The Problems with ACX Royalty Share
My Personal Experience with the 50/50 Royalty Split on Audiobook Creation Exchange
It's hard to believe it's been a decade since I first broke into this business and it has me feeling rather nostalgic while reflecting on some fun and different times. When I first broke into the business, my only concern was to publish print books. I had no intentions of expanding into digital publishing and I really didn't know there were audiobooks that weren't on a CD or cassette tape.
You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that selling ebooks was much more profitable because of its accessibility and growing demand. As I studied more of the self-publishing business, I saw a lot of low rumblings around publishing audiobooks. Naturally, my first exposure to publishing digital audiobooks came through the Amazon-owned company, Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX).
ACX has distribution to three major audiobook retail platforms in Audible, Amazon, and Apple. They offer a royalty of 25% for nonexclusive distribution and 40% for exclusive distribution. You can upload any audiobooks you produce or hire a narrator on ACX's massive narrator marketplace.
But, what if you don't have the equipment or know-how to record an audiobook?
What if you can't afford to hire a narrator?
Enter ACX's Royalty Share model.
What is ACX's Royalty Share Deal?
For authors working with limited resources—whether cash, skills, or time—the ACX Royalty Share option is rather enticing. You can hire many narrators or voice over talent on the ACX Marketplace. Getting the right person for the job can be quite fun.
Authors (or rights holders) upload the book to the ACX platform, including the cover, description, and any relevant information about the book and your author brand. Once it's there, rights holders can approach narrators in the marketplace or offer the audiobook for auditions. Finding a great narrator is a rather long process alone, add the complexity of a royalty split deal, the task becomes even harder.
The ACX Royalty Share gives an even split of revenue between the rights holder and narrator. You should know major catches to this option.
My first issue with the Royalty Share agreement is the length—seven years. After the initial agreement period, the contract auto-renews. Should you want to break the agreement, you and the narrator will need to work together to make it happen. Most narrators will want to be paid while some might not have any issue with pulling a publication based on prior compensation.
Let's say you want to buyout the agreement from the narrator, you still have to delist your audiobook. You can't leave that book up, therefore, you lose any reviews and algorithmic relevance you built from years of work.
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