|
|
Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Aug 10, 2021 2:18:05 GMT
If you're a narrator and a rights holder approaches you to produce an audiobook for them, you need to do your due diligence to ensure the rights holder is actually the rights holder. You can't just assume that you've been hired by the author/publisher who actually have the rights to produce an audiobook.
Anyone can take any book that hasn't already been claimed at ACX, claim it without needing to show any proof, and then ask a narrator to produce an audiobook for them on royalty share. Which means, the narrator does all the work and the scammer pays zero money out of pocket. And then once the audiobook is for sale, they hope to make some moolah before the actual rights holder finds out and complains.
So you need to either ask for proof of ownership, such as early drafts, or something that will prove they actually are the rights holder. Or only do work for pay upfront because scammers are less likely to be willing to do that.
And as authors we need to go to ACX and claim our audiobooks as soon after publication, as possible, so a scammer can't do it first. Even if you're not planning on doing an audiobook, or aren't ready to make one right away. If your book gets at all popular a scammer will most likely claim it as their own and profit off your hard work.
If you have anything else to add that you think is important to know for those who are new to audiobook production, feel free to add them as a post below.
|
|
|
|
Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Aug 10, 2021 2:24:07 GMT
This is a really great FB group for relevant up-to-date info on audiobooks, and the fight to make them more profitable. It's also a good place to learn about #Audiblegate, which is when Audible decided it would be a great idea to let customers use them as a lending library, while taking back every penny earned from each audiobook that was returned. So customers could listen to your entire catalog, return each one as they finished, and you'd end up with zero dollars. It was quite maddening, and was discovered accidentally due to a site-wide glitch. Audible still allows this, but customers only have 7 days to finish your book for a return, rather than the 30 days they had before. I don't know how much this has curbed the behavior. I honestly don't know how anyone makes any money with audiobooks, but I guess enough people don't return that it's still worth it for some people. www.facebook.com/groups/fairdealwithaudible/ |
|
|
|
Post by writeway on Aug 10, 2021 5:25:04 GMT
My friend had several of her ebooks stolen and turned into audio. She's never done an audiobook in her life. The fact that people are taking the time to turn other people's books into audio is mind-boggling. And most audiobooks don't even sell that well so how could it be worth to steal and go through all that trouble? Then when they are caught, they just disappear.
|
|
|
|
Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Aug 11, 2021 2:32:34 GMT
My friend had several of her ebooks stolen and turned into audio. She's never done an audiobook in her life. The fact that people are taking the time to turn other people's books into audio is mind-boggling. And most audiobooks don't even sell that well so how could it be worth to steal and go through all that trouble? Then when they are caught, they just disappear. It's maddening! And ACX doesn't even care. I'm not exactly sure what ACX would need to do to ensure that only the proper rights holders were claiming their books, but it's their job to figure it out. Relying on the narrators isn't cutting it since most either don't want to do the work, don't know how to, or don't realize they're supposed to do it. I think for the scammer it costs them nothing to steal a book and order an audiobook on profit share. If it doesn't make any money, they're only out an hour or two. And it's amazing the amount of effort scammers will put into scamming just for that occasional score. They're a bit like gamblers. I think it's an addiction for some people. |
|
|
|
Post by writeway on Aug 12, 2021 6:29:19 GMT
My friend had several of her ebooks stolen and turned into audio. She's never done an audiobook in her life. The fact that people are taking the time to turn other people's books into audio is mind-boggling. And most audiobooks don't even sell that well so how could it be worth to steal and go through all that trouble? Then when they are caught, they just disappear. It's maddening! And ACX doesn't even care. I'm not exactly sure what ACX would need to do to ensure that only the proper rights holders were claiming their books, but it's their job to figure it out. Relying on the narrators isn't cutting it since most either don't want to do the work, don't know how to, or don't realize they're supposed to do it. I think for the scammer it costs them nothing to steal a book and order an audiobook on profit share. If it doesn't make any money, they're only out an hour or two. And it's amazing the amount of effort scammers will put into scamming just for that occasional score. They're a bit like gamblers. I think it's an addiction for some people. Amazon doesn't care at all. This same author friend of mine had a bunch of her ebooks stolen a few years back. Someone just duplicated them using her name and everything and put the books up. One of her readers told her about them but she went through hell getting them down. Amazon even had the nerve to tell her she should get a lawyer as if she did something wrong. They didn't take the books down until she went back and forth a million times. That's crazy. That's why I say indies need to make sure they are the member of a writing organization if they can't afford lawyers. I am a member of ALLi and they provide legal support. It's invaluable to have someone on your side fighting for you because you never know what might happen. |
|
|
|
Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Aug 12, 2021 23:03:05 GMT
writeway Wow, your poor friend!!! I don't hear about stolen ebooks as often as I do audiobooks. But there are so many books out there it's easy to slip through the cracks. Until scammers start costing amazon money they won't lift a robo-finger to stop it. I'm glad there are organizations that will accept indies now. Do you need to be earning a certain amount of money before Alli will let you in?
|
|
|
|
Post by writeway on Aug 13, 2021 0:30:24 GMT
writeway Wow, your poor friend!!! I don't hear about stolen ebooks as often as I do audiobooks. But there are so many books out there it's easy to slip through the cracks. Until scammers start costing amazon money they won't lift a robo-finger to stop it. I'm glad there are organizations that will accept indies now. Do you need to be earning a certain amount of money before Alli will let you in? No, you don't have to earn a certain amount of money just be able to pay the yearly fee. |
|
