I may be missing something, but to me the most useful piece of data was the $9.99 price leading the pack. I assume, although perhaps wrongly, that those are trad pub books. To me it sends a complicated message: It could be worth pursuing a trad pub contract just to get more high-dollar market penetration and then use hybrid status to sell self-published books at trad pub ebook prices and pocket the considerable profit. Rather a labyrinthine strategy, and one would give up a lot to be a HarperCollins book, for instance, but played right, it could break a romance author out of the $2.99 pit too many of us are in. In dollars, we're trailing genres that in units we completely rule.

Price control is HUGE. I WANT that. I've always wanted that, and I've told ACX many times through feedback.

You seriously don't want to mess around with the narration. There is a good reason top narrators make good money. They can make all the difference between a hit and a flop. A good narrator will bring even a mediocre story to life. Fans of audio books know the difference and their number is growing.

I wanted to jump in on this one particular point from a couple of pages ago. A quote of $10,000+ for upfront costs is kind of high. The most I've paid for a novel is about $4K. That's for over 100,000 words. I think it's fair to say I didn't trade off on quality, given the sales I've seen from Audible.

What have we learned boys and girls? You never know who is watching.

While I'm familiar with Michael's name, I'm new to his transparency (and patience).

His responses in this thread are heroic.

Michael, thanks for showing us how the sausage gets made.

Good to see you back around these parts, Michael! Thanks for taking the time.
I get that, and I appreciate your candor and transparency. Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to wind up in shoes like yours someday, and I hope we can compare notes at a con if it comes to that. Drinks on future me!

Michael--

Welcome back!  Thanks for your responses here!

Betsy

That in the past he was able to get a major traditional publisher to give him a not-including-audio deal, and now that same publisher is totally unwilling to consider such deals. He feels the industry's stance on the issue has hardened. For people considering seeking a traditional deal, it could be useful to know that selling audio off separately is probably not going to be possible.

Thanks Jerry. That was not clear at all from the OP.

But I'm still confused, I have no idea what the lesson is here. Given that publishers want ALL of the rights...

Do we horde our rights for maximum leverage or parcel them off to the highest bidder?

Michael can clear this up better than me, but I think it was this:

1) He had the previous $400k audible rights deal where he left $200k on the table.
2) He learned from that deal that he was leaving a lot of money on the table
3) In his NEW deal, he negotiated the audible rights right off the bat for 7 figures
4) Since he had done #3, he later learned that Del Ray was now prevented from entering into print contract negotiations with him (by RP).

He's not trying to back out of the $400k deal. That's already baked in.

He's just saying that that $400k deal made him realize how much money there was to be made and he wised up with his next contract.

And because of him doing that, he found out that RP is not even going to consider contracts that do not include the audible rights.

Which is why he is no longer with Del Rey.

Which is why he posted in Reddit (to clear the air and also to educate)

Thanks for coming back and responding, Michael. I've enjoyed your books and the workshops you and Robin run in the DC metro area. Looking forward to your next work.