Amazon is on a roll, and authors are cashing in. First came the Select program/Lending Library with its additional revenue for writers. Then Amazon recently announced its new Audible Author Services program. Authors will collect a dollar per audible book sold, just by signing into the program. I’m fortunate that I already have three on the market, produced by Books in Motion and selling through Audible. By filling out a form and confirming my titles, I’m now earning a dollar for every audio book sold through Amazon. That’s in addition to the royalties I get from Books in Motion. Sweet!
If the audio market continues to grow, I’ll eventually produce the other Jackson books as audios. Amazon’s affiliate, ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange), already makes this possible. I signed up a few months ago, but I was waiting for a sign from the market. Amazon just gave me one.
The bigger news is Amazon Studios, which is calling for authors to submit scripts, book trailers, and films. Again I’m fortunate to have five scripts I wrote a few years ago when I took a break from novels, and I’m excited that a potential producer wants to see them. And not just any producer—Amazon, a company through which I already sell thousands of books. A company that knows readers relate to my stories.
This new platform is an opportunity for all kinds of writers. It’s not just about uploading your content for consideration by Amazon. The site is also an interactive and collaborative forum, where writers can revise other authors’ projects and/or work collaboratively. I don’t fully understand all of it yet, but those who submit have a choice to go private or public. If you go public, Amazon makes your content visible and others can attempt to improve it.
The upside is that by collaborating, a pair of writers can polish a script until it’s good enough to be optioned by Amazon. The payoff for optioned scripts is $10,000. For projects that Amazon eventually makes into movies, writers earn $200,000. Amazon also offers a variety of assignments that writers can sign up for.
Some blogs are speculating that Amazon is looking to get into original TV programming. Either way, the company plans to generate a lot of video content: short films for YouTube, feature films, and possibly TV series.
It’s all part of Amazon’s strategy to produce and profit from the content that consumers love. As a content creator, I’m on board. No other company/publisher has ever offered me this many opportunities to profit from my stories.
