acx.com
ACX.com is Audible’s audiobook marketplace for authors, publishers, narrators, and audio producers.
What is ACX.com?
ACX stands for Audiobook Creation Exchange.
The site connects people who own audiobook rights with narrators and studios that can produce finished audio.
Audible launched ACX in 2011, and Audible is an Amazon company.
The platform combines hiring, production, quality checks, sales tracking, and distribution in one place.
It is mainly built for independent authors and small publishers that lack their own audiobook team.
How does ACX work for authors?
An author first creates an account and claims a book on ACX.
The account holder must own the audio rights, and the book normally must already exist as an Amazon eBook.
The author then creates a project page with a book summary, an audition script, production notes, and a target schedule.
Narrators can send auditions, or the author can search for a voice and make a direct offer.
The author and narrator agree on payment before production begins.
ACX uses checkpoints so the author can approve the voice, style, pacing, and early recorded pages.
The narrator usually handles recording, editing, and mastering, which means the delivered files should already be ready for sale.
Authors who have finished audio can skip the casting process and upload their files directly.
Every project must pass ACX quality review before it can be released, as explained in the official author workflow.
How can narrators earn money?
Narrators build profiles with work history, voice samples, accents, languages, and preferred book types.
They search open projects, record short auditions, and negotiate with authors who choose them.
ACX treats the narrator as the producer, so the job often includes much more than reading words into a microphone.
A producer may need to remove noise, correct mistakes, balance sound, divide chapters, and master every file.
The required files include MP3 audio recorded at 44.1 kHz with a constant bit rate of at least 192 kbps, according to the audio submission rules.
This work can take several hours for each finished hour of audio.
How does production payment work?
A pay-for-production deal gives the narrator a fixed fee for each finished hour.
This choice costs the author more at the start, but the author does not have to share future royalties with the narrator.
A Royalty Share deal removes the main upfront fee and splits the author’s royalty income with the producer.
Royalty Share Plus combines a smaller upfront payment with a royalty split.
These shared deals commonly run for seven years, and ending one early may require both parties to agree under the ACX contract rules.
A book with weak sales may earn very little for a royalty-share narrator, even after many days of work.
For that reason, skilled narrators often study an author’s reviews, past sales, audience, and marketing plan before accepting such a deal.
How do ACX royalties work?
ACX offers exclusive and non-exclusive distribution.
Exclusive distribution gives Audible wider control over where the audiobook is sold, while non-exclusive distribution lets the rights holder use other distributors too.
Current ACX materials describe standard rates of 40% for exclusive distribution and 25% for non-exclusive distribution.
Audible is also rolling out a new royalty model with headline rates of 50% for exclusive titles and 30% for non-exclusive titles.
Those percentages do not always apply directly to the public list price.
Payment can depend on net receipts, membership value, purchase type, listener activity, discounts, returns, and whether a title joins an all-you-can-listen program.
Legacy contracts and newer enrolled titles may therefore produce different results.
Creators should read the agreement shown inside their own account before estimating income.
Where does ACX distribute audiobooks?
After approval, ACX sends titles to Audible, Amazon, and Apple’s audiobook store, which ACX still calls iTunes in parts of its site.
This gives a small publisher simple access to major audiobook buyers without arranging separate uploads for each store.
ACX also provides monthly reports, projected earnings, and some promotional tools.
Exclusive titles may receive promotional codes that authors can give to reviewers or readers.
The tradeoff is that ACX does not provide the broad store and library reach offered by some wide-distribution services.
Who can create an ACX account?
ACX is currently open to qualifying people and companies in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland.
Users need a local address, valid tax information, and suitable banking details, as stated in the account requirements.
The audiobook can reach listeners in many countries, but the person publishing it must still meet these account rules.
This limit makes ACX unsuitable for many authors who live elsewhere.
How is artificial intelligence changing ACX?
ACX has tested voice replicas made from the voices of participating narrators.
The narrator creates and controls the replica, chooses each project, and reviews the generated performance.
ACX says Audible cannot use that replica for separate content without the narrator’s approval.
Voice-replica books are also labeled in the narrator field, according to the ACX beta announcement.
This tool could help narrators produce more books, but it also makes consent, fair payment, quality control, and clear labels more important.
What are ACX.com’s main strengths and weaknesses?
ACX’s strongest feature is its complete path from an Amazon eBook to a professionally produced audiobook.
Its marketplace makes finding a narrator easier, while its distribution gives creators access to Audible’s large audience.
Its main weaknesses are strict country rules, detailed audio standards, long contract terms, limited wide distribution, and royalty calculations that can be hard to predict.
An independent Reedsy review also warns about limited pricing control, customer support, and the financial effect of returns.
Is ACX.com worth using?
ACX is a strong choice for an eligible author who wants an easy production process and places high value on Audible and Amazon.
It is less attractive for someone who wants full pricing control, library access, many retail partners, or a simple royalty formula.
The best decision comes from comparing the total production cost, contract length, royalty basis, and expected sales before accepting an offer.