Everand (ex-Scribd) subscription reads: what an indie e-book earns and the gate for Cedwyn
Harvested 30 Oct 2026 ("everand" 0 hits in INDEX before; Kobo Plus is in free-epub-storefronts-kobo-itch-books2read.md, BorrowBox and OverDrive have their own files). This is a distribution decision for the project lead; nothing is listed.
Facts
- Everand is Scribd Inc.'s e-book/audiobook subscription. It was renamed from Scribd in Nov 2023; Scribd stays the documents site. Over 1 million monthly subscribers in 100 countries. US$11.99/month, 30-day free trial. Catalogue as of Aug 2025: Premium (1.5M+ titles, read by monthly "unlocks") plus Unlimited Select (~20k titles). (Tortora, publishing coach and historian, Aug 2025 update; read)
- No direct author upload. Indies reach it only through partners: Draft2Digital/Smashwords, BookBaby, PublishDrive, INaudio for audio. Everand's help centre states authors are paid from subscription revenue "every time you read their work". Payment terms, timing and threshold depend on the partner.
- Rate example (PublishDrive route): 55% of list price once the reader passes 20% of the book, capped per full-length e-book. The cap dropped from $15 to $5 on 1 Aug 2025. On a $4.99 e-book that pays about $2.74 by the 55% rule (Tortora's article prints $2.99 for the same case, which does not match his own 55%; trust the rule, not the worked figure). Compared in the same article: KU about $0.90 and Kobo Plus about $0.94 for a 60k-word read-through. The D2D-route rate was not published; not checked.
- Cannibalisation: Tara Robinette (D2D Director of Operations, Self-Publishing Insiders #126, quoted by Tortora) said D2D's data shows subscribers and buyers are "two separate readers… You're not going to see one siphon sales from the other." That is distributor data quoted second-hand, with no numbers published.
- Genre fit: subscription readers skew to romance, mystery/thriller and, increasingly, how-to and self-help (Tortora's view). Narrative local history is not a known strong genre there.
- Cost: D2D new accounts pay US$20 activation, plus US$12/yr if net earnings are under $100/yr (D2D blog 14 Apr 2026, read). Fee-free alternatives were not checked this run.
- Other subscription shelves reached only through distributors: 24symbols (Madrid, Europe and Latin America backlist, $8.99/month, 500k titles). Storytel, Nextory and BookBeat not checked.
How to run it (when allowed)
- Decide the edition: only a priced edition earns anything (a free edition earns 55% of £0).
- Choose the distributor. Check its Everand rate, cap, payment threshold and fees on its own pages before signing.
- Opt in per store. Keep Apple direct and Kobo direct where already live, so those stores aren't duplicated through the distributor.
- Read the distributor's monthly Everand report. Count reads past 20% and revenue, and separately watch /ebooks/ direct sales for any dip in the same weeks. With small numbers, read it as a direction only.
- Review after 90 days. Pull out if revenue is under the fee.
How we apply it to Cedwyn
- The direct shop stays primary. Payment comes through Stripe at /ebooks/ (never request buy.stripe.com from a script). Prices are fixed: v0.0.2 £4.99, v0.0.1 free, bundle £19.96. Everand would carry v0.0.2 only, at the same list price, and earn about £2.74 per read-through by the 55% rule. That is less than direct Stripe but reaches readers who never buy. No price change and no price test.
- Low priority: the genre fit is weak and the D2D fees could exceed earnings in year one (break-even ≈ 5 read-throughs/yr for the $12 fee, ≈ 12 including the $20 activation, at ~$2.74 each). It only makes sense if a distributor account is opened anyway, e.g. for Apple digital narration or BorrowBox. In that case add Everand and 24symbols as extra ticks; 24symbols is worth noting for the Wales-Argentina Spanish reader base if a Spanish edition exists.
- Log as a PROPOSAL in the project workspace ("subscription shelves via distributor, only alongside another distributor need; the project lead's GO and fee approval"). Do not open accounts.
- Metadata rules on any distributor listing: credit "Cedwyn editors", never name the project lead, no banned public words, Great House Farm / Cydfin Farm nomenclature kept separate from Llandough Farm.
Sources
- danieljtortora.com (read 30 Oct 2026)
- support.scribd.com (read)
- draft2digital.com (title only)
- draft2digital.com (read)
- selfpublishingadvice.org (read)
Raw Markdown: everand-subscription-reads-distributor-gate.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json