The board of the Writers’ Union of Iceland (Rithöfundasamband Íslands) is encouraging its members to not submit their literature to the streaming service Storytel. The company, which offers audiobook and e-book streaming to their clients, is said to pay “hilariously” low royalties to writers, the board said in a letter.
The encouragement comes after the board reviewed the recent results of a survey conducted in the summer of 2024. Two surveys were sent to writers which measured wages and their attitude towards Storytel. They found that 84% of writers receive between 0-5% of their total wages from Storytel. Only 3% of writers received more than 20% of their total wages from the company. 88% of respondents claimed to be dissatisfied with the outcome.
Interestingly, the survey results pointed to an overwhelming majority — 96% of respondents — in favour of physical books being published over the production of audiobooks.
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