The author mentioned, and the only one I know of, is buying directly from the publishers.
Problem is: those are ridiculously expensive, like 35 euros for a single audio book that I don't even know if I'll like the contents because you can't browse it. Physical books are usually 15 euros and then you have unit and shipping costs. Somehow the publisher is fine putting it on audible (where I pay €10) and getting a few percent of that, but not fine if I pay "only" 10 euros when buying from them directly?
No idea about the logic here. I'd also be fine to pay 15 or so, matching the physical book, bit of a premium not to have to enrich Amazon. But 35 as only alternative to 10? Yeah no.
Edit: thought I should back this up with numbers. The first book that came to mind was Ready Player 2, I didn't cherry pick here it's literally the very first that I thought of and checked. Amazon ranked way higher than the official site but I got there via the author's Wikipedia page. From there there are links to three stores: one sells just the paper version, two stores both sell
- The paper book for $13
- The audio CDs for $44
- It's available on Audible.de for €10
This author (publisher?) is clearly not interested in getting sales via means other than Audible and must be happy with their €1.30 that the author says they get for non-exclusivity, or even if "audiblegate" is fake and they get the "full" 25%, that's still €2.50 instead of $44.
It's the same with Steam. I don't play new games that often, but when I do, I look to buy directly from the authors, DRM-free, the whole jazz. Often it's simply not possible and the only purchase option is via Steam. Next thing I hear is my game dev friend complaining about Steam dominance. I'm trying, but they need to make it possible at all... (Or in audio books' case, make it somewhat reasonable)
But they can't get the higher percentage because there is technically another sales avenue, so it's not exclusive, even if barely a soul would make use of it.
Problem is: those are ridiculously expensive, like 35 euros for a single audio book that I don't even know if I'll like the contents because you can't browse it. Physical books are usually 15 euros and then you have unit and shipping costs. Somehow the publisher is fine putting it on audible (where I pay €10) and getting a few percent of that, but not fine if I pay "only" 10 euros when buying from them directly?
No idea about the logic here. I'd also be fine to pay 15 or so, matching the physical book, bit of a premium not to have to enrich Amazon. But 35 as only alternative to 10? Yeah no.
Edit: thought I should back this up with numbers. The first book that came to mind was Ready Player 2, I didn't cherry pick here it's literally the very first that I thought of and checked. Amazon ranked way higher than the official site but I got there via the author's Wikipedia page. From there there are links to three stores: one sells just the paper version, two stores both sell
- The paper book for $13
- The audio CDs for $44
- It's available on Audible.de for €10
This author (publisher?) is clearly not interested in getting sales via means other than Audible and must be happy with their €1.30 that the author says they get for non-exclusivity, or even if "audiblegate" is fake and they get the "full" 25%, that's still €2.50 instead of $44.
It's the same with Steam. I don't play new games that often, but when I do, I look to buy directly from the authors, DRM-free, the whole jazz. Often it's simply not possible and the only purchase option is via Steam. Next thing I hear is my game dev friend complaining about Steam dominance. I'm trying, but they need to make it possible at all... (Or in audio books' case, make it somewhat reasonable)