Quote:
Originally Posted by ebusinesstutor
I didn't realize they were paying near retail rates - that is a recipe for disaster.
If I read 30 books per month and only pay $9, they would be losing money.
I thought they were pooling the subscription money and sharing it with authors based on how often their books were read.
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That is the widely decried (by Smashwords and others) Kindle unlimited approach.
Last I heard, the Smashwords titles that Scribd dropped earned something like 60% of cover price the moment the reader exceeded 10% read. Even if it was never finished. So a $5 romance cost Scribd $3 and everybody reading 4 of those books a month could sink them. The Scribd CEO has been previously quoted that subscribers averaged one book a month. It was either a misquote, an outright lie (that could lead to a legal drama), or total cluelessness (ditto).
I'm not sure but I think I heard that Oyster payouts were geared to percentages read (better) but topped out at 80% of cover (not so good).
Naturally, publishers clearly prefer Scribd and Oyster terms to Amazon terms. May they enjoy them while they last.
https://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=q3CLc0IGstk