No Upfront Costs for Audiobook Production

*** May be a US Only Option

Your book has been published and you want to publish and audiobook. You can reach a greater audience and having an audiobook makes you appear to be more credible as an author. 

ACX.com is an Amazon owned company that allows you to publish and produce audiobooks in a few different ways. Once your ebook is published on Amazon, you can open a FREE account on ACX, create a new project and upload a sample of your writing for narrators to audition for you. You also have the ability to search through thousands of voice samples of narrators looking for work. 

There are three ways to go about this:
  • Produce the audiobook yourself - This takes a few hundred dollars worth of equipment, which you can buy from Amazon of course. You create mp3 files and upload them. ACX engineers then analyze them for quality and either approve or reject. If you produce yourself, you can choose to take 35% royalties with a non-exclusive contract, or you can take a 40% royalty and sign an exclusivity contract for 7 years. The audiobooks will be sold on Amazon, Audible, and ITunes.
  • You can pay a flat rate to a narrator, and receive either the 35% or 40% royalty option.  Rates seem to range between $100-$300 per finished hour. My books are 7-9 hours, so upfront costs would be $700 - $2700 for a flat rate.
  • The third option is to split the royalties with the narrator. If you do this, you MUST sign the exclusivity agreement to ensure the narrator gets their fair share.

There is another way to make money with Audible.com.  When a NEW customer signs up for a monthly members and chooses your book as a first purchase, you receive a $50 "Bounty". If you split the royalties with the narrator you must also split the bounty. If you paid the narrator the flat rate upfront or produced the work yourself, you get to keep the $50.

Royalty Payments

Like Amazon, the royalties are deposited directly into your bank account. 
Payments can be confusing. They offer a subscription service in which members pay $14.99 per month and get one title. They can use "credits" to use toward other titles. They can also purchase your book "a la carte" meaning they do it without credits. Then there are "non-members" who can buy the books. Each of these levels pays a different amount.


Currently, I have four audiobook titles. I split my royalties with my narrators, and my titles range from $7-$19.95. (2 hours - 9 hours). There have been some months where I made 75 CENTS per title and others were I made $2 per title. 

Why Did I Publish Audiobooks with Royalty Share?

Authors have asked me this and are shocked anyone would want to split the royalties. There are several reasons I did this.
  • I was BROKE! lol
  • My work was already done and published, the narrator had to do all the work with the audiobooks. I just listened to the final product to approve it.
  • I figured that since I did not have to do anything it was just "extra" money.
  • I wanted to reach a greater audience
  • I was extreme new to writing/publishing and almost immediately had readers asking me for audiobooks--the were disappointed when I said no.
  • I read online that most Indie authors only sell 50-100 copies in ANY format for the life of their book. If the audiobook didn't sell, I would not be out thousands of dollars.

What About Reviews?

Audiobook reviews are just like book reviews. They can be placed on Amazon & Audible. On the Audible site, the reviewers are asked to rate the story, the narrator and an overall. They are permitted to rate without a review or rate and review.


To generate interest, the author and the narrator each receive 25 FREE coupon codes to create buzz. They can be given in exchange for reviews, used in rafflecopters or other giveaways.


IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE YOUR CODES... then write to ACX.com customer service they will send new ones.