Social media self-promotion scheme draws authors including Margaret Atwood
As bookshops teeter and publishers sway in the shifting landscape of the digital age, authors are being urged to go out and find their own readers by a new $20m (£12.5m) fund that will pay them a dollar for every book sold.
With early adopters including Margaret Atwood and FlashForward author Robert Sawyer – who claimed the scheme would have added $20,000 to his income from audio over the past two years – the fund is being launched by digital audiobook site Audible at the London Book Fair this weekend. Authors who sign up will be encouraged to use social media to promote their work, and will receive $1 for every audiobook sold from Audible.com, Audible.co.uk or iTunes, on top of their royalties
Fund from DRM vendors
I note this is from Audible, a service that isn’t available to those of us using unlocked or owner-locked technology. Authors like Margaret Atwood make some audio books available from eMusic which is unencrypted (not tied to specific technology vendors), but not everything is made available.
This seems to me to be more cheap advertising for the anti-competitive behaviour of companies like Audible and iTunes, something that in the end will take money out of the pockets of authors as these monopolists will be able to make demands of authors in order to be allowed to reach audiences these vendors control.
Russell McOrmond – http://c11.ca/own