<
https://theconversation.com/chokepoint-capitalism-why-well-all-lose-unless-we-stop-amazon-spotify-and-other-platforms-squeezing-cash-from-creators-194069>
"In 2020, the independent authors and small publishers whose audiobooks reach
their readers via Audible’s ACX platform smelled a rat.
Audiobooks were booming, but sales of their own books – produced at great
expense and well-reviewed – were plummeting.
Some of their royalty statements reported negative sales, as readers returned
more books than they bought. This was hard to make sense of, because Audible
only reported net sales, refusing to reveal the sales and refunds that made
them up.
Perth-based writer Susan May wondered whether those returns might be the reason
for her dwindling net sales. She pressed Audible to tell her how many of her
sales were being negated by returns, but the company stonewalled.
Then, in October 2020, a glitch caused three weeks of returns data to be
reported in a single day, and authors discovered that hundreds (and even
thousands) of their sales had been wiped out by returns.
Suddenly, the scam came into focus: the Amazon-owned Audible had been offering
an extraordinarily generous returns policy, encouraging subscribers to return
books they’d had on their devices for months, even if they had listened to them
the whole way through, even if they had loved them – no questions asked.
Encouraged by the policy, some subscribers had been treating the service like a
library – returning books for fresh credits they could swap for new ones. Few
would have realised that Audible clawed back the royalties from the book’s
authors every time a book was returned."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
