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Audiblegate

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Re: Audiblegate

#111

Post by bitcharmer »

tjbiddle wrote: post #78
ALittleLight wrote: post #27

I worked on a tool at Amazon once that incorrectly calculated royalties, not because Amazon was greedily trying to steal from publishers, but just because of general incompetence (or, lack of sufficient competence maybe). Basically, of the people who wrote the tool, tested the tool, and used the tool, none of them knew exactly how royalties should be calculated and none of them could tell whether or not they were bei…

"Never assume malice for that which can be better explained by incompetence"

I don't like this saying because it generalises too much.

For example, if you follow this line of thought you'd never investigate murderous cops simply because their cameras where turned off due to their incompetence rather than purposeful, malicious action.

Re: Audiblegate

#112

Post by bitcharmer »

bawolff wrote: post #87
ALittleLight wrote: post #27

I worked on a tool at Amazon once that incorrectly calculated royalties, not because Amazon was greedily trying to steal from publishers, but just because of general incompetence (or, lack of sufficient competence maybe). Basically, of the people who wrote the tool, tested the tool, and used the tool, none of them knew exactly how royalties should be calculated and none of them could tell whether or not they were bei…

As they say, "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence"

I'll just copy my comment from another leaf of this thread:

I don't like this saying because it generalises too much.

For example, if you follow this line of thought you'd never investigate murderous cops simply because their cameras where turned off due to their incompetence rather than purposeful, malicious action.

Re: Audiblegate

#114

Post by actionReaction »

The whole point he makes is, "Amazon is bad because everyone else says Amazon is bad, and I just piggyback the public opinion with my little opinion about seemingly unfair royalties Amazon takes." It might be I'm wrong, but the numbers this guy put up do sound like just whining. It takes a lot of effort to provide cloud-based services such as Audible.

Re: Audiblegate

#116

Post by throwanem »

bitcharmer wrote: post #111
tjbiddle wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Never assume malice for that which can be better explained by incompetence"

I don't like this saying because it generalises too much. For example, if you follow this line of thought you'd never investigate murderous cops simply because their cameras where turned off due to their incompetence rather than purposeful, malicious action.

The first two words of the rule are "never assume".

Re: Audiblegate

#118

Post by IshKebab »

napsterbr wrote: post #105
delgaudm wrote: post #44

It's terrible for the narrator too. In many cases the narrator makes a bad decision to record the Audiobook not for a per-finished-hour rate, but as a "Royalty Share" where they only earn on the Royalty -- that's 20% (50-50 royalty split with the author) on the audiobook version. In most cases a narrator will never earn even close to minimum wage for the effort to create an audiobook. And it's more effort than you mi…

Out of curiosity, why does it take 5-12 hours to record one finished hour?

Presumably multiple takes and editing.

I think he's ignoring the chance of recording a really popular audiobook though. I'd guess that's why people take royalty deals that they probably know will likely not pay well. Basically gambling.

Re: Audiblegate

#119

Post by [deleted] »

napsterbr wrote: post #105
delgaudm wrote: post #44

It's terrible for the narrator too. In many cases the narrator makes a bad decision to record the Audiobook not for a per-finished-hour rate, but as a "Royalty Share" where they only earn on the Royalty -- that's 20% (50-50 royalty split with the author) on the audiobook version. In most cases a narrator will never earn even close to minimum wage for the effort to create an audiobook. And it's more effort than you mi…

Out of curiosity, why does it take 5-12 hours to record one finished hour?

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