Frequently Asked Questions

Payments

As a Rights Holder, how do I get paid by ACX when my audiobook sells through ACX’s retail partners (Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes)?

There are a number of innovative features of ACXs payment system:

  • Get paid more. The ACX escalator royalty system pays from 25–90%. The range is 25–70% for Rights Holders who choose the non-exclusive distribution option, 50–90% for Rights Holders who choose exclusive distribution option, or 25–45% each for Rights Holders and Producers who enter into a Royalty Share agreement. The more units your audiobook sells, the higher royalty percentage you earn per unit.
  • To encourage you to promote yourself and your new audiobook, we are offering you an extra Twenty-five Dollar Bounty Payment each time your audiobook is one of the first three purchase made by a new AudibleListener member.
  • Work directly with Audible, a leading audiobook retailer. By working with us, you’re not getting a-piece-of-a-piece, you’re working directly with a retailer so your royalty is a percentage of what the customer pays, not a percentage of the wholesale price.
  • Get paid more often. ACX pays you monthly, whereas most book retailers pay only quarterly.

Do I need to send you a W-9 Form?

You will need to provide your W-9 information in order to start receiving payment for your audiobooks that are available for sale. But you no longer need to send it directly to our office.

When creating your ACX profile you can securely provide your W-9 details, including your tax reporting name and Tax Information Number (TIN). You can edit or add that information at anytime. Simply go to this link and enter your Tax Information near the bottom of the page. If you have previously sent in your W-9 and nothing has changed, there is no need to supply your information once again.

What happens once my book’s for sale?

You’ll get a monthly statement from Audible (since ACX is Audible's platform), which will include unit sales numbers from sales on Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes. You’ll also get a monthly royalty check (unless you’re a Producer who was paid a fee for your work as part of a Pay For Production deal). Note: If your royalties are less than fifty dollars for a month, we hold off and send a check when you’re owed at least fifty dollars.

How do I check my sales information?

Sign-in to ACX and go to My Projects (from the link on the upper right of any ACX page). If you’re the Rights Holder on the audiobook—or if you’re the Producer and you entered into a Royalty Share deal with the Rights Holder—you will be able to see sales information. Simply click on the title of the completed audiobook to view its details. From there you can click the Audiobook Sales tab. ACX will show you aggregated sales information from our retail partners, Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes. Note that if you entered into a non-exclusive deal, ACX will not be able to show you sales information from any retailers that ACX did not distribute to (because we, of course, don’t have access to that information).

How often do you update my sales information?

Sales of digital units are updated daily.

How much will my audiobook sell for in stores?

Each retailer of your audiobook independently prices your product and determines such price in their sole discretion. While not always the case, the regular price on Audible.com for the product is generally priced based on its length, as follows:

  • under 3 hours: under $10
  • 3 – 5 hours: $10 - $20
  • 5 – 10 hours: $15 - $25
  • 10 – 20 hours: $20 - $30
  • over 20 hours: $25 - 35

To be clear, although the above represents general guidelines as retailer of audiobooks sold on Audible.com, Audible retains the sole discretion to set the price of the audiobooks it sells. Additionally, on Audible.com, consumers can buy your audiobook “a la carte” for the above price, but many Audible customers are AudibleListener members who can purchase the audiobook with an Audible “credit” which they get as part of their Audible membership. These credits are generally for about fifteen dollars per month. For more about AudibleListener membership, please check out the Audible.com store. Yes, AudibleListener members end up paying less per audiobook, but they are voracious audiobook consumers who tend to purchase over seventeen audiobooks per year from Audible.com. This is much higher than other audiobook customers, who generally purchase just one or two books per year. Please note that we do not, and cannot, control how iTunes prices your audiobook in their store. However, no matter how they price it, you will be paid the same amount as you are for Audible “a la carte” sales (i.e. a percentage of Audible’s “a la carte” price).

How do Narrators or Studio Pros get paid by the Rights Holder?

When you complete the audiobook and upload it to ACX, it then goes to the Rights Holder to approve. Once approved, the Rights Holder should pay you by check, unless you prefer payment by credit card or Amazon FPS. When the check clears or payment has been confirmed, you will alert ACX that we can begin selling your audiobook on Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes.

How does the escalator payment work?

For sales on Audible.com and its affiliates (which today mainly means Amazon.com and iTunes) your royalty rate increases as you hit certain thresholds. Your royalty will grow after every five hundred units sold until you hit the royalty peak of 90 percent, for exclusive distribution deals, and 70 percent for non-exclusive distribution deals. The actual rate you’re paid will depend on if you choose exclusive distribution (through Audible and its affiliates—today, this means Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes) or non-exclusive distribution. See the What's the Deal? page for more details on Escalator Royalty Rates. Finally, remember that you’re being paid a percentage of what a customer pays, and not a percentage of a wholesale rate (which is often about 50 percent of what the customer actually pays). So, for example, a 40 percent royalty from ACX is like getting an 80 percent royalty from a wholesaler (i.e. because 40 percent of 100 percent is the same as 80 percent of 50 percent).

Can you explain the royalty payment on exclusive versus non-exclusive deals?

Royalties start higher if you choose distribution exclusively through ACX, which today gets your audiobook listed on Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes—the three main retailers of audiobooks in the world. If you choose non-exclusive distribution, you can sell your audiobook wherever else you’d like, and you will be paid the base escalator royalty rate, which starts at 25 percent and grows to 90 percent as you sell more units. At least fifty dollars in royalties must be accrued before Audible cuts a check.

If a producer chooses to contribute to SAG-AFTRA H&R, how do they get paid?

Producers who are narrators producing an audiobook through ACX can contribute to their H&R (health and retirement) Fund if their project qualifies. Learn which projects qualify.

Here’s how it works:

  • Once the Producer has accepted a Pay For Production Offer, they need to send a message to the Rights Holder telling them that they chose this option and hence need to be paid through the SAG-AFTRA-approved Paymaster. (Neither the Producer nor the Rights Holder is permitted to pay SAG-AFTRA directly.) If the Producer chose a Royalty Share deal, they need not alert the Rights Holder, since Audible will be handling the monthly payments to the Producer and SAG-AFTRA.
  • Upon completion and approval of the audiobook, the Rights Holder will send the Producer’s payment to the Paymaster: Eljin Productions, Inc. 44 Kane Avenue, Larchmont NY 10538. The check must be made payable to Eljin Productions, Inc. The paymaster may be contacted via info@johnmcelroyproductions.com
  • The SAG-AFTRA Paymaster will then pay the Producer (and SAG-AFTRA), and the Producer, as always, must confirm to ACX that they were paid before ACX will deliver the product to retail.

Learn more about the payment process.

Why didn’t I get paid for my sales last month?

If you didn’t earn at least fifty dollars in royalties, you wouldn’t have gotten a check. ACX does not mail royalty checks for less than fifty dollars.

How many units can I expect my audiobook will sell?

Just like in the print book world, this can vary widely. Some audiobooks don’t sell many units, but happily, most sell hundreds or thousands. Some even sell tens of thousands. And the rare breakout bestseller can drive hundreds of thousands of audiobook sales.

Sales tip: We want to help you boost those sales. So ACX offers comprehensive, hands-on marketing tools and advice in the Promote Yourself section. It’s focused on audiobooks and full of specific steps to take online—with social media tips and more. Click here to check it out.

Are there other ways of increasing my earnings?

Yes! Through a limited time special Twenty-Five Dollar Bounty Payment, ACX will pay you an extra twenty-five dollars every time your book is one of the first three downloads by a new AudibleListener® on Audible.com. That means if four hundred members download your audiobook as one of their first three audiobooks, you’ll have an extra ten thousand dollars in your pocket! That’s above and beyond your royalties! As you can imagine, these twenty-five dollar payments could quickly outpace your royalties. All the more reason to spread the word!

And check out the comprehensive, hands-on marketing tools and advice we offer in the Promote Yourself section... it’s full of specific steps to take online, with social media tips and more. Click here to check it out.