated
@whitmanmalemanokay than, what does that have to do with audible being a dick. You’re saying it’s completely related. Prove it
@@Sensei_gojo Don't argue with neonazis. Report them for hate speech.
Don't give antisemites the time of day. Block the teash and move on.
After reading Sanderson’s post about audible, I immediately stopped my audible subscription. I just could not believe how little authors (especially indie ones) were getting paid and also what they were doing to drive away competition. Just disgusting.
Dude, tell me about it. I did a little work for ACX, the voice over side of the business. The standard contract is 20% for the author, 20% for the narrator, 60% for Amazon. There's zero promise of a floor in the standard contract. You may spend a week at work, only to earn nothing beyond experience if the project doesn't get anywhere.
Any jobs that pay per finished hour, the narrator is generally expected to master the audio. Between getting good takes, filtering out any quirky bits, background noises, and the like, and actual recording it all, the going rate for newbies ends up being under the minimum wage. x.x
>.> It ought to be 60, 30, 10 for author, audio team (narrator and cleanup), and Amazon, respectively. The creator deserves the most, for it is the harsest, slowest of the jobs. Narrators breathe life into things, so they get a respectable piece. And Amazon, acting as an agent to connect voice actors with authors, and consumers with books. I wouldn't argue over too hard over Amazon taking the standard 10-15%, but 60% was, is, and forever will be outrageous.
x.x Hope to get back to doing that work, there's a dearth of gainful employment for gimpyfolk, and at least ACX was something. But all else being equal, I'd much prefer not getting taken advantage of -- even it it's arguably better than the alternative that is pretty much nothing. x.x
This wouldn’t have happened if authors did what Sanderson did earlier.
@@PeopleRTheProblem I mean, maybe? Probably, even. >.o But much like, say, video games, where quality has gone down, monetization is maximized, reviews are bought, and any developer that doesn't get on board gets bought out. If gamers refused to go along, we wouldn't be in this mess.
It's the same problem you always run into: way too many people will put up with way too much abuse, and it makes curbing even the worst abuses nearly impossible. x.x
You just can't get enough people to act as one to change anything, because there's a steady stream of fools and dyed-in-the-wool, hardcore consumers who are going to buy something no matter what. x.x
..and then there's folks like me. x.x There ain't an awful lot of work I can do given my brokenness. Work from home, and work on your own schedule gigs are still pretty rare, mostly full of scam offerings. So my only options are resign myself to living off petty benefits, or get taken advantage of (and drag wages down for my colleagues in the bargain). I quit before, I'll probably quit again if I go back to it, but even a raw deal is better than no deal at all when you're desperate. x.x
@@PeopleRTheProblemSo, Imagine you make Minimum wage and come even so by, month for month. But you do what you Love and audible makes it possible.
Would you Just say, yeah fuck it and gamble If people Help me.
Sanderson is already good in Terms of Money, He is a Well known Autor whit a huge fandom. This is the only reason this got so huge.
He wouldn't Had starved, when this didn't Work.
@@mlem6951 what?
My Girlfriend worked for Audible for about a year in 2022 and early 2023 as a software engineer, and the work environment was really hostile because of the management. It's no surprise to me that audible treats their writers poorly too.
Sorry to hear that man
@@LogicallyAnsweredwho uses audible anyway. Useless app
65% of the market are using audible
@@saukash6762I do, actually. It was a company I would have worked for if I didn’t read this….
@@saukash6762I love Audible. At the end of the day, authors need their work to be heard/read. Outside of the system, even fewer of them have a chance of winning the “viral lottery”.
I can't get over how similar this system is to the way Spotify treats music artists. Creators are always screwy by the corporation
Spotify is garbage for users as well though.
Unfortunately, most of it's users would rather algorithm recommendations to using a local music app instead.
@@vaalalvescould you recommend some of those alternatives please?
@@asroriadraws When I said local I meant to download the albums you want to listen to, either by legal (bandcamp) or not so legal means (4K RUclips to MP3).
Either way, for pc I recommend Music bee.
For android, usually whatever came by default on your phone should be good (I have an oppo and the music app that came with it is great), otherwise Musicolet (though I haven't used it in a while) should be good.
IOS however, I have no clue, you'll need to find that yourself.
@@asroriadrawsreplying here in case if user vaalalves replies
i think they mean the literal local music app that comes from your phone lmfao@@asroriadraws
As someone who voiced audiobooks on audible before I just have to mention that 200-300 per finished hour is in like the top .01 percent of rates for narrators. In the sea of 1000 or so books asking for narrators you will be lucky to find 1 or 2 offering that. And you would be lucky to find like 50 offering over 20 per finished hour. And the vast majority offers profit sharing. Basically that is to say 90 percent of audiobooks trying to get published don't even expect to make enough money to make spending 20 per finished hour on their 2 or so hour book worth it.
You're using figures of what people are hoping to get on ACX I assume? But that's just where hopeful authors try and get bargain basement narration, and doesn't tell you what the author/narrator actually agreed on in the end does it? Regardless, there's no way that .01 percent and 90 percent are genuine figures I'm afraid because they're round numbers and that just doesn't happen.
$200-$300 per finished hour does seem like what most people I know are paying, and it's not wildly unusual. Yes, that does require the narrator to be an actual actor which is something people often get confused about - they tell you you've got a nice voice and should narrate your own book, then get confused when you try and explain that you're not an actor... :D
With the exception of the late Harlan Ellison, I can't think of any author narrations that aren't disappointing.
@@justinecooper9575 yeah it's a bad idea but people are just being kind when they suggest it to you. The fact is, narrators need to be actors or have that ability. Stephen Fry or Neil Gaiman can do some - but there's a big difference between being good at reading a book aloud, and acting it out.
You'll more often see it with non-fiction where the author is also a public speaker or someone else used to delivering information to an audience verbally.
I kinda doubt that narrators with any kind of reputation are making below minimum wage, especially considering how much professional voice actors are making (often thousands per hour for video games etc). Of course for amateurs and hobbists the rates can go as low as the ground because people are trying to get their feet through the door.
We're mainly discussing indie authors here no? I doubt indie are paying for top actors to narrate their book. OP makes a valid point
As a longtime Audible user, I'd love to see indie services such as Nebula team up with authors and get a line into podcasts and audiobooks.
Was thinking a Nebula style platform was the answer. Something owned by the writers, for the writers, where the authors only give up what it costs to run the service.
They’re having the same issues musicians are having with record companies. The writers need some kind of union/guild or some kind of bookstore extension of the library system to sell books.
We have lots of guilds like the Alliance of Independent Authors and we aren't being screwed nearly as hard as musicians. :) We are also making progress with getting indie books into libraries and a handful of bookshops. Not that there's many of either left. :( It's never been a better time to be an author.
@@jonevansauthor Yes, and there's always self-publishing epubs on your own website via one of the many ecommerce providers.
We listed a really cool Christmas item that we made ourselves on amazon. We sold $1000 worth of product but in the end we were -$300 in profit. Amazon's fees and marcketing costs killed a small shop like ours. We lost a lot of money and they don't care.
If Amazon were as bad as you implied business-side, then they would have been out of business a long time ago.
Your association with them didn’t work out as you wanted, but numerous others did work out.
If yours worked out the ways you wanted, then you would have never complained.
I am sorry your really cool item was not popular and resonant enough to hit profitability at scale. That said, it is absolutely not Amazon’s fault and you are not entitled to either success or a free lunch. They gave you tools to take a chance and it did not pan out in the free market.
You need to be better at pricing items, also for small shop isn´t ebay or etsy a better option, amazon ecommerce makes no money.
Wtf mate
Whats with These answers, wtf ... Humans really reached a Pit. Why Care about each other when we can spend all our Money on fat corporates and Politician who laugh about us stupid af citizens and Fight with is instead ..
I’m pleased to see that someone is challenging Audible. I’ve been vexxed with Audible’s monopolistic behavior for several years. Audible controls the complete audiobook catalog for some popular authors with many books in a series. I discovered that they don’t release all of the titles to other service providers, such as Overdrive, the keep a couple mid-series books restricted, presumably to force fans to join Audible. Furthermore, a membership to Audible includes 3 audiobooks per month. I’d likely zip through 3 books in 4 days (I listen to books while doing projects and gardening). As a result I’m a fan of my local library and Overdrive. Sadly, Audible’s strangle hold is still strong - the cost of audiobooks to libraries frequently means that wait times for new books is months, not weeks. As pointed out in the video the COST of ‘publishing’ an audiobook is virtually nothing, yet audiobooks are priced the same as print books - Audible has successfully grabbed that cost differential as profit. Hopefully Sanderson’s efforts will offer alternatives for other authors caught in Audible-Amazon’s web, and maybe someone will challenge their monopoly in court.
I have tried audible with Kindle and before Kindle and after Kindle also and the overall experience Amazon provided with both of them individually and together was like I didn't want to read book anymore so I stopped both of them and started to read EPUB and MOBI ebooks on my Android phone. Life's good since then.
Amazon has always wrapped themselves with disgusting business practices and prices, from their affiliate program, to AWS, and now audible...it's just Soo disgusting, considering it's coming from one of the biggest companies in the world.
Amazon gives the consumers what they want and at a fair price.
@@dbreardon fair, is relative
@@dbreardongo away Amazon shill
@@roam2rome414 Well, if you find it cheaper elsewhere, that is where you buy it.
Unfortunately, most of the time I can't even find the product I want locally so I go Amazon.
well, they only got where they are now doing this scummy practices, like any other mega corp...
The only real chance is big authors switching over time changing the landscape, or regulators stepping in. Otherwise it's probably an uphill battle, where it'll take a very long time to cut into their market share...
I don't think so. I think the change will happen suddenly as ML based text to speech programs drop the price of generating these audiobooks to practically nothing, and customers can do it for themselves with services where the author gets a cut when it's done. As big as Audible is, it doesn't have all books being published, probably nowhere near it.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade I'm unsure how long it will take people to switch to those services, especially with the network effect forcing authors to stay there, but that's a valid argument for why it could change.
On the other hand Amazon may find a way to make them self irreplaceable again, or we'll just see a new monopoly forming.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade This will be horrible for narrators, who put effort into voicing books, though. That is very much not a good thing. Saying this as an author AND narrator.
@@desastrnarrationsAlso Amazon is well known for using tech to make the human contribution cheaper, harder, and of course worse paid, and they will be all over replacing narrators with AI -they will get there first.
@@SmallSpoonBrigadeI like the idea of small operators being able to make it, but I don't think that machine enhanced or generated voices will be as good or as human.
And humans need jobs and things to do that they love doing and can live doing. Machines don't need that.
I always thought that Audible was treating its customers too good. You could often hear a book completely and then just refund it to get the full price back. This method is really unfair for the authors since shorter books basically generate no revenue through this loophole
It doesn’t work like that, you can only get a certain number of refunds, I know I have around 1,000 books in my library and there are many I have not been able to finish that are just sitting there not listened too.
@@KiwikimNZ My audible days are long gone, but as far as I remember you got a certain amounts of refunds per month, before the flag your account. As long as you stay under that threshold, you will rarely have to pay. Not that Im supporting this behavior, but its possible.
@@KiwikimNZThat’s because they changed their policy after rampant reader abuse that led to authors have to PAY AUDIBLE. Readers would binge listen to a full series and return each book immediately. Authors only receive a % of the list price, but had to refund Audible the FULL list price on returns, putting authors with series, especially romance authors, in the negative. My good friend and fellow author Lisa Kessler is the one who led a rampage about this, god bless her.
Sanderson is a fantasy writing god with a massive fanbase. His kickstarter was so huge because of his reputation. Its like if Christopher Nolan did a kickstarter for his next movie.
Yeah this icks me the Most. People Here saying "Well, why didn't they do this earlier"? The Most majority in this platform are people who probaly still Work beside writing. Only a little percentage really can live Of Off Just writing.
Wonder If this was such a Huge Deal when some unknown (real)Indie author did this uu..
Yeah, this video made it sound like people flocked to the Kickstarter to stick it to Amazon and Audible. In fact, details about how ebooks would be provided for the Kickstarter weren't given until 8 months after the funding was closed. It had nothing to do with people's decision to back or not.
Brandon Sanderson is an amazing human being and amazing writer, wasn't expecting him being mentioned
Most overrated writer in recent memory
@@Hyperion_Darknah easily top 10 of recent decades and he pumps out several books a year unlike Martin and many other authors who go MIA after a few books.
@@Hyperion_DarkYou mean most productive writer
@@ramoraid quality over quantity
@Hyperion_Dark but there comes a point where it doesn't matter how well a book is written if the series never gets finished. And Brando might not have prose like Tolkien, but his worlds are good and in-depth, his characters are complex and his magic systems are very well thought out.
Another good example why competition is important and why monopolies simply do not work. Once a business gains a high enough market share it always uses it to create unfavorable condition that stiffle innovation.
I must confess, I love Royal Roads but I no longer have strength in my eyes to read them. So when they started to pop up on audible, I started buying them like crazy. Over the last two years I've listened to about 120 of them. And I won't be able to buy them, if Audible didn't sell three credits for 11 pounds... I just can't see how anyone would be able to top it, audible's monopoly just too great and it's an absolute win for the end user. Maybe if authors went on strike audible would change something? I'm not sure
Piracy
@@ramoraid I'm from post soviet region, so I grew up with piracy as the only way to get content (before Internet you even needed to pay for the bootleg copies of the game/movie). Now that I had money and tried the comfort of services like steam/audible/netflix, it's just impossible to go back xD
cheap user friendly services like that beat piracy everyday (assuming you have money to afford it)
@@serhii_himselfI can afford it now for sure but I still pirate, except for music. I like having everything in one place.
Royal Roads??? What is that??? Please let me know! Thanks!
@@shadeshiest22it’s a site that some authors use to self publish their work. Think of it as a reading version of tv shows, a new chapter per week kind of thing
Talked to my wife about this, she does not want to switch because she gets a discounted rate on the audio because she buys it for Kindle also. Just another way they make it hard to switch 😢
Your wife is absolutely fine and doing nothing wrong. Those authors are still making money off both the Kindle and Audiobook and they're fine with that. It's not her problem if the cut could be a little more in the author's favour. I use Google because it rapidly became better than all other search, same with Amazon and Audible.
Readers who want to support authors are better served by buying where they want to, and leaving reviews, sharing books on social media and so on. They don't need to punish themselves by buying on a platform they don't like.
I use Audible because other app don't let me download the audiobook on my micro SD card.
@@raychii7361 that's actually a huge benefit, and also a silly feature for software not to support. I realise I haven't had an SD card for a while, but plenty of phones do (and tablets as well). Hard to imagine it's a major software enhancement to enable it.
You should mention that Apple launched an Audible competitor at a higher price and with a larger revenue share for Authors and was sued by the government.
I'm not familar, can you explain more details (which government, sue for what, etc.)?
Most of the reason for monopolies is government protection.
@@Knowbody42I mean they have changed the definition of monopoly in the law multiple times to avoid being questioned about not going after certain companies. This country isn't a free market anymore.
We are witnessing the creation of the business giants that will continously branch out strategically to become essential utilities. (Try surviving without phone service, is an old example. Google has a stranglehold on half the internet moving forward etc)
And even WORSE is that they aren't beholden to government checks and balances, and therefore. Are not beholden to the people. Rather. The govnt is being bullied by these entities, because of the nature of these business being just as relevant across the world as they are in the US. They can exert significant pressure on washington
As lobbying becomes worse. The separation between government and business will blurr even further. Until 50 years from now they are one and the same.
Google IS a world AUTHORITY. not just a company. Infrastructure used by the military is supported by their proprietary technology for God's sake.
@@felixfourcolor My mistake, was actually an ebook competitor to Kindle, but same deal:
Amazon had a monopoly, gave authors basically nothing, Apple launched their ebook app with higher book prices because they negotiated to give authors/publishers a larger share. Apple was sued by the US Gov and lost badly, basically killed the app.
I think this means if an Audible competitor does come out with higher prices for authors/publishers the same thing will likely happen to them.
Correct. Apple was accused of price fixing because they actually collaborated with the publishers in order to give more to the writers but the government demanded a continued race to the bottom.
Consumers need to be more aware of what their dollars are support. Thank you for beinging this to attention. I would encourage anyone with an account to cancel until they compensate all parties evolved properly. Show your appreciation for the service and everyone who makes it possible. Solidarity!
I gave up on Amazon when they wiped out my entire library. No excuses, no fix, nothing. If I can’t trust that I can keep the library I own and bought, it makes no sense buying from them. This is a racket, Capone style, on both ends. For the author and reader.
ive just bought a kindle paperwhite ....its pretty confusing what with audible free trial and kindle unlimited free trial and im worried about buying books and them disappearing into thin air. Surely if youve paid for a book they cant take it back
This is one of those situations where the government need to get involved and the independent authors need to unionise. I feel bad for using audible now 😕
Spotify has the potential to shake this market. They only need to add audibooks they already have people
The government is also a business [it has a president, vice president, department heads, logo [flag/seal], cult song [national anthem], etc], that's why it takes bribes and the likes. It has to please its stakeholders...politicians and its other workers. It provides goods and services. But unlike other businesses where you have to opt in voluntary, the government forces you [by making laws it claims to have power to make, because it said so...ridiculous!!] to buy its product or services, making it a bully and a monopoly never seen upon the face of the Earth.
Imagine if Amazon forced you to buy its products and services, because they think it's for the public good. Why make an exception for the government?
@@derickndossyI got a free subscription for a year to RUclips and I still use Spotify over RUclips music. Even though I think RUclips music would be better. I'm worried that RUclips music is going to be missing a lot of music. Cuz I don't care about the music videos. I go to RUclips if I actually want to see the music video but if I just want to hear that song I got a Spotify. And I would love to have all my audio books on Spotify instead. The only thing I don't like about Spotify is some of my favorite artists left the platform. Obviously as a black person some of them are black and the whole Joe Rogan thing and it was really disappointing. That was really a disappointing. I know that they want to stand behind their beliefs and political stances but I'm like it sweetheart. If it has no impact on your money, why would you hurt your fan base? Who cares If he's a bigot(They will never go away just based on human nature. I'm sure of it ) make your money. What about your fans? 😭
Mmm, Idk about the government... Other than that, I totally agree.
@@jacobgamber5407 Then who gets involved?
As someone who is an aspiring author, you need to also consider one point - majority of authors over estimate their value. In today’s world of hyper clickbait and infinite choices, you would have to be extremely talented to get attention. The most expensive thing for you will be to then be able to reach as many listeners as possible. While the idea of having a large profit % is romantic, the truth is, it only makes sense for big authors. Not just amazon, but all publishing houses actually lose money on most of their authors. Only a few actually become profitable. Therefore, as an indie author, it’s actually better for you to get 10% of a billion user than 100% of 2 listeners. And this only makes sense with such profit splits
Amazon loses nothing on the authors because they basically put in nothing… They already have the infrastructure, which is digital and they don’t even pay for the recording, so yeah. Do you know much cut would be fair from one author? Around like 5-10% max because they don’t produce anything ,no books, no marketing, no nothing. They could get a bigger cut while you are being promoted but that’s it, nothin justifies 60% or 50% or even 40%.
So? That isn't really relevant for audible. For amazon it costs almost nothing to host audiobook in their cloud. And they have invested nothing. So why are you even bringing this up? ;D All they do is provide the platform.
@@naniyotaka what makes you think it costs amazon nothing? How many web hosting services do you know? Google, amazon, and microsoft. If it costs nothing to host products digitally why isnt more people doing it? Secondly, as an indie author, if you try to get your books to be served in different stores, do you even have an idea how much it will cost you? Lets say just into B&N repo? If more than 90% of new authors doesnt sell and actually causes you loss, the only way you stay viable is by making a large profit on the few ones that do sell. And the fact that as an author, you couldnt land a deal with a trad publishing house already shows your work will probably not sell well. For a large company like amazon, the laws of large numbers effect their business in more complicated ways than most people realize. 60% is still a much fare deal for most starting authors given the benefits. Like it or not, the amount of consumers for such content is decreasing by the day, and without the global reach of audible/kindle and amazon’s free credit system, there is very less chance for indie authors to make any earnings.
@@mukkaar it’s crazy how simple people think providing such a big platform and web hosting is. You can answer your own question by asking why audible became a monopoly itself? If it was so easy, Why did the competitors die? Even trad publishers cannot bear the costs for most authors. Anyways, I already mention it in my other comment. You can read it below.
what makes you think it costs amazon nothing? How many web hosting services do you know? Google, amazon, and microsoft. If it costs nothing to host products digitally why isnt more people doing it? Secondly, as an indie author, if you try to get your books to be served in different stores, do you even have an idea how much it will cost you? Lets say just into B&N repo? If more than 90% of new authors doesnt sell and actually causes you loss, the only way you stay viable is by making a large profit on the few ones that do sell. And the fact that as an author, you couldnt land a deal with a trad publishing house already shows your work will probably not sell well. For a large company like amazon, the laws of large numbers effect their business in more complicated ways than most people realize. 60% is still a much fare deal for most starting authors given the benefits. Like it or not, the amount of consumers for such content is decreasing by the day, and without the global reach of audible/kindle and amazon’s free credit system, there is very less chance for indie authors to make any earnings.
@@OCD.Readeraudible stores the audio files for a book. This isn't very much data. Realize that RUclips stores, audio and video for hundreds of millions of contributors. They are able to do it very profitably. The notion that data storage for audiobooks is expensive is silly. The data rate for one time downloadings of audio books is pathetically small for Audible. I'm sure it's much less than a fraction of 1% compared to RUclips. And Audible gets $10 or more, each.
I was thinking of publishing my book through Audible. I'm a self-publisher, so given this information it might take a while before I consider doing that.
Please, please, please get your information form the indie community, not here. Joanna Penn or Self Publishing Show and ALLI as well as groups like 20 Books are where you should get info because you'll get a better idea of what's going on. Not that this video is straight up awful.
Generally speaking, don't get in bed with Amazon, they have a long history of screwing the people that buy from them and the people that sell on their sites. Definitely do your research and figure out what is in your best interest, but please consider selling the book through as many different stores as possible. Ultimately, that's the only way that this will ever improve.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade that's actually terrible advice if you want to make a living though. Sorry, but going wide is not for people who are just starting out. It's the equivalent of deciding to take up jogging and starting with a marathon instead of a 5K in the local park. Except that at the end of the marathon you die of a heart attack, and the 5K has a cash prize for everyone who completes it.
@@jonevansauthor I'm not really THAT interested in publishing audio versions of my books, that's why I haven't researched it yet, but I see a lot of people saying it makes a good % of their total sales. That's the only reason I was considering it, really. I think that would work better if my books were nonfiction, but they're not, but I understand why some people would still rather listen to fiction.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade It only happens if you're breaking the rules. From what I'm understanding you can still sell on other sites while selling on Amazon so I don't think it's a big issue, but then again I only have a single book so far. Unless you are specifically talking about audiobooks, then I guess you may be right. Never tried that.
Maaan this devastatingly sucks, because I love audible, it got me back into reading, I can listen to a book over and over and sometimes a chapter as a bedtime story.
As someone who lived most of his life without a buck to my name let me tell you that the moment AI voice mimics get really good and accessible I'm listening to every pirated pdf file I get in Morgan Freeman's voice forever.
Lmaooooooooo
You don't lose your books if you stop paying your subscription though, fortunately. So it shouldn't be too difficult to jump ship when a competitor appears.
@@Erowens98 that's true, but as soon as this feature becomes a disadvantage it will disappear
@@yanasto lol no you misunderstood,.. or well I could've addressed my 2 points better.
My first point is that I feel for the unfair deal the authors are getting.
My second point is that I stand by mainstream content piracy regardless, people who have the money and the systems to pay and people who need piracy are 2 completely different people.
As long as there are people who monetize knowledge, there should be people who share it for free
One day I'll be a paying customer, but that doesn't mean that I feel a speck of guilt over pirating, because piracy is one of the ways the world balances itself out.
Audible is so crucial to my work life, it’s basically a “from my cold dead hands” situation at this point.
Use the local library.
The authors don’t make any money when we do.
just go to your public library to request a book.
yea
Sadly not every country has good libraries, so they have to buy it themselves or resorts to piracy because it's either too expensive or you just can't buy it anywhere
@@dputrayou don't have to pirate, you can just live without luxury products. You'll be fine if you don't consume every luxury product in existence
@@bunnywar you need to finish your thesis 🤷
So you go from an author getting a 40% cut to nothing
I think if Spotify would have significant chance of capturing big portion of the market. I would definitely like for some smaller company to do this, but realistically many people already have spotify, so it wouldn't be too hard to convert them to listening audibooks in the app too. On other hand smaller company would be fighting crazy uphill for service where you can't really innovate that much, as it's just streaming audio. Meaning they wouldn't really have that many ways to compete.
That's a good idea. I already listen to podcasts on Spotify.
Spotify doesn't pay artists fairly. The problem would be similar.
Spotify does nothing but drop the bag. They could compete in audiobooks. They could compete in video. 🥲
Unless you are the joe rogan of book you are f*cked🤣🤣,they aren´t not even profitable yet
Yeah it would be best if someone like Tidal did it as they have a better pay structure
good to see Sanderson stand up for smaller writers
he's been my favourite author ever since I read the first mistborn and alcatraz books as a kid of about 10y, he heavily influenced my own writing and now he might even clear the way to reasonably publish it as an Audiobook, if I ever manage to finish, record and publish what I'm writing, gotta love and respect this man's work
Audible is about selling mass numbers at a cheaper price. I get they have an exorbitant fee for authors, but just like Apple with their App Store or Google with the Play Store they also bring in millions of potential customers. Either use audible as a stepping stone to get eyes and ears on your work, then branch off, or get together and create your own platform with other authors/publishers. I personally think audible has been a great consumer experience especially the monthly subscription service. It keeps prices low for consumers and I’ve found TONS of books that I wouldn’t have otherwise read/listened to. I’ve even listened to a few and turned around and bought the same book as a gift for other people.
If I was an author and had an audiobook, I would have given the voice actors involved in the audiobook a percentage cut for their work. A lot of the books I listen to are dependent on whether or not I like the voice of the voice actor. I don't want to listen to a 16 hour book or 40+ hour series of books read by someone with an unpleasant voice to listen to.
I love Sandersons books and are literally the reason I have an audible account. So I don’t really know how to feel here. I do the majority of my “reading” through audiobooks, so I really want to hear his books instead of reading them. Especially because I think the narrators for his audible audiobooks are so great
I love that I got a Audible add in the middle of a Audible roast 😂
Class action will destroy them. And that is exactly what we need. The law firms that will handle these lawsuits will become extremely extremely wealthy
I really dont get youtube sponsorships. Like sure its great for the creator but I never trust a youtube sponsor, take raycon or the ridge wallet as an example of low quality or money going to a sketchy entity.
So either it works and Im just out of the loop, or theyre just stupid
It’s an open secret
It depends on the sponsor, for example businesses services are used, I even signed up to Zoho with one sponsor referral link because is something I was going to do anyway so better to at least use one referral link so it's cheaper
@user-vo9wd6tx6c While I agree with you I actually put in ridge cus I heard they had sketchy owners who owned some not so good companies.
@user-vo9wd6tx6c in the ads, it shows they hold cash via a clip
@user-vo9wd6tx6c lmao exactly ny though 😂
Well how else can Audible afford to sponsor seemingly every RUclips creator to ever exist?
Yeah, authors loose money so Audible can pay RUclips creators to convince their viewers to subscribe to audible and listen to their audiobooks.
Apparently, not me
I recently to realize this issue with Audible. I think, from the consumer side, the problem is bigger than 'its what I've always used' . The platform, especially the app has continually improved to the point any things less is painful to use. This needs to be address before even considering the idea of rebuying 100;s of books purchased over a decade to another platform. For those willing to self manage not a biggie, but that's a fraction of a percent of people.
This does not have to mean all or nothing. Would it be ideal, ethically speaking, to repurchase the 100 books. Sure, but we can start by not buying any more books from them. It doesn't have to be that hard.
I understand, that it is convenient, staying with them, but doing the right thing isnt always the easiest option. But it is not as hard as you make it sound like.. and to me.. that sounds like making excuses to not change anything in the future.
I find it fascinating that even when the subject is audiobooks there is no mention of Scribd.
I've used it for about 5 years. It's actually an unlimited-listen library of of books and audiobooks
Yeah, but you need a paid membership, right?
@@jacobgamber5407 , yes. Basically a Spotify for books and audiobooks. Much better than audible or Kindle subscriptions
Libby is free if your local library has the service. Way way better than a cost based app that constantly monetizing the process.
As someone who's hard of hearing (hang on, keep reading lol), I was actually impressed with amazon/audible at one point in their life. They actually attempted to create a captioning service for their audiobooks! This was fantastic for a couple reasons 1) Not all books on audible have a text version 2) that could have created pressure on other audiobook companies (cough cough Big Finish my major arch-nemesis') to also supply either transcripts or captioning too.
Unfortunately trad pub absolutely went insane over this, though they had to go as far as to sue for amazon to finally cut the service so tbh some respect there for amazon.
The fact they even thought of the idea though and actually implemented it until they got sued to hell for it (which, literally the only choice they had was to remove it as the contract is pretty explicit) is admirable. It's just a major shame that didn't work and the industry pushes to be more and more Deaf/HoH unfriendly.
They got sued because captioning an audiobook interferes with the author’s copyright. I don’t know if you’re aware, but I get paid different percentages based on the format my books are purchased in, and captioning an audiobook decreases my income. Now, if Amazon wanted to front the cost of my royalties in audiobook and (functionally) ebook form, go for it. But they didn’t want to do that. Of course, me getting my royalties also means my publisher getting theirs, and that’s why they were sued.
@@TheRonnieaj I'm fully aware of what happened.
getting an ad for Audible right at the start of this video is really the end state of Capitalism
This is so bad. I love audiobooks, and it breaks my heart to see authors and voice actors be forced into crappy deals. There needs to be a large union of audio book creators with the majority of authors and voice actors joining, and forcing amazon's hand with strike action; if such a big strike would happen, I'd be happy (well, not happy, but I would do it) to suspend my audible account for the duration of the strike, and if the situation and fight was made well known to audible users, I think many others would do the same.
This is why after i finish a book on audible i will go and buy a physical copy of their book.
Brandon Sanderson is an absolute living legend and I'd support him 100% hands down
As somebody with vision impairment I used to enjoy audiobooks but they are harder and harder to find formats that are other than Audible in fact I used to do a lot of my audiobook listening here on RUclips but with the plague of copyright strikes it's very hard to find even older books that are still on the platform
Great informative video, I had no idea about Sanderson. I cancelled my membership to Audible earlier this month before I saw this video. I have 300+ books that I haven't listened to yet and there's just no reason to keep the subscription any longer. Their "daily deals" e-mails have been rubbing me the wrong way for a while. I hope the authors can get a better platform. I don't much like Spotify either.
I think that even Spotify is going in the same way by giving harsh terms to new budding artists.
Yea, capitalism lol
@@BeautifulEarthJa We need to bootlick these "risk taking" billionaires. How would these stupid so called "authors" survive without these billionaires?
I heard Spotify situation is even worse. It takes like a thousand listens to earn a cent off a track it’s insane
@@monhi64use tidal instead if you can, they pay more for artists. unfortunately not all users have the money to use other platforms :(
I am proud to say I haven’t bought a book on audible but rather made lots of accounts for my free trial books. Anything to take away from a corporation
Hahaha
Aren't just taking away money from the author by doing that ?
@@southcoastinventors6583 audible probably still has to pay the authors for free trial plays
@@southcoastinventors6583 Yep.
based on this video, you're not taking from the corporation; you're taking from the authors.
support your local libraries !! audible is so expensive. i want to use their program but i can’t really afford to have an extra $10 a month be dedicated to a service where i can’t even read the specific books that I want to read. I’m going to the library !! straight up !!
Sadly, Spotify's audiobooks are not available outside the US...
And speechify is a really weird deal.
...halfway through this video i got an audible ad 😂
😂
So many audiobooks for free on RUclips
Shhhh.... Ya'll can't keep gems bruh
@@olayinka-ajibsjoshua5776 🤣 yeah, yo, keep it on da downlow bro ffs
As an Author "Tim B Wolfe "A Siren's Call" and "Passion In Life" this is horrible for all authors. I can't even AFFORD Audible. It costs minimum of $5k to GET a voice reader on TOP of launching your books for 12K. I do it as a passion and have NEVER made profit for my books. Still, the COMMENTS and critiques fuel my happiness, but if I COULD see some break even or profit, that would INSPIRE me so much more.
The Marketing of SMALL AUTHORS needs to be BETTER. This guy has a chronicle of books and was already WELL-KNOWN. It hurts to be a smaller author
Thank you for bringing this to attention. I only use my free credits to purchase my audio books, but had no idea the authors made so little off the deal.
I got to read books on audible and they just didnt paid me because the book had no sales during the first week after i recorded but they toke 2 months to publish it
I got punished for not selling an unpublished audiobook
Just so you guys know. If you have a library card you can rent audio books on your phone. Only issue is sometimes the wait times are long but totally worth it since you already paid for it with your tax dollars
I didn't know this about audible, thanks for sharing. I did the audible thing from 2008-2012, still have the books I purchased but haven't listened to them years. My library was just from Tolkien and King, and I know for a fact King was super rich before audible. Loved when he voiced his own books, or when the actress that played Carrie was the one to voice the book. Anyway thanks for this. I won't be getting into more books from audible then.
.
Thanks for this. If you can, I would love a deeper dive into amazons/audibles dealings with libraries. I’ve noticed that some books/authors that have published through audible don’t show up as options for my digital library until sometimes years later. Like say books 1-3 were published elsewhere and are available for digital checkout, but book 4 (published by audible) is not even listed. I have absolutely no proof and my cursory google search got me nowhere. I just have a pattern and a bad feeling.
it's very sad. we should all boycott monopolies.
We should Start to boycott every big Company for just 2 months.
I agree...but the unfortunate truth is most people who call for change are not ready to do what is necessary for that change. Specially when its not immediately life or lifestyle threatening.
Maybe congress should just implement stricter anti-trust laws
Relying on people to do the right thing is fanciful. History has proven time and time again that the most effective way to make things happen is through regulation.
Not a monopoly
I don't read much, so thankfully I don't deal with this. If I get a book, 100% of the time it's physical, not digital.
This channel is so underrated!
Should have millions of subscribers!
Simple and straight to the point with facts.
We need a kickstarter to create nonprofit distribution company. The people pay to start it, the artist, musicians, writers and filmmakers get their due share and the fans get quality.
Thanks, huge audio book fan and thusy an Audible customer - knowing this means I will look to speechify for my next book
My main concern is, if you love audiobooks; you must love the voice over actors that bring it to life! And speechify is the “leader” in AI generated voices which is actively putting voice over artists out of work
Moral of the story. If you truly support and author, then buy their book and read it yourself. And stop listening to books. Itd be smart for authors to record and sell their own audio books if they must provide that form of content
Yeah, who cares about professional voice actors, people with eye problems, children, etc, anyway.
I am not saying support Audible, but this comment is ridiculous.
@@lkm2287 As both an author and narrator, agreed wholeheartedly.
My grand parents used to own bookstore back in the day. They take 20% commission and I thought that was a lot at that time. And now Barnes and Noble are taking 50% - at least they have a bldg, tables, chairs, restrooms, coffee shops- and Amazon with only cloud storage take 60% what’s left of the authors? Man Bezos is so greedy.
I was an Audible subscriber for almost 10 years, and felt locked in due to their credit system. I bought about twice as many audiobooks than I intended just not to waste credits.
I since ripped them all from Audible so that I have all audiobooks I bought from all stores on my own storage and all in the asme place.
I cannot stand audiobooks. I read at my own pace, and audiobooks are extremely slow and usually paced with a rhythm incompatible with their content.
All in all, you made an excellent video, Harry; thank you for all your details in the explanation.
Greetings,
Anthony
I can listen to audiobooks while commuting or walking to the convenience store. It helps me do something useful when there is nothing else I can do. As for pace, I usually listen to them at 2x or 3x speed (depending on the book).
Look into full cast audiobooks with sound and music. They are vastly more expensive but much better.
This is why we need competition
The irony that Sandersons and literally everyone else is missing is that a traditional publishing deal will yield you an even smaller percentage. Most new authors, or authors not as big as Sanderson, might get a few grand as an an advance. THEN you only start earning royalties once your ADVANCE has been paid back to the publisher at a rate of maybe 10% of each sale. After that, you continue to get about 10% of each sale.
Tell me again how 40% is less than 10%?
Were people backing Sanderson Kickstarted really doing it to "back his stand against Amazon's monopoly"? I backed it up because I like his books, I didn't even know he was going against Amazon.
Jacksfilms' Audible sponsorships days were the best tho
Wow, yet theirs people out there reading books on their own time, allowing access to anyone for free!
Cancelling subscription is difficult too. I had to change my card in the end
A few months ago, all of my books disappeared even after they were downloaded. “This title is no longer available on the plus catalog.” So for a month I didn’t get to listen to any of the 25+ titles I had. I got pop ups asking to re sign up. Never did. Then suddenly they reappeared. “You get to keep the books you purchase” I guess. This happened after Amazon posted a big loss earlier this year. Suspicious. It seems like they were trying to violate their own terms of service.
Brandon Sanderson not publishing on audible hurts. I understand why, but god damn, i love his books and the narrators on audible do his books justice.
His narrators are all in-house and work with him directly, so no matter where you buy his audiobooks (currently Spotify seems best) you'll get the same quality and people.
@@lachlankidd6517Kramer and Reading are independent of Audible, but they're not in house to Sanderson. They're a separate thing that are contracted by Sanderson for most of his books.
While I cannot say that this is surprising, it seems that audio books are a secondary income stream to printed books. I would not expect the publishing house to be much better.
Tertiary income stream after printed books and ebooks.
Musicians would kill for that kind of cut from a record label, let alone a streaming service!
Somebody NEEDS to talk about this.. Wikipedia has run constant ads begging for donations when it's been sitting on over $300 million in excess funds.
They do this every few months, guilt tripping their reader, and I've been suckered for the LAST time.
What THE HELL is going on?! The top staffers make between $100-400k EVERY YEAR. I love the site, but something is off here.
Please upvote so it gets seen.
Capitalism allows the most corrupt people to get into power
I absolutely hate Amazon and the way they work.
But what I hate more are authors who claim "they have no choice" but to sign up.
The same with musicians and spotify.
There is every choice.
For everybody that agrees to their greedy terms, they get bigger and stronger.
If authors refused to put their work on the platform, it would lose is strength.
People would turn to other platforms to get what they wanted.
But its an easy way to make money. Which is why they do it, yet complain they "deserve more".
Put the time and effort in to try and make money elsewhere, then realise how "Easy" it is on these private platforms compared to actually putting effort into marketing your audiobook.
Its like people in very well paid jobs saying "they dont get paid enough" yet refuse to leave.
Go out and get a minimum wage job for 45 hours a week and see what "not being paid enough" really means for hard work.
I know which option people will stick with.
Audible hopes you enjoyed the trash-talk video!
Hahaha
The price of audiobook production is usually discussed in Per Finished Hour (PFH). If I, as an author, approach a voice actor to produce my audiobook at $200 PFH, they would handle all production and mixing costs. I receive a completed, professional product for that price. This is standard enough that anyone who has gone through the process would know. There are little errors like this sprinkled throughout this video. While the video's overall point is accurate and important, a lot of the details are inaccurate. I would not reference this video as an accurate explanation of this issue.
Napster was bad because it took money away from creators. Now, streaming services take money away from creators and consumers. Somehow one of those models is legal.
very good insights. i had never heard of this author, or these malpractices by audible, but it makes sense with the evidence you've provided, and the fact that capitalism is purely about taking as much as possible, from anyone, above all.
Profit uber alles.smh, more wankrs again.
it makes one wonder if the individual people who work at these places think that what they're doing is right. to those mofo's - it's not just a job, you don't have to follow orders, you be like schindler.
thanks Hari and crew. you're investigations and insights are so needed in this crazy world
btw, I'm defo gonna check out Brandon Sanderson's books now.
Thank you for telling us. SHAMEFUL.
I think you missed 2 major points. The first one is I have over 1500 books in audible and there's no way I'm leaving those behind. Somebody would have to pass a law that gives me ownership of the books I've paid for and so that I can take them with me if I went to another store before I ever thought about leaving audible. The second problem is the price. I'm not spending $20 or $30 for audiobook. I just can't afford that. Audible offers me 2 audiobook for $24.61 or $12.31 each a month and I can buy extra credits to buy another 3 audiobooks for $37 or $12.33 each whatever I want.
The craziest thing is i got an audible ad in the middle of this video. I thought it was part of the video til I noticed it gave me a skip ad option.
this just makes me like brandon sanderson even more
It's an interesting video. However, I don't believe it's appropriate to label Audible as a monopoly. If it were a monopoly, authors would have few other options for selling audiobooks aside from Audible. But the reality is quite the opposite. Authors have numerous alternatives. They can not only turn to Audible's competitors, but they also have the option to host their audiobooks on their own websites and charge for downloads - an option that's viable for nearly everyone.
At the end of the day, the reason Audible can command such high prices is simply because it tends to offer the best deal for most authors. Sure, the deal could be better, but given the current alternatives, it's the best option available to many authors.
It's also inappropriate to describe the authors as being ripped off, since nobody was deceived or had anything happen against their will, but the dude loves his outrage language, and most viewers do too.
Bro I got an audiobook ad on this video. RUclips, you got the spirit but…. You missed a big part of this videos title
I decided to close my Amazon account. I was warned that I would lose my data. I thought that was name, address, credit card. Nope. It meant all 33 Kindle books and 199 Audible books. Even if you buy digital content it is never yours to keep.
this actually just confirms what a tiny part of my mind was screaming at me everytime I used audible. time to come clean and leave this platform...
Authors need to form a union.
hahaha no
No it's audio engineers, Voice actors and other staff that need to unionize authors need to push for better deals.
@@ramoraid authors do not have the power to push back against Audible. Voiceover could use a union. But Sound Engineers have saturated the market.
Very interesting I come across and subscribed because it’s inside information, well done
How much do author's get when we use Audible Credits? I know I rarely buy a full priced book off Audible. I mostly use credits and buy the sales.
It's really hard to switch when all the audiobooks you own are on Audible.
I ALMOST subscribed to audible. Thank you for this video.
Been tracking Sandersons Kickstarter since the beginning and I'm sure almost everyone is going to read his books who backed it. Great fan base. Also, the audible thing came out after the Kickstarter was over as far as I'm aware. I don't think anyone backed the Kickstarter to protest audible.
I like getting audio books from my local library but unfortunately, they have a max check-out length of 21 days. You can renew the book but only if nobody is waiting and there is ALWAYS someone waiting for a popular book, author or series. 21 days is fine for a lot of books but a Sanderson, Anne Rice or George RR Martin book can easily go 40-50 hrs. So, I end up getting the longer stuff from Audible and the shorter stuff from my local library.
The fact that there is an audible ad at the begin of this video is the best.