56 votes

Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson just negotiated higher audio royalties for all audiobooks on Audible

Posted by boxer_dogs_dance
Tags: usa, fantasy, authors, brandon sanderson, audiobooks, audible, royalties, author.ashley king, source.digitalmusicnews
https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2024/03/06/brandon-sanderson-audible-audiobook-royalties/

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Title
Brandon Sanderson Negotiated Higher Audiobook Royalties
Authors
Ashley King
Published
Mar 6 2024
Word count
451 words

5 comments

  1. [2]
    hushbucket
    Link
    Nice. Well done Sanderson. In case anyone missed this tidbit from the headline (as I did), Sanderson improved royalty structure for all audiobook authors on audible, not just himself. The article...

    Nice. Well done Sanderson. In case anyone missed this tidbit from the headline (as I did), Sanderson improved royalty structure for all audiobook authors on audible, not just himself.

    The article says video game creators and musicians get a larger % of sales from digital distribution (70-80%) compared with audiobook authors (25-45%).

    27 votes
    1. JRandomHacker
      Link Parent
      It's a small part of his yearly State of the Sanderson article from 2022, but he goes pretty deep into his original objections that got him to this point now. The royalty-splits he mentioned:...

      It's a small part of his yearly State of the Sanderson article from 2022, but he goes pretty deep into his original objections that got him to this point now. The royalty-splits he mentioned:

      • Ebooks are usually 70% author / 30% publisher. This is a pretty standard "digital royalties rate" across all sorts of platforms - Steam takes 30% of game sales, Apple takes 30% of iOS sales, etc.
      • Brick-and-mortar bookstores are usually somewhere around 50/50 - there's a lot involved in ordering, stocking, selling, etc. for physical books.
      • Audible offered 40% author / 60% Audible if publishing exclusively through Audible. Authors who wanted to sell on multiple platforms were offered an even lower split of 25% author / 75% Audible.
      23 votes
  2. [2]
    daywalker
    Link
    I haven't read Sanderson before, because the pros and cons said about his writing didn't seem to interest me, but I've heard before that he's well-liked by fan communities because he's so involved...

    I haven't read Sanderson before, because the pros and cons said about his writing didn't seem to interest me, but I've heard before that he's well-liked by fan communities because he's so involved and genuinely nice. For example, he was one of the founders and hosts of the podcast Writing Excuses, and it's a really helpful podcast for writing genre fiction. But I think I can better see now why people like him. This is a massive win.

    10 votes
    1. boxer_dogs_dance
      Link Parent
      I also have chosen other authors for fantasy reading besides Sanderson, for similar reasons. But yes. He has good intentions and tries to put them into action as here.

      I also have chosen other authors for fantasy reading besides Sanderson, for similar reasons. But yes. He has good intentions and tries to put them into action as here.

      8 votes
  3. EarlyWords
    Link
    A few years ago I had convinced a prestigious small press in Berkeley to have a meeting about developing audio content for their extensive catalog. In the meeting, I told them I was happy to work...

    A few years ago I had convinced a prestigious small press in Berkeley to have a meeting about developing audio content for their extensive catalog. In the meeting, I told them I was happy to work with the royalty share model that ACX (the production side of Audible/iTunes) provides. That means no money upfront from them and we split the proceeds.

    So they started running the numbers and someone checked on the ACX site. While I was in the meeting, Audible had drastically reduced the rights-holders percentages. Made it look like I had no idea what I was talking about. Never heard from them again.

    6 votes