r/ACX

So I'm pretty confused here. I am a producer working on an audiobook and this is the first time I'm exporting stereo files as I have sound effects that I want to preserve their channels.

When I listen on my PC to the audio in the DAW, it sounds great. I even used multiple types of headphones and speakers.

When I listen on my PC to the final rendered Mp3, it sounds great. Also used multiple headsets.

When I go to the ACX website and play the uploaded audio using the website player on my PC, it sounds great.

When I DOWNLOAD it from ACX website on my PC it sounds great.

When I upload the audio to google drive and download it on my phone it sounds great.

So far, all the same results.

But when I try to go directly to the ACX website and play it through the browser audio player on my PHONE, it sounds TERRIBLE.

Even when I DOWNLOAD it from the ACX website to avoid web compression on my phone, it still sounds terrible.

HOWEVER, it sounds normal when I download it from ACX AND open it in my mobile VLC app.

What am I not understanding about compression? Why is VLC giving me better results than normal audio playback? And do I have anything to worry about once the final audio gets uploaded to Audible and people play it on their Audible app?

EDIT: All my EQ is disabled on phone and PC as I suspected that. It's also worth noting this only occurs on stereo files. Mono sounds the same. It sounds like it is hollow or boxy. I also investigated VLC to make sure there we no enhancing settings on.

Or that you just really like. Or heck, maybe the opposite, where you listened, didn’t like the style, and concluded you wouldn’t want to do anything similar.

I’m currently listening to Dungeon Crawler Carl and Jeff Hays does a really good job with character voices. It actually gave me some ideas for a book I’m currently in the process of narrating.

I am tandem reading/listening to the new Dungeon Crawler Carl book, and I noticed that the narrator will occasionally skip ”I said,” “she said” phrases when it is clear who is speaking.
Can Jeff do this because he is the God of Narration, or is this standard practice? I have always heard that word-perfect is the standard, but wonder if there is ever room to skip these phrases when it is intrusive.

I recently got started on ACX, uploaded a couple auditions and have heard back from a potential project. My broad questions is, how should I start out negotiating Royalty Share, time allotted for project and finding out if a title is AI generated?

I have experience editing audio and narrating separately, but my experience doing both is rather limited and I have never mastered or edited for a full length book before. I am confident in my abilities, but am unsure of how long I should tell the author to expect to have that finished product in. Amazon is saying the novel is 500 pages, and I'm unsure how much of a workload this would be.

Also, how can I add clauses to the agreement that no AI be used in the writing or creative process of this novel? I don't want to contribute to any Ai generated content, and would also not like my voice to be used in AI training. Whats the best way to find out if an author is using AI and contractually make sure it has not and will not be used?

I'm finally ready to get started on ACX, but my final step is sorting out a contract. Do most narrators use the standard ACX contract?

I was thinking of starting with that, plus the NAVA AI Rider. Does that sound good?

If anyone is willing to share their contracts with me, I'd really appreciate it!

Does anyone know if the new ACX/Audible royalty plan rolling out this month has changed the rule that if you are first exclusive and want to go wide, you can only do that once and then can never come back?

And vice versa, ie, if I publish wide and want to try exclusive, it's a one time thing, and I'm stuck with exclusive for life?

I've hunted all over to try to find out and have come up short. Thanks!!

I've been trying to post my audiobooks on ACX and I keep running into problems. For example, books often get stuck in 'pending review' before I can even open auditions. I've talked to other publishers and it's a common issue in the space, to the point where most of them are switching to Findaway Voices or Authors Republic.

What's your feedback on this? Is ACX still a viable option or is it too unreliable at this point?

320k words, absolute behemoth of a gig, but it's practically complete. Just need to master a few more files so its ready for ACX. I will admit, I do have periods of laziness and without those It'd have taken a month or so, but it took me about two. I thought posting this might act as a good reason to maybe give advice to people who feel intimidated by the size of some narration gigs, or moreover, narration gigs that also require vast amounts of character acting. Remember, it's possible, and you can do it!

So, for the past 2 projects (I’m still kind of new), I sent the producers a manuscript where it’s basically novel format, but with most of the front and back matter taken out. someone in my local writing group told me that they prefer it to be in screenplay format because it helps with changing their performance for each character. Is that what I should be doing? Or is there a better format that I’ve been missing?

So I am a beginner when it comes to narration. As in, I am currently working on my very first audiobook project on ACX, it is only about an hour and a half long, and only royalty share, no PFH rate.

My concern, the author I am working with is writing a series. The title I’m working on is the first in the series.

But here is the thing…..I’m getting some red flags.

Firstly, this author has not given me any feedback on my work whatsoever. I am halfway through the project and I asked them to review what I have uploaded and let me know if they would like me to make any edits/changes/rerecord/etc. They haven’t asked me to redo anything.

On one hand, I am glad because that means they are satisfied with my work. On the other, since it’s my first audiobook I am finding the lack of feedback to be a bit concerning. I know I’m not perfect so knowing ways to improve would be amazing.

The second concern, this author reached out to me before I even got halfway through the first title and asked me to be the voice of the series. Again, I am honored. But the offer is a little vague and honestly they aren’t offering me much.

They want to provide $20 for every other title, and royalty share for the ones in between. Initially they weren’t gonna pay anything at all for the ones in between but they have since offered royalty share instead. They state that 20.00 is likely more the I would get via royalty share for each title anyway (another red flag). They estimate there will be 6 titles in the series. It is an ongoing series so the number is not set in stone.

This is very little pay for the amount of time and effort this will take.

I assume each one will be approximately an hour and a half in length because this seems this is this authors pattern, however since it is ongoing, the lengths of each is unknown and I am hesitant to accept their offer both due to the minimal pay and the vague terms.

I am thinking of asking them to treat each title as its own individual agreement (I assume this is how ACX will have it done anyway)

I want others thoughts on the situation. Is this person taking advantage of me as a beginner narrator?

I'm curious, do you have a method for asking the RH for a testimonial once your work is published? I keep forgetting that I should ask for them and want to make sure I can get a quality testimonial.

I periodically come across royalty share projects where the author has indicated an interest in dual narration. As a listener, I greatly prefer duet narration to dual, but as a narrator duet is much more work intensive. When authors indicate dual narration, how frequently is dual actually their preference, versus just what they think is feasible to request on a royalty share basis?

In other words, would it be appropriate to offer to do a dual narration project as a duet? Would that be considered an upgrade?

I’m sure the answer may be author dependent, but I’m looking to get a general sense, as well as to try to understand why anyone would prefer dual if they had the option to have duet narration.

In the market for a cozy mystery with a female lead?

Peppa Danyelle quit her corporate actuarial career to buy a used bookstore in Salem, MA. Then, after a mysterious death in town, the ghost of Sherlock Holmes arrives in her shop and together they solve a mystery steeped in deceit, antiques, and architecture.

I have promo codes if you’d like to check it out — message me and I’ll send them out first come, first serve.

This is a first book in a series — more to come. The cover art isn’t ideal, but trust: this is a charming story and a strong new narrator.

(It’s me, I’m the narrator - and this is my first published audiobook - more to come soon in the genres of historical fiction, litrpg, and epic fantasy)

https://www.audible.com/pd/B0GYT5ZFMH?source\_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share\_location=library\_overflow

So I'm finally at the point where I feel comfortable with my audition submission workflow (always evolving), and am looking at finally fleshing out my ACX profile in attempts to be credible and close some opportunities.

That being said, Rights Holders, I'm wondering:

• Do you browse profiles for voices, or do you just check them out if interested in an audition submission?
• If you do browse the narrator voices, what helps them stand out to you?

Happy to have some input from Narrators on this as well, especially if you have things to share you've heard from Rights Holders about your own profile that helped it's credibility and traffic.

Thanks!

Apologies in advance if this is obvious or covered elsewhere (I’ve tried searching but came back empty).

I am super new and just getting started but really want to be as successful in narration as possible, and I 100% know that getting yourself out there is crucial. I want to regularly add to and update the samples on my profile and also start adding some to social media. My issue is material.

My question is, am I able to use clips recorded for auditions as samples for my profile? My immediate thought is, no, unless I had prior consent form the RH. Is that correct?

On the same lines, I also assume licensed material (sections from published books) is also a no no without authors consent. I have however seen samples of text such as The Hobbit and other popular books.

I just don’t want to violate any rules if they are in place, but on the flip side, if I can use existing text which I know and love, I could make even better samples.

If this is all a no, where do people get material text for their samples?

Hey Fellow Narrators/VA's

I have some questions. So I started getting into VA/Narration Mainly doing things for fun like Voice-Over of anime scenes etc. I did kind of take a peak into audio narration. ACX came up. I setup and account put a few of my better clips in as demos and waited.

About 7 hours or so later. I wake up to a message from what seems to be a Producer of some sort for a company regarding publishing audiobooks. He offered, 40% Royalty, and wanted me to send in an audition. I did. I also counter offered w/100-200 FPH because its an over 7 hour book 69k word count, and a non high seller that I can tell at least. I wait. (Again new, not really expecting to actually get FPH yet but learning as I go)

I wake up today, Another message same guy. Saying Audition was excellent. offering 50% royalty. Mind you I did research on what likely would be the best start for someone just getting into it. A lot of people that I've seen suggest, Royalty on smaller length books, for the experience and the reputation starting out. Especially with how much work goes into editing and everything at first. around the loose 6-8 Hour marker for one finished hour of audio.
(I do think I would benefit from doing smaller projects first. I just am unsure if this is a potentail actual client or some sort of scam)

I am still newer to the editing portion of audio I have experience, I just am still developing skills for editing. I came forward about that. I am willing to do the work. but due to my day job and time constraints, I have about 4 hours a day during the week to record, the rest is all editing/mastering/qc about 6 or so hours a day more on weekends.

I told him it'd be a roughly 2-2.5 week turnaround time on the project. He also said he'd have another book if I was interested and told me to give him a call. I don't like moving off the platform that is intended to keep us in a smooth working order. I feel sketched out. Again, I could have tragically miss stepped here, but I learn from mistakes.

Thoughts on this?

Title in Question

First Messages

2nd Set of Messages

I live outside the US and UK so using the ACX website it out of the question and I have to go through inaudio and Author's Republic.

I always have problems with my audiobooks getting approved, showing up on other stores, but then never appearing on Audible.

I worked out that if I don't check "Audible" when I publish the story for the first time on inaudio it will never appear. Even if I update it later. But now Author's Republic is also being super slow and I'm worried about my work not showing up.

I was wondering if anyone has had the same problem or if they have any good advice for making sure that you're story 100% shows up on Audible.