Ebooks, audiobooks, articles and more for one low monthly fee? That's too good to be true, right? Wrong!
We know that you've got a lot of questions about how this all works. For example, are authors getting paid for their work? Why would they agree to have their books in a membership program? Am I reading content that the authors have actually given permission to be on Scribd?
We'll be more than happy to answer all of your questions so that you can just relax with a good book with no worries in the world but what to read next.
Are authors paid when I read subscription content?
Yes! Of course! We ensure our authors can continue doing what they love and write great books for our readers to enjoy by making sure they're compensated when their work is part of our subscription service. Scribd has deals with our authors and publishing partners concerning payment for all membership content. Basically, every time you read a premium title or listen to an audiobook, we pay the author the full price of their work! Revenue that Scribd earns from monthly membership fees is paid to the original publishers or authors every time you read their work on Scribd.
Why would an author choose to share their work on Scribd?
Sharing their work on Scribd grants all of our authors more visibility in a large audience of avid readers like yourself. They place their work on Scribd, and instantly millions of people have the opportunity to read it. Everyone with a membership can seamlessly go from book to book, meaning every author has a greater chance of their work being read while still being fully compensated for their work! It's a perfect situation for our readers, who get access to all of those titles, and perfect for our authors as they now have a large audience of readers waiting for that next great book to dive into.
Scribd allows anyone to upload material onto the site. How am I supposed to know that I'm reading titles authors have actually given permission to be on Scribd?
Verified authors and publishers will have an ‘Author’ or ‘Publisher’ badge above their name on their public Scribd profile. These badges indicate that their content is shared in our library directly by one of our publishing partners. Verified authors will also have additional sections on their profiles as applicable, such as: "Books Authored", "Audiobooks Authored", as well as any "Audiobooks Narrated".
That's not to say that content without a verified author badge is on Scribd without an author's permission or shared improperly; Scribd is abundant with self-published work and works that are in the public domain. You'll find these titles in the Document section of our library. The profiles of members who upload them may not have an ‘Author’ badge, but that doesn't mean that their documents were illegally uploaded to Scribd. Members of our community may share documents they’ve created, upload works with the permission of the copyright holder, or share content which is otherwise in the public domain.
Scribd's BookID™ copyright protection system also compares content uploaded by our members to samples of material provided by publishers, checking for potentially infringing content. We do our best to remove any material identified as violating copyright immediately. Rest assured that individuals who we learn are failing to follow copyright laws aren't allowed to remain members on Scribd for long. Please read all about copyright and Scribd's policies here to learn how to help us keep Scribd's library full of legitimate work shared only with the permission of the authors or copyright holders.
If you have any other questions about what you're reading or how the premium membership works, please contact Scribd support for help. We're always glad to help, so don't be shy about reaching out and asking any questions you may have that aren't covered here or in the other FAQs!