Low royalties make Estonian writers wary of audiobooks

Estonia’s audiobook market is still in its early stages, and low payments are making writers and publishers cautious about releasing their books in audio format, ERR reports.

Writer Urmas Vadi, one of Estonia’s most popular authors, said this week that he was removing his books from Storytel. He had been on the platform for just over three months and said the figures he received at the end of the quarter showed modest returns despite a sizeable audience.

Storytel has been the only internationally large audiobook platform operating in Estonia for the past year. Through Digiread, it has partnership agreements with three publishers. The service pays publishers according to listening and reading activity while a title remains available, rather than paying a fixed amount.

Tuuva Hajanne, Storytel’s regional head for Finland and Estonia, said Estonia’s market was still growing. Audio and e-books account for about half of the overall book market in Finland, she said, while their share in Estonia is still in the single digits and does not yet generate profit for publishers.

Estonian publisher Tänapäev is also approaching audiobooks cautiously. Of its more than 1,000 titles, 85 are available on Storytel. Editor Mihkel Mõisnik said the publisher had found that non-fiction performed poorly on the platform, while entertainment, crime, thrillers and children’s books that can be read by computer were more suitable. He said publishers and authors nevertheless receive little from the service, and the payments are even smaller.

Storytel began operating in Finland about a decade ago, and its payment model in Estonia follows the one established there.