Audible has announced its plan to introduce a new royalty system for authors at this week’s London Book Fair. The changes include a higher base rate in royalties, and the introduction of a transparent payment system for purchases made with credits.
Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson has been in discussions with the audiobook company since last year, voicing his concerns about the “opacity of reporting to authors about audio sales.” He highlighted issues with the Amazon-owned company’s practice of paying authors as little as 25% of sales, contrasting this with the 70% to 80% received by video game creators. Consequently, Sanderson paused the release of four projects.
Sanderson explained his significant involvement in the negotiations in a blog post on his site. In early March, three senior Audible executives presented him and several others with the new royalty structure intended for independent writers and smaller publishers. This structure will pay royalties monthly instead of quarterly and includes a detailed spreadsheet showing the distribution of earnings to authors.
“This doesn’t mean it’s going to be perfect, and people smarter than me might still find problems that I didn’t. However, I think everyone is going to agree the new system IS better.”
Brandon Sanderson
Sanderson remarked, “This new structure doesn’t give everything I’ve wanted, and there is still work to do, but it is encouraging.” He noted that certain issues, such as the exact royalty percentages, still require attention, pointing out that the rates have not yet reached the desired 70% base rate. At the same time, Audible intends to keep offering the best royalty rates to authors exclusive to their platform, whilst not allowing authors to have control over their work’s pricing.
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Lee Jarit, the head of ACX and North America publisher partnerships at Audible, stated at the London Book Fair, “This is something Audible has been working on for a long time.” He explained that the model had evolved from ongoing discussions with authors and publishers.
With over 850,000 titles, Audible dominates the US audiobook market, holding more than 63.4% market share and generating $1.01 billion from audiobook sales and subscription services, according to WordsRated.