Audible New Payment Scheme

I don’t think their mommas raised them right.

Audible execs have decided to initiate a new payment scheme for authors (and publishers and narrators on royalty share) and it stinks.

I honestly don’t understand how they think this makes sense or is fair. I’m not in conversation with Audible myself, however, so I’m going off of what others are telling me, but I have no reason not to trust the information I’ve been given.

Experts such as Robin Sullivan, Brian Greene, and John Hartness are my main sources of information, and I’ll link to their posts at the bottom.

Two Models

The first model is one in which you pay a monthly fee and get access to a whole library of work for no additional fee. I have such an arrangement with Everand. The company paid me a flat fee up front and now anyone on their platform who pays their membership fee can listen to my novels. I’ve done very well there. They paid me fair and square and the books have been successful, as measured by the ratings given to the first three novels, which are the ones that are up there now.

In Audible, this model is called Audible Plus. Keep in mind that the Audible Plus catalogue is fantastic. Lots of things in there. Big authors like Mel Robbins. I listened to her her book “Let them,” through this plan. Also things in the public domain such as Treasure Island. And Audible Originals which include things like big romantasy authors and big thriller authors.

The second model is where you pay a monthly fee and you get access to that whole library PLUS a whole bunch of other books from authors like me that you can buy with a credit. In Audible this is called Audible Premium Plus. You get a credit a month or maybe twelve or twenty-four at the beginning of the year. There’s multiple plans. You can also purchase additional credits if you want.

What’s Happening Now in Audible’s New Payment Scheme

If you pay for the more expansive, and expensive program, you pay about $15 a month and you get the whole Plus library with the additional credit. Let’s pretend you use that credit to buy one of my books. (THANKS!)

Now, as you would expect, a piece of whatever that credit is worth (which is unclear to me) goes to pay my publisher, me, and my narrator with whom I have a royalty share.

Great. Fine.

Until now.

Pretend you buy my book with that one credit, AND, in the same month, you also listen to two things in the Plus catalogue, which are ostensibly free. What Audible is now doing is siphoning off a tiny bit of the credit value to pay for the two things you listened to in the Plus catalogue.

Which directly cuts into how much the creative side of that first book gets paid. I get less. You spent your credit on my book and I’m assuming you want that royalty portion of the money to go to me and the narrator and the publisher. But less and less is actually going to reach us, because they are siphoning off a little bit at a time for every Plus book you consume in the same month.

It is confusing so I’ve done a video about this as well.