Print Publishers

ACX Puts You in the Director’s Chair.

Offering Rights?

If you’re a book publisher, ACX can help you. If you control a slew of previously unexploited audio rights, now is the time to surface those titles. Using top-notch Producers, ACX allows you to produce audiobooks—at market-optimized rates.

Here’s how to use ACX:

Step 1. Confirm

First, confirm you have audio rights a book by double-checking those book contracts. If you have the audio rights then ACX considers you, and will refer to you from here on out, as a Rights Holder.

Step 2. Create a profile

Search ACX for your books. Type in each book’s title, and ACX will find it (we’re powered by Amazon’s huge book database). If your book is eligible for production through ACX, you’ll see a big “This Is My Book” button. Click that to begin the process of creating a Title Profile. In the profile, describe the book and the type of narrator best suited for it. The Title Profile is a way to get Producers (narrators, studio professionals, and audiobook publishers) excited about producing the audiobook. When you’re writing the profile, think of it as an ad. In addition to your description, you’ll also post a short (one or two page) excerpt from the book. This will serve as the Audition Script so you can listen to potential narrators reading the text you’d like turned into an audiobook. (You’ll be required to review and sign the ACX Book Posting Agreement before posting the Title Profile).

Note: If authors want to narrate themselves, instead of creating a Title Profile, go here.

Step 3. Find Narrators

Post your Title Profiles with audition scripts so Producers (narrators, studio professionals, and audiobook publishers) have the chance audition for you. If you prefer to be proactive, listen to sample narrations already posted by Producers then invite a handful to audition for your book. Otherwise, just wait for auditions to roll in.

Step 4. Review Auditions

Review the incoming auditions. In addition to submitting recorded samples, some auditioning narrators may specify how much they’d like to be paid, and when the production can be completed. Otherwise, the ball’s in your court to send them a message—or a formal Offer—through ACX.

Step 5. Make a Deal

Make an Offer to a Producer. You can offer to pay them a Pay for Production fee (based on their posted per-finished-hour rate range), or negotiate something lower through ACX Messages. In lieu of an upfront payment, you can choose to share your royalties fifty-fifty.

Or you can take your book off ACX....

You may sometimes receive a non-ACX Offer (usually in the form of an ACX message in your inbox) from an Audiobook Publisher who wants to buy the rights from you instead of working through ACX. This is fine with us; we encourage audiobook publishers to use ACX as a rights-listing database to help them find exciting new titles. Just be sure to compare your potential revenue from that publisher versus what you’d earn if you produced it through ACX. With a publisher, usually you’ll have less creative control and receive less money per unit—since you get a percent of their percent—whereas with ACX you’re “going direct” to the key audiobook retailers Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes. However, on the plus side, the audiobook publisher may pay you a significant advance on future royalties. If you go this route, you need to contact ACX to remove your Title Profile from ACX, so Producers stop auditioning for it.

Note: Working with a non-ACX audiobook publisher is exempt from ACX terms, since the audiobook publisher is, effectively, creating the audiobook independent of ACX. However, if the audiobook publisher has a deal in place with Audible, it may distribute the finished audiobook through Audible regardless of the audiobook’s production off of Audible.

Step 6. Check-in

The audiobook production process begins. This generally lasts between 3–8 weeks. The Producer will let you know, through ACX, when the first fifteen minutes of each audiobook is complete. Take this opportunity to listen to narrator’s performance, the quality of the recording and editing, and offer guidance..

Step 7. Approve the Final Product

When the audiobook is complete, you can request two rounds of corrections or edits from the Producer. Then you’ll give final approval of the completed audiobook and pay the Producer (unless they had agreed to forego the upfront Pay for Production Fee option, and opted for a Royalty Share deal).

Step 8. Distribute

ACX distributes your audiobook through Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes. If you grant us exclusive distribution rights, we alone will distribute the audiobook. If you grant us non-exclusive distribution rights, you can distribute the audiobook through other channels as well, but any additional distribution will have to be arranged independent of ACX. (Note: the royalty you earn is higher if you agree to distribute your book exclusively through ACX.)

Step 9. Promote

Promote the availability of the audiobook to your authors’ fans. Feel free to use our great marketing tools and advice in the Promote Yourself section..

Step 10. Earn Royalties

You will receive a monthly royalty statement and payment from Audible. Royalty Payments are calculated per audiobook (based on the ACX Escalator Royalty Rates so the more you sell, the more money you earn.

For more information, please read our FAQ. If you don’t find the answers you need there, email us with your questions.