Happy Monday, WG2E-Land!
Now that my second Audio Book has just been released, I thought I’d share with you a few cautionary tales from my Audio Book Adventure with ACX.
On Audible
On Amazon
On iTunes
As many of you know, I began my Audible ACX (an Amazon company) Adventure back in February of this year. You can read about it here:
http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.com/from-bestselling-ebooks-to-audio-books-via-audibles-acx
http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.com/an-inside-peek-at-audio-book-sales-and-royalties
My first Audio Book – BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS – released on or around May 10th and immediately became the #1 Audible Audio Book in Romance and Chick Lit and the #1 New Release! 
On Audible
On Amazon
On iTunes
My narrator – Christine Padovan – and I are over the moon with the success of our Audio Books and are looking forward to a bunch more releases.
But…that doesn’t mean the process has been without a few growing pains on the ACX end.
ACX just celebrated it’s first year anniversary on June 1st! Happy Birthday to You, ACX!!!
They now have over 1,000 titles they’ve published in Audio Book format. And, they’ve been a huge part of Audible’s 40% growth this quarter as compared to this same time last year!!!
With that kinda huge growth, however, comes some administrative pains.
Here’s what happened to me…
I should have received my first royalty statement and check by mail the end of June. (Note: They still don’t have an online reporting capability or direct deposit, even though they’re an Amazon Company, but they’ve told me that both of those are in development.)
Audible is the entity in this three company deal (Amazon, Audible and ACX) that actually cuts the checks, and those are supposed to be done monthly and should be received by authors and narrators by the last week of each month.
I checked with Christine the end of last month, and neither one of us had our checks and statements. So, I called ACX, whose Customer Service Staff is excellent btw, and they told me that ACX and Audible were having a horrible time calculating the Bounty Payments and were thus behind but planned to have checks out the following week.
The Bounty Payments are basically bonuses of $25 each for every new customer on Audible who chooses your Audio Book as one of their first three downloads. (Note: Christine and I should receive a bunch of those! Yayyy!)
Jump to July 16th, and still no check for me (although Christine got hers ).
I called Audible ACX again and also emailed my personal rep there as well as a few of the upper level managers. After three phone calls and an email round, keeping in mind ACX is on the East Coast and Audible is in Seattle with Amazon so they work out of separate states and offices, I was told there was a glitch with my payment because they couldn’t match up my W-9 between my pen name and tax id name.
NOTE: The W-9′s seem to be a HUGE issue with ACX too! Make sure you follow-up not just once but several times (I made three calls prior to the payment problem calls to confirm that they’d received mine and matched it properly as I stated on my fax cover sheet, and I still had problems on the payment end.) You have to fax them a W-9 (I did this back in April or May) so they can begin paying you and later send you a 1099. They tell me they are also working on making that an online submission too, but it’s still in the planning stages.
Once I was told there was a glitch, a very nice and helpful rep said they’d be having a meeting the following Friday (which was the 20th) because they’d had so many errors and late payments that they were trying to figure out what to do. She said they’d be pushing to get our checks cut now instead of all of us having to wait until the next batch of checks went out the end of July, which, she said would also be late again because of Bounty Payment issues. She said she’d call me back Friday following that meeting to let me know what they’d decided.
And…she actually did call me Friday afternoon, and said they would cut checks now versus making us wait, and that they’d go out today (Monday the 23rd). Yayyy!!! Hopefully, I’ll have it in the mail then this week! If not, I’ll be calling back…LOL!
NOTE: They still don’t have Christine and I’s Bounty Payments figured for May, and it appears those are paid about 4 months after you earn them. So, what we’re each getting in June is just for our May sales, no bounty money included.
Another cautionary tale…
My fabulous narrator Christine let me in on a little tip too that will help each of you who write series that you turn into Audio Books:
If you ask, Audible will create what they call a “Series Link” which shows up at the top of your Audible listing page (under the narrator link) so listeners know your book is part of a series with a click thru to all the Audio Book available in that series.
I’ve emailed and asked them to make me one of those little gems, so we’ll see what happens there.
So, here are a few issues then that I’ve had while starting out on my Audio Book Adventure. And yes, they’ve been minor irritants and inconveniences, but that’s to be expected when your blazing the trail with a new company doing the same. I’m thrilled ACX and Audible are experiencing such A-mazing and totally unexpected growth by opening up to Indies. So, I’ll ride it out with them and give them a chance to get it together.
It’s Your Turn, WG2E-Land: What kinds of Audio Book experiences have you had, and what kinds of questions can I help you with about this process?
The Best of The WG2E Epublishing Empire Wishes — D. D. Scott
Great stuff, DD! Shame about the problems but hopefully they’ll get sorted out soon. My major experience with audio books is that Audible won’t accept non US authors!!!! So no audible books for me at the moment
I think they’ve got to fix paying the US ones first before they tackle international payments, Sibel. LOL!
Thanks, DD. I was wondering if I should go the audio way with my future books. Now I think I will. Hopefully Audible will open up to Canadians in the near future.
It is just a fabulous way to extend your brand, reach and audience, Diane! And once they get all the wrinkles worked out, it will be another regular income stream possibility for each of your books.
Like Bob Mayer said yesterday, your story is the product, not the book made from it. Audible ACX is giving us another format outlet for each of our stories.
I signed my first audio contract with Audio Lark in June for my RS Lost In Italy. AL distributes with Audible. My book won’t be released until April 2013, which is awhile, but I just don’t have the time to do all the stuff myself. That said, I would love to do my next one through ACX and on an indie loop I’m on there’s been a huge discussion about this. If I could find the time to locate a narrator, I might want to go the upfront payment route, otherwise the only difference I see between doing it myself and going through Audio Lark is the release time. I’m thinking I need to make the time and try both ways to see which is best for me business wise.
Time is my major factor. Don’t we all wish we had more of it?
Hi Stacey – My release date with Audio Lark for Love By Design is April of 2013 too!
Playing For Keeps though I’m doing through ACX with DD’s narrator Christine Padovan. It will release sometime in August.
It will be interesting to see both sides – and right off the bat we know – just like indie publishing your book doesn’t have to wait months to be released.
Way to go, Liz! Isn’t Christine wonderful?!
You and Stacey will have some excellent comparisons and analyses to share with us then between your Audio Lark and Audible ACX experiences!!!
Once you’ve found your narrator, which ACX makes extremely fun and easy, Stacey, there’s really not much time commitment on your end. The time is put in by your narrator and sound engineers. And yes, I luuuvvv that my Audio Books are coming out now every two months. That is going to really help build up my Audio Audience! Plus, once they get their payment process worked out, it will mean monthly checks as well!
Congrats on jumping into the Audio Book World too!!!
Thanks DD for the update! I can’t wait for Playing For Keeps to be released in August through ACX and if you remember Christine is also doing mine. I was a thrill listening to the first 15 minutes of my words being spoken!
Are there any review / promo sites for audio books that you know of?
I sooo hear ya, Liz!
When Christine brings your story to life, and you hear it for the first time…well, it’s just one of those life experiences you’ll never forget. 
That’s a great question regarding Audio promo and review sites…I haven’t heard of any, but yes, we should definitely look for them. Great idea!
That said, I do think I’ll add an Audio Book Page to The RG2E, and I’ll list the ones you all give me there…sound good?
Sounds great. And I’ll let you if I find anything regarding audio promo/review sites.
I’ll do the same! Thank U! U Rock!!!
ACX just released my first audio book: Video Vixen – so far it just popped up on Itunes, not yet on Amazon or in their catalogue – they said it would take a couple days.
Next book, Special Delivery, done with a ‘group’ male/female voices, sound effects, music should be out in 2 weeks. It is super sexy with the male/female voices!
I love working with them, have all my books on a schedule to be done with a fabulous group of narrators.
That’s an excellent idea, Elaine!!! A narrator group!!! I didn’t realize you could do that! WooHooo!!! U Go, Girl!!!
Congrats on jumping into the Audio Book World!!! Well done!!!
P.S. And aren’t the sound effects fun?! I luuuvvv when Christine does those too!!!
I’m also looking for a set up that can be accessed from the UK similar to ACX, so if anyone knows of such I’d love to know.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Nook comes up with one now that Microsoft is part owner, Joanne, and I do think Audible ACX will go global within the next year…just my gut instinct. And perhaps Kobo will venture into Audio Books too…
Thanks for plowing the trail ahead of us, DeeDee. I really want to do this for my books. Glad you’re here to walk us through it!
U betchya, Elizabeth!
Nothin’ beats Writers Helping Writers Reach Readers…and now Listeners too!
I’ve been pretty impressed with ACX so far… a few glitches, but the phone support is spot-on and the reps are eager to help fix problems. Gillian Vance, my narrator for Stay Tuned, just wrapped up production of ‘Stay Tuned’ and Deanna Moffitt is working on ‘Dancing Naked in Dixie’ right now! Not sure why it takes another few additional weeks to get the audiobook released, but I can’t wait to get the novels out there in a new format!
Thanks for sharing your experience with ACX, D.D. xx, Lauren
U got it, Lauren…I sooo agree that ACX’s phone support/Customer Service is wonderful to work with!!!
It does seem to take about two weeks now from the time you and your narrator approve your files before it’s live for sale on Audible. And then a few days after that before Amazon and iTunes links are live.
I am now learning (just today), again from the ACX Customer Support team that, if and when you need additions to your listing (like the Series Link) and/or questions, do the following:
“Please send your request to the team at audio@acx.com. It is always recommended to email the group rather than individuals for needs like this.”
Every day I learn something new, and I luuuvvv that!!!
DeeDee,
Once again, thank you!
You’ve become our indie author version of a bomb-sniffing dog.
You proceed ahead of the troops guiding and protecting.
Guts and … glory.
Got to love you!
LOL, Barbara!!!
I’ve never been compared to a bomb-sniffing dog…Cool!!! 
It’s my pleasure to plow ahead and let y’all know what I encounter along the way!!!
Cheers to you, my friend, and thanks sooo much for the sweet shout-out!
Fabulous tips as always! I just completed production on the audio book for One Pink Line, and my narrator uploaded the file just this past Friday. So excited to have it done! So it hasn’t gone live yet, and they’re having some issues with my cover art for some reason, but this is all REALLY great to read. You’re the best.
-D
Congrats, Dina, regarding your Audio Book soon-to-be released!!! Yayyy!!!
I had cover art trouble too…but just for Stompin’ weird enough, which I re-formated/re-sized the same way I did Bootscootin’s. Anyhoo…once I gave all the covers to my superfab Sam the Intern, she’s got ‘em all re-sized to ACX and Audible’s specs and we’re good to go on that. Note: Just because your computer says your files are 1200 X 1200 square, and you upload ‘em to ACX and they’re accepted originally, they may not meet their final inspection. So, it’s best to have a professional graphic designer check ‘em out before you upload ‘em to ACX. They are very picky about their quality control and will hold-up your release until the covers are perfect.
Thanks for the info and wise words, D.D.! This is an area I still haven’t ventured into, and I’ll be sure to study your posts before I do.
U betchya, Alicia!
That’s what The WG2E is all about, my friend…and when you’re ready for the scoop, it’s all right here for ya!!!
When I checked out ACX’s website, under Author submissions, it said you had to post your book for Producers to contact you, then you have to make an offer to them and see if they accept it.
Can you please describe this process a little more?
Wavin’ atchya, Debra!
Sure thing…
Once ACX accepts you as an Author (and you do that by writing them a letter, if your titles don’t already show up as accepted…see the posts I linked to in today’s post on how to do that), you have to prepare your books for audition, which I think ACX calls “claiming your titles.” Once your books are then available to accept auditions, I would suggest you browse through all the narrators (narrowing your search by using ACX’s awesome narrator search qualities – i.e. male/female, comedic timing, accent type, age, etc) and then YOU CONTACT THEM about auditioning for you. Once you know who you want, you contact that narrator through ACX and “Make an Offer” (all the instructions to Make an Offer are on ACX’s website in the FAQs section and are very easy to follow). Making an Offer involves whether or not you’re paying the Narrator/Producer per finished hour or doing a royalty split. You also give them timelines when you’d like each audio book completed.
Does this help you and answer what you need to know?
I would suggest you read ACX’s FAQs, which is how I learned the ropes:
https://www.acx.com/help/how-it-works/200484210
Thanks, D.D. That was very helpful!
U betchya, my friend!!! Cheers!!!