The Fifth Time's the Charm
This is the fifth installment of 20th Century Refugee, the official newsletter of author Glen Cadigan. Welcome! If you've been here from the very beginning, I guess that means you get to join the Five-Timers Club. If not, you can check out the archives at glencadigan.substack.com to find out what we said about you when you weren't here. Don't delay! You know you can't wait!
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Part II
Last time out Substack told me I was going overboard with all of my Christmas suggestions, and to cut it out! That was probably a good thing, as it allows me to go into detail on a topic I really haven't covered in detail over here on the newsletter, and that topic is...
Audiobooks
2022 was the year that I jumped into the audiobook arena with both feet. It's something that I'd had my eye on for awhile, but getting a seat at that table always seemed to be financially daunting.
Luckily, things have changed somewhat. Without getting into details, I found a way of doing it without losing my shirt. The end result is that all four of my short story collections are now audiobooks, and I'd like to say they're available wherever audiobooks are sold, but they're not. You see, Audible (which is owned by Amazon) offers 40% if you go exclusive with them, but only 25% if you don't. That's a big drop-off, and then there's the whole #Audiblegate scandal where people found out that listeners could finish an audiobook, then return it up to a year later and get their money (or credit) back, no questions asked. Naturally, people abused this system, so you might be making forty (or twenty-five) percent of nothing.
Google Play, on the other hand, gives you 52% of the pie, which is a lot more than 40%, and a helluva lot more than 25%. Google bumped their rates up from 40% to 45% all the way back in 2018, and then up to 50% in 2019. That extra 2% is just another way of them giving Amazon the finger, and that's non-exclusive, too.
That means that I can also sell my audiobooks on Kobo, which is biggest in Canada, but also available all around the world (including the U.S.!). They pay 45% royalties, which is 5% better than Audible on its best day. Kobo also has a subscriber model, like Audible, where people pay a set fee every month ($9.99, and the first month is free) and receive credits for audiobooks. I get a lot less if people use a credit (32%) instead of buy it outright (and nothing if they use the free credit which they get for signing up), which underscores the importance of having multiple audiobooks available instead of just one. I could actually lose money on only one, but even if the first audiobook is free, if people like what they hear, then the next one isn't.
That was the thinking behind releasing both Bedlam & Belfry collections at the same time: strike while the iron is hot! Then Tall Tales came out in September after the print and eBook release, which only left Top of the World in the queue, waiting to be unveiled. And it was, in October (just in time for Halloween!).
I'm under no delusions that I'm sitting at the same table as the big boys. I'm fully aware that I'm a minor player in this field, and not being on Audible hurts my chances of a new listener discovering my work. But as long as Audible effectively punishes authors for not being exclusive with them and rewards listeners for returning books they've already heard (essentially turning Audible into an audio library), then you won't find my books there. The odds of someone stumbling into one of my audiobooks at Audible without looking for it on their own was always pretty small, anyway. And if you live on the planet Earth, there's nowhere where Google can't find you.
Still on Sale
Of course, the print books of the aforementioned audiobooks are currently available, as are their corresponding eBooks. And The Life and Art of Dave Cockrum can also be purchased in either softcover or hardcover (or both, if you're a completist!), but not as an audiobook. I mean, how would that even work? "Here's a great picture by Dave Cockrum... and here's another great picture by Dave Cockrum..." Without the pictures, there's not really a point, is there?
Promises, Promises
When I launched this newsletter I said that it'd be weekly at first, then drop off to a more erratic schedule after that. Well, this is the fifth week in a row it's shipped, and you can't expect me to keep up that pace forever. There is a Holiday Special in the works (glad to see the Guardians of the Galaxy pick up the tradition after Star Wars abandoned it) but after that it'll be time for a break. We're coming up on the end of the year, and that means it's a busy time for everyone. I've already achieved my goal of laying down the foundation for 20th Century Refugee, and I don't want to get to the point where people think, "Again?" when they see it pop up in their inbox. So if there's late breaking news (I don't even know what that might be), one will be dropped with all due haste, but if things proceed according to plan, once the new year rolls around we'll be in as-needed mode. Probably once a month is a realistic goal. Especially in the winter, when I'm supposed to be writing the things that I sell later in the year. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, doesn't it? And continual presence leads to complacency and people unsubscribing. And we don't want that, right?
'Til Then,
Glen