Michelle Berryman

Experience Strategy & UX, Fellow & Chair Emeritus of IDSA, past IxDA Board, designer, runner, cyclist, soccer player, avid traveler. Opinions are my own.

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

Never forget the first commercial teleporter will be built by the lowest bidder.

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

https://t.co/96l9oDFsb3

Things I’m thinking about

[Jackie Chea ⚖️ @Fair_and_Biased]

Marco Rubio realizing he has to become a popstar to perform at the nation’s 250th.

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

Issue 2 of Use Error: “You were betrayed!” Now available on Substack! https://t.co/BnatdYZ5tW

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

https://t.co/o5BUf6rTB4

[Devon Eriksen @Devon_Eriksen_]

Why not Audible?

I've been talking your ear off about my audiobook, and its attendant kickstarter, for almost exactly a month now. I clearly want the project to be a success.

So why will it never be available on Audible?

Because Audible would interfere with that success.

You see, "success" doesn't just mean a large number of people listening. If that were all I needed, I could just bankroll the project with my own money, and distribute the result for free. Then say "look at those circulation numbers!", and call myself a success.

Well, you wouldn't call yourself a successful doctor if you couldn't pay off your loans from med school. You wouldn't call yourself a successful lawyer if you had to live in a studio apartment in North Hollywood. You wouldn't call yourself a successful engineer if you were on food stamps.

Science fiction writing is a profession. Which means I expect to get paid. Because I did some work, and people liked the work enough to buy it.

Audible has a different view.

Audible does not think I should get paid. Because, as far as I can tell, that would mean less money for them, and because, until someone tells them otherwise, they can get away with it.

I won't go too deep into the specifics, because... I can't.

I actually can't.

The way Audible calculates an author's share of the proceeds is literally a secret. They won't tell me. They won't tell you. They won't tell anyone.

Oh, they'll tell you get 40% if you are exclusive to Audible, and 20% if you're not...

But 20% of what, exactly?

Well, 20% of whatever they decide to charge, times a secret fraction which they compute in a secret way.

What do they charge? Well, sometimes it's the list price, which they set, but more often it's the price of a "credit", whatever they decide that is.

Which they compute secretly on a constantly changing basis.

So, you, Mr. Author who wrote the book in the first place, and then paid to make it into an audiobook with your own damn money, get

0.2 * X * Y

where you don't get to know what X and Y are.

Which means you will have no way of knowing what you will make per sale. And no way to check their math to make sure they've paid the full amount.

So, what would I make per sale?

Well, I can't know for certain, but I asked around, and talked to people, and reached a conclusion.

37 cents. Per audiobook sale.

How, you ask, did I arrive at 37 cents?

Well, I won't tell you. It's a secret.

I can say it would be 37 cents, and you can't contradict me, because I won't give you access to the data. There's no way for you to prove me wrong. You just have to take my word for it.

It's 37 cents. Just trust me, bro.

See how this game works?

And if I don't want to play that game, then what?

Well, I can't sell on Audible. And Audible has a 65% market share.

And that might sound bad, but when you run the numbers... so what?

Let's say I sell an audiobook on Campfire, where I can set my own prices, and I get 80%. Let's say I sell it for $20, to make the math easy.

I get 16 dollars.

How many audiobooks would I have to sell on Audible to make that same 16 dollars. At 37 cents per, that's 44 books.

Do you doubt that 37 cent figure?

Too bad, you're wrong. My math is totally valid and unassailable. I know this because you can't prove me wrong. Because my computations, and my data, are a secret.

So, anyway, if I miss 43 sales for every one I make on Campfire, I still come out even.

In fact, I come out ahead.

Because if I sell one book on Campfire, instead of 44 books on Audible, that's 43 people who haven't bought from me yet. And someday, they might.

If I sell on Audible, I'm not burning through my existing audience to make money for someone else, someone who doesn't write books, like an author, or record them, like a voice actor, or prep them, like a sound engineer.

Someone who doesn't add value. Because a bigger audience isn't "value" if someone is keeping all the money that audience tries to pay me.

The juice isn't worth the squeeze.

Now, sure, someone will probably point out that I am, philosophically, an anarcho-capitalist, and chide me for complaining, because this is just how the free market works, right?

Well, much as I love it when people who don't share my philosophy try to tell me what I believe, no.

Free markets work, and are free, to the extent that market information is disseminated. If a buyer or seller doesn't know the know the market price of a good or service, they will suffer for that ignorance.

Take, for example, used cars. For half a century, if you wanted to buy a secondhand car, you would go to a used car lot, where the sticker prices on the windows were the purest fiction, and the moment you wanted to buy something, they'd stick you in a room with a well-trained salesman, to negotiate in total ignorance of the actual market value of the car you were trying to buy.

Lotsa luck.

But the moment the internet came along, people could comparison shop for cars, and sell and buy cars directly to and from each other.

And now it's dead easy to buy one without being cheated. Just look online and compare prices.

Markets are free when market information flows freely.

This is why monopolies need governments to prop them up. They need certain types of intellectual property laws and trade secret laws, and enforcement of NDAs and non-compete agreements, to shut down competitors and to keep market information secret.

What's the real price of an audiobook? Hard to say, but in a world without Audible, I could charge you less than they do, and still make more.

Win-win, for you, and for me, and for other authors, and for voice actors and sound engineers, and basically everyone but the thieves at Audible.

So what I am doing right now is disseminating market information. To make the market more free. I am telling you how much of your money Audible is keeping.

Almost all of it.

This means less pay for everyone else, which means, according to the inexorable laws of supply and demand, less authors to write books, less talent to record them, and less audiobooks for you to listen to.

Those "free" credits they give you ain't so free after all.

So what has to happen?

Well, I can't break the Audible monopoly all by myself. Me taking a stand against them won't mean a lot to their bottom line.

But I can be a tiny part of an eventual solution. I can avoid giving them my audience's money. I can help prop up competitors who take a fair rate for providing a sales platform.

And I can spread the word.

And most of all, I can keep my self-respect. Because I didn't kneel and kiss the ring.

"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."

- Ayn Rand

[Georgia Tech @GeorgiaTech]

ALL HAIL THE TIGER KING!!! 👑🐅

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

TOMMY!!!

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

@catturd2 https://t.co/kzaRBXAoHi

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

@Atlassian and @expensify why make me think about work on Saturday night at the movies??? #f1 #stressedoutnow

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

@RepMTG @matt_vanswol No stones. No exoectations of perfection. Only an expectation of diligence in thoroughly reading and vetting what you are voting for.

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

@RepMTG Why did you vote for a bill you didn’t read, page for page??? This is literally your job. It’s the minimum expectation we have as voters and tax payers.

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

From getting exercise to eating well, learn six practical ways to support women's health for National Women’s Health Month.

Learn more: https://t.co/PeQfQqLwlw

#Women’sHealth #HealthyEating #ExerciseWell #HealthCoaching #WorkLifeBalance #MentalHealth

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

Bid early, bid often. Buy my car. https://t.co/UbsdvK8NBq

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

@des_linden @brooksrunning A true champion in every way.

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

@RonFilipkowski

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

OH @ DCA: I didn’t bring my cowboy hat because it wouldn’t fit.

[An0maly @LegendaryEnergy]

Dr. Suess over a rap beat is fire. This guy crushed this performance 🔥

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

https://t.co/HKHwBLzdp5

[Michelle Berryman @micberryman]

Just a friendly reminder: It’s Bobby Dodd Stadium at HISTORIC GRANT FIELD, sponsored by Hyundai. That is the only way Hyundai should ever be referenced with regards to the stadium. #gatech

[GOLF.com @GOLF_com]

Stacy Lewis shared a wild Nelly Korda stat. 😳