We’re committed to making Audible and ACX the best experience it can be for our creative community, and we’ve heard your feedback. We have been hard at work building a new reporting system to reflect details on returns, including returned units by title. Starting March 2021, you’ll be able to see this data on your ACX Sales Dashboard. This data will also be included in your monthly financial statements for March 2021 and the following months. We appreciate your patience as we invest the time and resources to make these updates to the dashboard and our backend systems, so that we can expand reporting details for our thousands of creators. As of January 1, 2021, we are paying royalties on any return made more than 7 days after purchase.
We are also making other changes to our ACX policies to provide more flexibility, which we know is important to you. Effective February 1, ACX Rights Holders of DIY or Pay-for-Production titles that have been on sale for 90 or more days can convert their distribution type from exclusive to non-exclusive. In addition, all ACX Rights Holders will have the option to terminate after 90 days of distribution, but Rights Holders with Royalty Share or Royalty Share Plus deals must provide Producer consent when making their request. More details about this update will come in the payments letter that will be sent next week.
Today, you may notice an update to how you create audiobooks on ACX: customizable Chapter Names!
Now, when you start a new project on ACX, you’ll be able to quickly and easily list the parts of the book you want included in your audiobook production as soon as you claim your title. Simply enter the Chapter Names in the new Table of Contents setup page as you want them to appear to your listener in their Audible app, using the “Import from Kindle” button (available for select titles), or copy and paste Chapter Names from your manuscript.
Authors, now you can easily present to your Producer which sections they should include when recording your audio edition, as well as making your final audiobook easy to navigate for your listener. Producers, this will make it easier for you to upload the corresponding audio to the Chapter Names you see in Production Manager.
So how do you make the most of this cool new feature?
Take the time to curate your chapter names. Now that listeners can use these chapter headings to navigate your audiobook in the app, you want to make sure your table of contents makes that navigation as easy and intuitive as possible. Designate the sections of your audiobook accurately, indicating specific sections like the introduction, prologue, or epilogue, and name your chapters for easy discovery. If you are able to import your table of contents directly from the Kindle version of your book, take a moment to carefully review the chapter headings to ensure all desired sections are present and that spelling, grammar, and formatting is consistent throughout. See below for example.
Remove sections that aren’t for audio. If you’ve ever wondered what sections of your book should (and shouldn’t!) be narrated for audio, this moment serves as an opportunity to remove any sections from the list that should not be narrated for the audio edition, such as the table of contents or index and other front or back matter. The chapter headings you provide will be automatically populated in the producer’s view of production manager so they can upload the appropriate audio for each section, so be sure your table of contents only includes the sections you want your narrator to record.
Pay attention to formatting. To make your audiobook appear consistent with other titles and to give the listener the best in-app navigation experience, take the time to attend to formatting. Review our formatting guidelines, and check your chapter names for consistency throughout your audiobook. Adhering to industry-standard styles for your chapter headings will give your audiobook a polished, professional appearance in the Audible app.
Optimizing your chapter names for enhanced navigation is a small way you can make a bigdifference to your listener’s experience, and we hope you’ll take advantage of it to help your audiobook succeed!
Sunday May 12, 2013 will mark ACX’s 2nd birthday! We’ve grown a lot, and we’ve come a long way since that fateful day two years ago. Our success is all due to two groups: the amazing ACX users (that’s you!) and our fantastic team behind the scenes at Audible.
For our second birthday, you’ll get to meet some of the ACX team and take a trip down memory lane with us, as we share some fun facts and stats from our first two years.
Enjoy the trivia today, and check back on Monday to meet the team!
Names rejected before deciding on ACX: LAFA (Liberty and Audio For All), ACSS (Audiobook Creation & Submission System).
Nickname given to the meeting room where the ACX team worked long hours for many months leading up to the launch of the site:The Regal Beagle, as in the bar from Three’s Company where noted ladies’ man Jack Tripper often found himself on hilariously complicated double dates.
Audiobook Creation Exchange Blog (ACX) 
