Introduction to Using ACX to Help You Decide When Self-Publishing an Audiobook

Amazon’s Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) is one of the most popular platforms for creating audiobooks and distributing them through the three leading audiobook digital retailers: Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. Audible is also owned by Amazon.

 

 

Authors may opt to narrate their work using the platform, or they can prefer to work with voice over professionals (called producers) whose profiles are posted on the marketing platform. The good thing is that the steps for producing an audiobook are listed through their site. Here are the numbers with ACX audiobook publishing:

• Producers on ACX can choose to split the royalties 50/50 with the author without advance payment (available only to those who opt for exclusive audiobook distribution), or they may be paid up front (at $200 to $1,000 per hour in 8-12 hours of narrating an average book).

 

• If you allow ACX to have exclusive rights of your book, your royalty is 40%. If you do not grant ACX exclusive rights, the royalty rate is 25%. It might be worth selecting the exclusive option considering that Audible is the largest seller of audiobooks at the present.

Become a bestselling published author in today’s competitive market. Find out here.

 

Factors to consider

• Price Control. One major downside of audiobooks published by ACX is that they control the pricing of the book, not the author. There are book retailers, however, where you can set the price of your audiobook, such as CreateSpace and KDP. But the reality is that most of the authors get into the market through ACX.

 

• Small Market. Last year, Audible had only about 180,000 Audiobooks for sale. Although the market has potential, it is still small. Audiobook publishing has been one of the hottest topics in book conferences, but there are others who have hesitations to venture into this type of publishing. The costs of producing and marketing audiobooks are quite high.

 

• ACX Agreement. Whether you pick the exclusive or non-exclusive rights, you give ACX the right to distribute your book for seven years. Some authors see the seven-year period a very long time for their audiobook to be distributed. Also during that time, ACX will distribute your work to Amazon, iTunes, and Audible, without mentioning other online retailers like Barnes & Noble and Overdrive in the agreement.

 

Audiobooks will take you to an edge.

• Access to “Non-readers.” Audiobooks allow you to reach a bigger audience, especially the “non-readers” who can’t take the time to read a book. They may be struggling with blindness, are slow in reading, or may have hectic schedules in their career or business.

 

• For the Sake of Art. There is real art involved in recording an audiobook as it brings your book to life. Narrating a book is not equivalent to reading a book. Turning your book into an audiobook is like putting on a performance with an actor portraying different roles. If you believe you don’t have those acting talents, it is best to hire professional narrators to do it for you. Fiction books or those books which are not heavily relying on images are suitable for audiobook conversion.

 

• Sales Factor. Audiobooks are priced about 45% higher than their counterpart in print, making them good generators of profit.

Because self-publishing an audiobook will result in an increase of your potential readers, we urge you to take that step to help the publishing industry in general. Get going with your audiobook today.