As ACX nears its 4-month anniversary, we are happy to report on some recent upgrades to the site that we believe you should all greatly appreciate. We’re confident you’ll welcome them because, well, you were asking us for them! Thanks for the constructive feedback and good ideas… and please keep ’em coming.
1) Keyword Search: This was probably the most requested enhancement since ACX launched. Using our new keyword search functionality, you will be able to search through our available Titles and Producers — there are 1300+ titles and 2300+ samples — in a much easier way. Maybe you wanted to search for audio samples that are in “English,” that have an “Adult” voice, that are from a Producer interested in earning “$200-$400 per finished hour”, and goes by the name of “Nick.” Now you can easily do that. Or maybe you’ve followed a particular narrator’s work for some time or have a relationship with them. You can simply type their name and see if they are on ACX.
2) See your Audiobook Sales on ACX: If your audiobook was created on ACX and you earn royalties, you can see your sales on our site. Simply go to your “Completed Projects” tab in your “My Projects” section. From there, you will see all of the books that you have had a hand in creating. Click on the book and then go to the “Audiobook Sales” tab. Here is where you can see all of the unit sales.
3) Message Box Enhancements: We know there is a lot of back and forth messaging between Producers and Rights Holders on ACX. For example, we know that Rights Holders query Producers to get to know their availability better. We know that Producers approach Rights Holders to see when they may be making offers on a highly anticipated title. New, effective enhancements mean that now not only will you see previous messages related to the conversation that you are having, but you can also see your “Sent Messages” from within your Message Box. To do that, simply click on the Messages link at the top of ACX and then click on the drop down that should say “All Messages” as default. Choose “Sent Messages.” While we were at it, we also are now showing you a confirmation message when you send your messages to others. You asked for it, you got it!
4) Integrated Copyright Information: We now gather certain pieces of copyright information so that it can be read by your audiobook’s Producer in the book’s closing credits, and also so this information can be displayed on our retail sites.
5) Cover Art Creator: Rights Holders are responsible for supplying cover art for their audiobook. Generally, the Rights Holder secures the cover art rights from the book’s print publisher, or create their own new art. But in case you need help creating new cover art, we have created an easy-to-use cover art creator which will package (admittedly nondescript) cover art for your use on the final product.
As we launch specific enhancements, we continue to listen to your feedback. Here is a list of some upcoming enhancements that we are working on, per your requests:
1) Additional features on top of Keyword Search, such as autosuggest and new locations from which you can start your search.
2) Better visibility into Stipend-eligible titles: Some titles on ACX are eligible for Stipends to Producers. It will soon be easier for Producers to see those on the site.
3) Filtering/Sorting within My Projects: Especially for those Rights Holders and Producers juggling dozens, if not hundreds, of title profiles and audiobook productions, you will soon be able to order and search for your projects in a more user-friendly manner than you can today. No longer will you need to page through to find the title that you want to check in on, or take a next step on.
4) Multi-file download and upload: Some audiobooks have over 40 chapters. We will allow you to download your audiobook all at once, so that you do not need to click on each chapter to download it individually. We are also looking into a solution that allows Producers to upload chapters of an audiobook en masse, as well.
5) Audition Script as documents: Today, Rights Holders have to type in or (more likely) copy-and-paste their audition script for their titles. We are looking to provide functionality so that Rights Holders can upload a snippet of their manuscript and use that as the Audition Script. Producers would, of course, be able to download those as well.
6) Much much more. We have a laundry list of backlog items that we are continually developing. Although we cannot share them all at this time, we promise you’ll be excited by the items in our long term roadmap. Stay tuned…
Audiobook Creation Exchange Blog (ACX) 