Audible and ACX’s message to indie authors – F*#@ off!
That’s my summation of conversations I’ve had with Nicole Op Den Bosch, Associate, Content Acquisition, Business Development and Jennifer Bassuk, Senior Director, Content Acquisition and Business Development for the company. I spoke with Nicole via telephone Thursday morning, and then with her and Jennifer Monday morning. All after recommending hundreds of indie authors explore ACX as a possible revenue source for their independently produced audio books.
Even though the ACX website clearly states they offer non-exclusive terms and are actively seeking authors who narrate their own books, Nicole painted a different picture of the “intent” of ACX. She stated that they never really wanted indie authors, and instead only wanted the top few hundred titles from big publishing houses that weren’t already available as audio books. So much for this nugget also found on their website:
“The result: More audiobooks will be made.
Too many authors have been left out of the quickly growing and culturally repositioned digital audio market. Until now.”
But not, it turns out, if you’re an indie author who’s taken the route of offering up a free podcast version of your work. You, my friend, can take a flying leap as far as ACX is concerned. You are not welcome in ACX’s playground.
Someone look up the definition of “exclusive”. I am not sure that word means what ACX thinks it means.
According to Nicole, Audible members get their panties in a wad when they find a free version of the audio book they were overcharged for. On the surface, I can understand that. Audible’s terribly outdated “book of the month club” model doesn’t make it easy to enjoy more than one title each month, and their prices beyond that are notoriously high. So if I found a more-friendly alternative, I’d be a little pissed, too.
But that’s where Nicole’s argument breaks down. You see, the parent company of ACX and Audible is Amazon.com. And Amazon.com happily shows multiple formats of books at different price points side-by-side. Here’s a shot of Scott Sigler’s Infected:
Multiple formats & multiple prices on Amazon.com
Ebooks, hard cover, paper back, audio books… and even from other retailers and individuals. I count 12 different price points, ranging from eighty-one cents to about thirty-five bucks. That’s a healthy delta. In fact, it’s such a delta that I asked Nicole a point blank question: If we sold the podcast version for a penny, would ACX have a problem with that?
You can imagine how stunned I was when she said something along the lines of “No, that would be OK.”
So there you have it, overcharged Audible member; Audible thinks that you are so stupid as to not be able to tell the difference between a penny and thirty-five dollars. Do you also think that as long as you still have checks in your checkbook, that you have money in your account?
I tried to explain to Nicole (who, in fairness, seemed to understand what I was saying), that a free podcast version is very different than a fee-based downloadable audio book version. The former takes many many clicks to listen to. It takes listening to repetitive intros and outros. It requires patience to listen to some chatter from an author about a convention they attended three years ago or a now-defunct contest you can’t enter. And it requires exposures to commercials and special offers.
Contrast that with a one-click download for a complete and self-contained audiobook, where the only thing heard is the contents of the audio book itself! Sounds like a convenience some (though obviously not all) people will pay for, yes?
But not on ACX, it seems. Because even armed with that information — I like to call it logic — Nicole stuck to policy. She even admitted to hearing from a handful of authors from Podiobooks.com who tried to explain the difference.
Some of what I said got through, and Nicole tossed the ball higher up the food chain to Jennifer, whom I just got off the call with. Not surprisingly, there wasn’t any substantive change in the official ACX position. Jennifer doesn’t see how multiple price points for ebooks are relevant for audio books (“An ebook is just a photocopy of a book in a different format,” she said. No, not kidding.) and doesn’t understand how free and for-fee play together (“I don’t get what authors get from giving away free content“.)
It’s hard to argue someone away from that position. So I stopped trying.
The only slightly positive takeaway from the call with Jennifer was her comment that ACX does have plans to let authors who have already created audio version in their sand box in the near(?) future. But not if that author gives a different audio version away for free. Even for authors who don’t want to play in the free-space, they run the risk of having their content taken down if the alternate audio version is priced too low. So if you were thinking of selling your podcasted version for $0.99, think again.
Jennifer would like to keep the conversation going. I’m OK with that. As much as I’d like to ignore ACX and Audible — I can’t. They remain the near-monopoly in the space. I stand behind Cory Doctorow’s concept of giving people every possible chance to buy an author’s work, and that means getting books on every possible marketplace. (Side note: When I brought up Cory, Jennifer said something along the lines of “Yeah, we’ve talked to him. We won’t put his books up on Audible.“)
Many authors are wondering what they can do to turn the tide in their favor. Here’s one option: Call Nicole. Her office line is 973-820-0400. Tell her you are a rights holder who’d like to take advantage of ACX, but you’re not willing to burn the bridges you’ve established with your audience. Try (perhaps in vain) to tell her that a free podcast version isn’t all that competitive with a downloadable fee-based audio book. Tell her that authors like Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi provide .pdf versions of their books for free and still manage to sell tens (or hundreds) of thousands of their books in print and ebook form for their publishers. Tell her how hard you’ve worked to build your platform, and would like to give that platform one more chance to purchase a fee-based product. And that you’re willing to do the work to make the best possible product for sale.
In the mean time, there are other distribution outlets. If ACX won’t play, there are other market places who will. And who will pay a better royalty. Authors on Podiobooks.com have been extremely good about building their own audience without a powerhouse behind them. I think we can do it again. I recommend BackMyBook.com as an alternative. If you’re interested, reach out to Tay (tay@backmybook.com). He’s got a great model that gives you more than 80% of sales — and you set the sale price. We’ll work to fully integrate with them to make a seamless experience for those who want to pay you for your work.
And maybe, just maybe, ACX will change their minds and open up to the indie author who knows the power of using free to bolster for-fee. Here’s to hoping.
January 23rd, 2012 at 10:14 am
[...] jQuery("#errors*").hide(); window.location= data.themeInternalUrl; } }); } http://www.podiobooks.com – Today, 12:14 [...]
January 23rd, 2012 at 11:27 am
I posted my two cents on this issue:
http://scottsigler.com/blog/audible-doesn-t-want-indie-authors-too-bad-for-them
January 23rd, 2012 at 11:32 am
Dang! We’re having some site issues. The link is down for now, will be back up in a bit.
January 23rd, 2012 at 11:56 am
I’d say ACX is not worth our efforts. They’re starting up with an already failed business model. Let publishing Darwinism do its thing to them, and those of us interested in releasing fiction on audio can focus on that, instead of “how can we minimize our catalog while maximizing our profits?”
January 23rd, 2012 at 12:01 pm
[...] Podiobooker » Blog Archive » Audible and ACX’s message to indie authors – F*#@ off! [...]
January 23rd, 2012 at 1:25 pm
As someone who gets the free version of the book whenever possible, I have to say that when I have the $$ to purchase a copy from Amazon or another main distributor, I do it, because I LIKE to support the authors I like! If Audible can’t understand that, then authors and readers will find other venues.
As for Podiobooks.com, I’ve been listening since the first book went up. You’re providing an invaluable service to bring new authors to us, and we love it!
January 23rd, 2012 at 2:03 pm
The stupidity is even worse than what you’ve outlined. Are they going to disallow every book in Amazon ‘s KDP Select? It’s a safe bet that most of them will be free at least five days out of every 90. How about authors who offer free promotions from time to time via price matching? How about traditional publishers who offer those free promotions around holidays, some of which are for books that have audio versions?
If their answer is that they reject all these books too, then they’re at least consistent. If not, then why are they including them? Because they’re not free all the time? That seems totally impossible to police.
January 23rd, 2012 at 3:21 pm
James Patrick Kelly with StoryPod already took care of this a few years ago. He negotiated to have his existing Free Reads left available, but he did new intros and outros and republished it all as part of StoryPod for sale through Audible. Either that was an abysmal failure or they just forgot about it.
It would be interesting to know how that experiment went to further the discussion.
January 23rd, 2012 at 3:49 pm
There’s lots of existing books they’ve forgotten about, Jay. And policing is something I think they’ve yet to consider, Edward. Far easier to set and quote a policy without considering how it would be enforced. Or even if it’s worthwhile. Which in this case, it isn’t.
Thanks for your support, Anemone. And for purchasing what you can, when you can.
I largely agree with your assessment, Steven. ACX certainly doesn’t work in current form. If (when?) they change their model, perhaps it’s worth revisiting.
January 23rd, 2012 at 4:32 pm
Thanks for trying to get us in there, Evo! It’d be nice to be in Audible (and have the audio formats listed on Amazon’s site), but I wouldn’t take down the free podiobook in order to do that. People build a fan base with free stuff. Don’t these people read Seth Godin?
January 24th, 2012 at 12:33 pm
I’m a long time Podiobooks member and an long time Audible customer (and an even longer time audiobook consumer) and I find this really disappointing as far as ACX goes. I hope they seriously rethink this, because I have money they can have. There are a number of titles I’d much rather pay money (or credits) for than get for free. To me, the convenience of the format outweighs the cost.
I do feel the need to point out that this is incorrect:
They have plans that have so many credits a month, or a year, and those credits can be used for almost any books they have (once in a while a new book costs two credits for a period of time). After that you get seriously discounted prices on the rest of their catalog. I do the 24-credits at once plan. The credits end up costing me about $9.50 each.
Let’s use “Infected” by Scott Sigler as an example.
List price on CD: $34.95
List price for Audible Version: $31.93
Member price for Audible Version: $22.35
Cost if I use a credit: $9.50
Now often the member price is less that $9.50, so I don’t use a credit, I pay for the book. I’ve bought over 340 titles from Audible for less that $10 a piece. When I was buying books on tape and CD they cost me $30-$80.
January 24th, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Just read through all of this both on the Sigler site and Podiobooks … and Nathan Lowell’s comment above … I’m with all of them: This is stupid on Amazon / Audible’s part. The problem is there is not a viable threat to them. I disagree that selection width makes them unassailable: 600 podiobooks that exists here and not there makes us a decent niche. I am tempted to wonder whether a niche alternative to Audible could not be credible … I would think Apple would cheer such an effort, since Amazon and Apple are increasingly becoming enemies … hmm.
In any event: I was going to put ARMAND PTOLEMY up on Audible when I’d finished with it on Podiobooks; now there just ain’t no way. That and MAX QUICK stay on Podiobooks only!!!
February 2nd, 2012 at 7:28 am
Who Uses Audible or Amazon?
i cancelled my audible account when amazon (who own audible) closed down wikileaks (whose site they were hosting).
i have since bought only from non-amazon companies. (always check first as they have bought many other names).
avoid amazon.
bg
February 2nd, 2012 at 7:47 pm
[...] themselves as an option for independents and small presses, but recently have made it clear that they are not willing to work with any novel which is available as a podcast for free. (See also, Scott Sigler’s take on [...]
March 5th, 2012 at 11:10 am
I thought that podiobooks was a place where authors could get feedback and perfect their work FOR publishing. I let my account at audible go and was thrilled to find podiobooks. I spend 2 hours everyday in the car and would much rather listen to a book than music or talk radio, even NPR. But I like being able to “test” a book or author before I buy, so that I know that I like what I’m “reading” before I’ve spent all that money. And she does realize that audio or pdf, anyone can check those books out of the library and still read them for free. That’s what most folks do when they don’t have the money, playing it safe to see if they gel with the way a particular author writes. I love podiobooks and the way it functions.
July 2nd, 2012 at 2:33 pm
I’m late to the party, but thank you for this.
I’m an indie author still ironing out the kinks on my debut novel. I hired a wonderful indie narrator to create an audio book version of my novel and now I’m sitting here with a gorgeous audio book and no way (as yet) to sell it BECAUSE I have the audacity to want to also make it available for free and use a Creative Commons license. I have a phone call out with Ms. Nicole of ACX, but after reading this post, my hopes are low.
I do plan to publish on Podiobooks now that my narrator has made me aware that you accept CC books and not just PD ones.
Has anyone here done any research on CDBaby? They distribute audio books to Amazon and iTunes (though not Audible, alas) as “spoken word” albums. They’re not cheap — $50 per album and then royalties are skimmed off the top of each sale — but it would at least be a way onto Amazon and I’ve had two different reps assure me that they are non-exclusive and don’t care if I give my book away free, elsewhere, as a CC license, etc.
Still, I’d be grateful if anyone who had experience with them wanted to drop me a note. I can be reached at my name + gmail.com. Thanks!
July 7th, 2012 at 4:43 pm
I guess I’m standing in front of the tomato-flinging machine here, but I’m an ebook author who is thriving because of Amazon. I’m also a published author, but “thrive” doesn’t enter into the traditional publishing world, at least not very often. Amazon is the first to provide an actual distributorship. Of course I’m wary of their evil monopolistic ways. But I’m more wary of the poverty many writers have endured in order to be who they are.
So. When I learned about ACX, I was thrilled to finally have a way into audio. I don’t have the skills or equipment or time to produce my own audio. The option to collaborate with a skilled narrator/producer at no cost to myself is reason to celebrate. I’m now in the queue with a completed production, so we’ll see if there are any glitches with ACX going forward with my short ebook. For me, it’s brilliant. It’s a way to have my ebooks available for another audience.
There you go. The other side speaks.
Suzanna Stinnett
March 19th, 2013 at 8:14 pm
Yesterday, I sent the following email to ACX:
–
In your distribution FAQ I found the following Q&A:
As a Rights Holder, what else can/should I do with my audiobook if I chose the non-exclusive deal?
Anything you want! [...]
Does “anything I want” include podcasting the novel, or listing it for free on podiobooks.com?
–
Today I received the following reply:
Thanks for contacting ACX!
You are correct. You will receive less royalty wise and your book will be a little more exposed to piracy but besides that you can put your book up wherever you would like in the non exclusive deal.
–
Newbie customer support drone? Or complete about-face?
Any more news on this score?
J.M. Porup
March 20th, 2013 at 1:28 am
Maybe they are changing their tune!