I have just recently come across this service from Amazon:
http://www.acx.com/author/welcome
It looks like a great way to promote already published books, but a couple of things about it seem a little odd.
First, I don't understand why the payment to the author is called an honorarium and not a royalty. What does this imply? That it's a speaking fee and not a fee for allowing them to use our copyrighted material? Does it mean they don't have to pay us, but they will do it anyway, for a limited period?
And why isn't the fee in terms of percentage of the audio book's list price? Why is it in terms of the number of dollars? When the book's list price changes, will the honorarium stay the same?
Does anyone here have any experience with this?
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I would be wary of anyone who asks for your Amazon email and password. Why can't you just sign up with audible.com using a new password?
I think it is because they are owned by Amazon. The same is true for author central, their author biographical site. The problem is that they treat the audio books as if they were just publicity for the print book, when for many customers, they may be the main event.
Aya, I have not reviewed this, but it doesn't sound like a good idea based upon your description.
I'd like to add my own terminological dyspepsia, if I may. My premise is that the self-publisher must think of him or herself as a publisher and an entrepreneur. That means being in business, just like Random Hose or any other big NY publisher.
For all of their many failings, the truest business model (IMHO) for us is at LightningSource Intl (LSI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Ingram, the largest book distributor. They are the only company I know of that sends you a check for your profits, not your royalties. Calling an entrepreneur's hard-earned profits "royalties" would be an insult, if it did not betray a mix of ignorance and pretense by companies like Lulu, iUniverse, CreateSpace, and whoever else is providing POD services. As a side note, I have left LSI after a decade of utter frustration. I found them to be essentially hostile to the self/small press when you get past their marketing and deal with their attitude.
That aside, I am irked at the idea that anyone would send me (an author-publisher, entrepreneur) a 'royalty' instead of what I really earned--a profit.
There are IMHO two things at work here. One, these companies want to sell themselves as "traditional" publishers (a laugh, since the Big Six are NOT traditional publishing -- our nation's centuries-old tradition of small presses--over 40,000 and counting) are traditional, plus the original 50 something imprints in NY, now bought up by the Monolith).
Naive authors yearning to "get published" (passive voice) probably want to think of themselves as "being published" and earning "royalties."
But these authors are PAYING these people, often tidy sums, to do what they themselves can and should be doing. I typeset my novels in Word and do my covers in PaintShopPro 9. There's more to it, but it's not shamanry, just mostly common sense.
But (also) Lulu, iUniverse, CreateSpace, LSI, and all the others are NOT publishers. They are manufacturers, strictly speaking. When Random Hose publishes a book, they get the design done by experts and get the book manufactured, often out of house. Not being publishers, it is absurd to think they pay 'royalties.' They send you a check net for goods sold...your profit.
Think of it this way. In the consignment model, money flows backwards up the pipeline to Random Hose/Big Six. Do you think they receive a 'royalty' from their distributors? No, and neither should you as a small press publisher.
As to audio books, I have no idea, but I imagine it's a similar story.
It's a little more complicated than you describe. Many publishers use the services of CreateSpace, even though they do their own typesetting and their own cover design and provide their own Imprint and ISBN number. In fact, CS does more than merely print the book. It also distributes, and it retains the right to keep publishing the book, even though the author and publisher may wish to stop publishing. They are given a non-exclusive right to publish your material, and so they are more than a distributor and printer, though less than a publisher.
The confusing thing with the audio books is that they are only dealing with authors for this one dollar honorarium, not publishers. They behave as if the author probably has no right to the audio book proceeds, because of an arrangement with his publisher, and that the one dollar honorarium is like a gratuity that can be withheld at will.