In a reversal of their advertised and touted “up to 365 day return policy” (love it or return it) on all ACX books, Amazon and Audible have updated their policies to provide more protections for authors, and encourage sensible use of their resources.

The problem

The crux of the problem was that if readers returned books to Audible up to a year in advance, the author would have their royalties retroactively cancelled, effectively reducing months where they’d sold more books as books from earlier were returned. And, with every system like this, widescale abuse could have been rife, though, Audible is fairly closed-lipped about how many returns they accept. While there is a policy to prevent listen and return as a use for credits, due to customer service issues, and the pandemic, it’s possible that the rules surrounding needing to contact customer service was raised, which could have created more returns before flagging. On that, I’ve only got personal experience to speak to and three total returned books in 12 years.

Why it was unfair

While it’s true that many of us don’t automatically listen to our books as soon as we buy them, and sometimes stock up during sales, it’s also fair to say that without good reason, very few other places accept returns – and if there was an issue with the audible file itself, it shouldn’t have passed quality checks. Authors shouldn’t be punished for readers deciding they’d rather treat Audible as a library, and so, the Author’s Guild and others spoke out late last year. In November, Audible confirmed they’d be changing policies and now the new policies have been rolled out, as you can read on the blog Audible issued on the 20th.
Hopefully, this policy change will redress the balance back to the creator side and allow them to keep earning as they should.

Found on GoodeReader