Over the past several weeks, a lot has changed in the audiobook publishing landscape. Unfortunately, most of the news is bleh.
Let’s get into it.
First, the good news!
KINGDOM OF RUSES is releasing as an audiobook on September 15. The wonderful Lillian Rachel has once again brought my characters to life with aplomb. It’s always a pleasure to work with her. If you’re in the market for an excellent narrator, I can happily recommend her.
(Seriously. She’s given the Prince an adorable midlands accent. I’m in love with it.)
Now, the bad news.
As of the writing of this article, KINGDOM OF RUSES will be available on Spotify when it releases. It might be available elsewhere. I didn’t do this on purpose, and I’m crossing my fingers that additional storefronts will populate the listing before then. However, I’ve received a timeline of 2 – 4 weeks, and September 15 is only two weeks away.
But I’m grateful for even the possibility of other storefronts, because originally, my aggregate distributor wasn’t allowing me to add a street date at all, which made Spotify the only possible venue.
What happened?
Back on August 1, Findaway Voices (through whom I released DEATHMARK last year) divided into Spotify for Authors and Voices by INaudio. With an intention of releasing KINGDOM through the same markets, I followed directions for linking my now two distributor accounts. The premise was simple: upload in one place, distribute from both.
Easy-peasy on paper!
But I made the mistake of uploading to Spotify for Authors first (because that was the recommended process), and when all the files transferred to Voices by INaudio, the metadata fields were slightly different. INaudio needed me to set a street date.
Except that the system also wouldn’t allow me to set a street date, because it said the release date had to be in the past.
I’m still not sure whether this was a glitch in programming or a designed feature for Spotify to secure an exclusive release. Usually I give the benefit of the doubt, but everything’s a money funnel these days.
Anyway. Whenever I upload files, there’s always a disclaimer that says things can take up to 72 hours, so I waited that amount of time to see if it might resolve internally. When nothing changed, I emailed tech support with screenshots of the error message. Some back-and-forth followed. Today they emailed me to say they’d added the street date, and I immediately moved forward with the distribution process.
MEANING IT’S ALL ON THE VENDORS NOW.
(Haha, hopefully they’re quick.)
I’m grateful for the resolution. It took longer than I wanted, but I understand I’m only one person in a queue. For the record, though, I did upload about a month in advance, in hopes of multiple storefronts populating ahead of release. This glitch just ate up two weeks of my buffer.
And now for the terrible-ish news.
As of the writing of this post, I will not be distributing KINGDOM OF RUSES through Audible. This is, perhaps, the dumbest choice I could make from a business perspective. Most of my readers get their audiobooks from that source.
If this news disappoints you, I’m sorry.
Audible recently pulled a bait-and-switch. They’ve raised royalty rates on audiobooks (from 40% to 50% if you’re exclusive with them, and from 25% to 30% for non-exclusive titles). BUT, they also changed how they calculate that number. The base is now a fraction of what it once was.
So on paper, authors are “earning more,” but in reality, royalty payments have dropped like a stone. If a reader buys an audiobook but also listens to any titles in Audible’s new Plus catalog (for FREE!), the royalty gets split between all parties instead of going to the author who actually sold a book.
What’s to be done?
There’s a change.org petition, if you want more details. I’ve signed it and shared it on Facebook, but I’m also cynical and believe that most companies just toss such petitions into their circular file. Audible has a tight grip on the audiobook market, and they can enact policies as they please.
Under ordinary circumstances, I would just list with them anyway and take my pennies. I’ve paid my narrator in full with money reinvested from print and ebook sales. I produce audiobooks as a courtesy, not with the expectation of making a mint.
However, Audible is also poised to flood their Plus catalog with AI-narrated audiobooks, through KDP authors. The system is such that someone could generate an AI ebook in an afternoon, upload it to KDP, use AI to narrate it instantly, and list the audiobook immediately. A certain percentage of listening time qualifies it for the royalty split, which then funnels money away from human-created stories and performances.
And like, I get that Ai iS tHe FuTurE and everything, but I just… I’m not cool with my work, my craft, funding an avalanche of AI slop.
When you list with Audible, you grant them license to distribute your audiobook for seven years.
Seven years.
In seven years, that Plus catalog is going to be a bloated whale carcass of word vomit generated by get-rich-quick opportunists who don’t give a rip about the literary arts. And I already have THE LEGENDARY INGE, DEATHMARK, and THE HEIR AND THE SPARE getting money siphoned away. Right now I don’t want to add another title to that list.
So for the present, KINGDOM stays out of that marketplace. If Audible reforms their policies, I will list with them. As it stands, though, I’ve already contributed more than I wanted to the downfall of our culture. My novels helped train the AIs without my consent. They don’t need to funnel money to the corner-cutters who use said AIs as well.
One possible silver lining?
This whole rigmarole finally prompted me to change my distribution for THE LEGENDARY INGE. Its audiobook has been exclusive to Audible since 2021, but I no longer have incentive to keep it that way. So, I emailed support, requested the change, and got it approved. That process will (supposedly) take 14 – 20 business days, which clears it for wide distribution at the middling-end of September.
After that, it’ll be another 2 – 4 weeks to hit additional storefronts.
So, KINGDOM OF RUSES is coming to audiobook this month, and THE LEGENDARY INGE’s audiobook will be coming to library networks and other vendors soon thereafter.
Which I think is excellent news, despite all the garbage surrounding it.