Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:05 — 723.5KB)
Subscribe Free! Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More
When the bottom drops out of your business…
I have been with ACX, the arm of Amazon that publishes audiobooks for Audible to sell, for about eight years. However, I have been active for only since 2018, about four years at the time of writing. During that time, I created 174 audiobooks with about 144 narrators.
My average monthly income until August 2020 was about $250. Then, in September of that year, I had a brainwave. I don’t mind if you think that it was late coming, but ACX gives authors and narrators (or rights holders and publishers, as they call us) a number of free codes to give to those that we believe will leave an honest review.
We also used to get paid for giving away those free codes on books published before 26-3-20
In September 2020, I had about 7,000 codes, and the narrators must have had about half as many again.
So, I was ticking along at about $250 p/m and discovered Facebook Groups. I began to target my books to specific groups, and my revenue quadrupled within a couple of months.
My Problems with ACX
In March 2021, two Bangladeshi students offered to help with my promotion. I hesitated, and dawdled for a month, but eventually took them on.
Within six weeks, my income had rocketed to $3,000 pm, and within another three months, Audible had de-listed my top 20 novels for ‘fraud’.
Don’t ask me why, because Audible is so high and mighty that they offered no explanations or right of appeal to my problems with ACX.
So, I continued under those conditions for nine months until June 2022, when I was accused of fraud again and my account was closed.
No appeal, no explanation…
However, an ACX bot let slip the fraudulent titles. There were twelve, but I know that I have never ever promoted eight of them.
The same person narrated all twelve. So, am I being blamed for someone else’s misdemeanours?
Who knows? However, what is worse is that Audible doesn’t care!
ACX
Be aware, that Audible has closed my writer’s account, even though I had 174 audiobooks in that account, and 144 people had narrated those books.
Therefore, without any proper explanation, I, and 144 narrators have lost an income.
If your business relies on Audible/ACX as mine did, you need to take action now, because you could be next!
This happens more often than you think!
Email me to find my solution to my problems with ACX.
