Earlier this month, Audible rolled out a romance-specific subscription package available for $14.95/month or as a $6.95/month add-on to an existing account. The move wasn’t surprising; in fact, one wonders why the initiative took so long, given that the romance genre is the most successful in digital form and its readers are the most voracious.
Audible’s offering is the first unlimited subscription package focused on romance. To be clear, this is truly a subscription; users do not own the audiobooks in the Romance Package like they would own books purchased through the core Audible service, where you retain access to audiobooks purchased even if you let your Audible account lapse. The most comparable services in the English language are the Montreal-based Playster (which has a smaller catalog than Audible), as well as OverDrive, if you count library lending. Because of its focus on romance, we anticipate this becoming a popular service, especially given features such as Take Me to the Good Part (which allows subscribers to jump right to the steamy scenes). However, early users have noted that the offerings are limited right now, and the search functionality isn’t as useful as it should be.
Authors who distribute through ACX (an arm of Audible) can elect to enroll their audiobooks in the Audible Romance Package. But the compensation terms may dissuade more authors than they attract. Here’s an overview:
- Just as Kindle Unlimited pays on a per-page basis, ACX pays on a per-minute basis.
- As with KU, earnings are based on a shared revenue model and are not fixed. The fine print says that authors earn a royalty that’s similar to an ACX audiobook sale (40 percent for titles exclusive to Audible and 25 percent for nonexclusive titles). The royalty is based on net receipts received by Audible for the Romance Package and the aggregate number of minutes of all digital audio consumed. Let’s say Audible attracts 5,000 add-on subscribers right away, and they consume 9 million minutes in a month (or about one hour per day per subscriber). Gross receipts would be $34,750; let’s say net is $30,000. Quick back-of-the-napkin math indicates a payout of .003 cents per minute. (KU payouts have been hovering around .0045 cents per page, but one minute of audio does not necessarily equate to a Kindle page read.)
- Given the uncertainty of earnings, this next point is especially important: once an audiobook is included in the Romance Package, it stays there until the end of the author’s distribution contract with ACX. This can be a long contract of up to seven years. (For more on the drawbacks of ACX’s distribution terms, see our item from 2016.)
Indie titles still have to be reviewed by ACX before they’re added to the catalog, so inclusion isn’t automatic or guaranteed. However, given the service’s need to amplify its offerings, we assume the hurdles aren’t too considerable for a decently produced audiobook.
Bottom line: We’re curious how Audible pays traditional publishers who agree to title distribution through Audible’s Romance Package; our assumption would be that they have a more favorable and firm payment structure. It’s way too soon to tell, but for indie authors, it may turn out that enrolling titles in the Romance Package is more relevant for marketing and visibility than earnings, and perhaps most appropriate for a first title in a series.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
