ACX Review: Is ACX.com a Legit Site for Audiobook Narrators?

ACX stands for Audible Creation Exchange. It’s an online job marketplace or freelancer platform that was founded in 2011, and it’s owned by Audible.com, a subsidiary of Amazon.

Authors, their publishers, or other book rights holders use ACX to search for and hire narrators and producers (which are often one in the same). There are over 1 million narrators working on the platform, so you’ll have to do a lot of voiceover or voice acting work to get noticed and hired.

In addition to creating an impressive profile, narrators have to audition for every audiobook they want to work on. What’s more, narrators are responsible for both performing and producing fully ready audiobooks for their clients.

Types of audiobooks you can narrate

You can get paid to read and record audiobooks in any category found on Audible.com. The list is as extensive as it gets, spanning from nonfiction works like biographies and educational books to mysteries, romances, and much more.

If there’s a particular category you’re interested in or have experience reading for, you should be able to find it on ACX. There are thousands of active projects available at any given time.

Costs and fees

ACX is completely free for narrators. There are no hidden costs or fees to worry about. Instead, ACX makes money by taking a cut of the author’s or rights holder’s earnings.

Eligibility requirements

To create a narrator account on ACX, you’ll need to meet a few basic requirements:

• Age: In the United States, you must be at least 18 years old to be an ACX narrator.
• Location: You must have an address, banking details, and tax information in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, or Ireland.
• Equipment: You must have your own dedicated recording space and equipment.

As long as you tick these boxes, you stand a chance to narrate audiobooks on Amazon. Nevertheless, having an ACX account doesn’t guarantee you’ll get picked for a project.

While you don’t necessarily need pricey, top-of-the-line equipment, it’s the professional narrators who’ve invested in their careers who seem to do the best on ACX. Every audiobook goes through a rigorous assessment, so your skills in narration, voice acting, audio recording, and audio production need to be top-notch in order for you to offer these creative services.

In theory, you could sidestep these requirements by finding on-site gigs. However, ACX focuses on work-from-home opportunities, so you may have to try alternative platforms (e.g., Backstage.com) for on-site gigs.

Languages

On ACX, you can narrate audiobooks in any of the following languages:

• English
• Spanish
• French
• German
• Japanese
• Italian
• Russian
• Danish
• Swedish
• Portuguese
• Polish
• Mandarin Chinese
• Dutch

As a narrator, you will negotiate your rate with the author before accepting a contract. Online discussions suggest that many ACX narrators ear somewhere in the range of $200–$500 per finished hour.

There’s no cap on your earning potential. Highly skilled and renowned Audible narrators can even earn thousands of dollars per finished hour. Overall, ACX’s rates are in line with how much professional audiobook narrators typically make.

On the other hand, if you choose a royalty share plus agreement, you’ll earn less. Accepting a royalty deal means that you won’t get paid anything at all upfront.

ACX compensation options

There are three types of compensation plans an author might offer you.

Pay for production

You’ll receive a one-time payment once you’ve completed the job and the rights holder has approved your uploaded audiobook. Narrators are not paid for the actual number of hours they work. Instead, what you earn is based on your per-finished-hour rate.

This PFH rate corresponds to the duration of the final recording. Whatever rate you negotiate with the rights holder will get multiplied by the final runtime of the audiobook to calculate your earnings.

Royalty share

Instead of collecting a lump-sum payment, you’ll receive monthly royalty payments for the lifetime of the book, up to 7 years.

Authors and other rights holders can earn up to 40% of the retail price of their audiobooks. They make 40% by granting ACX and Audible exclusive rights and 25% by giving them nonexclusive rights.

When signing the contract, the rights holder and narrator determine how they’re going to split or share those earnings.

Royalty share plus

This compensation plan is a hybrid model that combines the benefits of royalty and pay-for-production deals. You’ll receive a stipend after your audiobook is uploaded and approved. The stipend is based on a much lower PFH rate than what narrators typically charge.

How do narrators get paid?

If you’re hoping to make money fast or find gigs that will pay instantly, ACX won’t usually be ideal, as it pays narrators on a monthly basis. For PFH deals, you can either opt to receive your payment by check or direct deposit. For royalty share payments, you’ll receive your earnings as direct deposits.

To receive a payment, you must make over $10 during the pay period. If you don’t, your earnings will roll over to subsequent months until you reach $50.

If the author or rights holder has chosen to pay you directly, then you two will need to work out your preferred payment delivery method.

There’s no question about whether or not ACX is a scam. It’s part of the Amazon and Audible family, so it’s a legit company with a legit platform for paid work.

Because of ACX’s connection to Amazon, audiobooks are distributed via Amazon.com, Audible.com, iTunes, and Amazon’s global retail partners. This makes ACX an attractive place for audiobook narrators to find work.

While there’s potential for a big payday, narrators have to commit huge amounts of time to the audition process alone, not to mention audiobook production.

Narrator benefits and protections

ACX and Audible.com have a working relationship with SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents professional audiobook narrators. Once you start charging $250 per finished hour (PFH), you’re eligible to join the union, which comes with medical and pension benefits.

Beware of fraudulent rights holders

Despite all its merits as a legitimate marketplace for audiobook narrators, ACX seems to have a pervasive problem with bad rights holders. These people advertise jobs looking for narrators for audiobooks they have no rights to publish.

While ACX is supposed to vet authors and ensure that they are the true rights holders of their books, that doesn’t seem to be the case. And if a narrator is unfortunate enough to accept a job from one of these bad actors, they will not get paid when ACX or Audible eventually discovers that the author did not write their own work.

Unfortunately, it’s on you to identify if a project is legit and to not waste your time on ones that aren’t. To reduce the risk of accepting one of these time-consuming and no-pay jobs, ACX has a few tips to help you vet posted projects:

• Research the author and their book: If there’s already an audiobook version available, then it could be a scam.
• Ask yourself whether it’s too good to be true: If the author claims to be with one of the “big 5” publishers, it’s also likely a scam. Small publishers and self-publishing authors are more likely to use ACX.
• Meet the author: Get on the phone or do a video chat with the author in real time. Not only is it easier to hash out details this way, it’ll help you figure out if they’re legit or not.

Are royalty share contracts legit?

Some reviewers suggest that narrators be wary of royalty share agreements. There are a few reasons for this. For starters, it’s a financial gamble—if the audiobook doesn’t sell, you won’t earn any money.

Secondly, ACX only sends money to narrators when their earnings reach at least $10 in 1 month or $50 overall. This means that if you only ever earn a few bucks in royalties, there’s a chance you’ll never see that money at all.

While they’re not all bad or fraudulent, some authors might push for royalty share if they don’t intend on actively marketing their book to improve sales (which means a smaller payout for you).

Researching authors and the performance of their books is an important first step in vetting them. Also check out their website, blog, and social media to see what they’re doing to get their name and work out there.

There are plenty of reasons to sign up as an audiobook narrator with ACX. However, there are a few notable drawbacks and quirks to the platform that you should be aware of.

Hourly rates may be less than you think

Because Audible is a renowned audiobook publishing company with a strong reputation, their audio quality standards are very high. If you’re already a professional audiobook narrator with plenty of experience, this won’t be anything new to you.

However, if you’re just getting started narrating audiobooks, then you may be disappointed by how little you’re earning per hour considering the amount of time and effort you put into the recording process.

User reviews:

“ACX says it takes roughly 2 hours for a VO to record an hour. They say it takes about 6 hours for them to produce a finished hour. For someone starting out, that can actually be feasibly much closer to 10 hours. There’s the recording, editing and then quality assurance of listening back again.” (Reddit, June 2024)

“For ACX, 200/PFH is good, but it doesn’t at all account for the amount of hours you put into production/sound engineering. […] Realistically, my PFH vs production is closer to 1:2, so in reality at best I’m making 50/hour, which is not accounting for revisions/corrections/pickup lists, whatever you want to call it.” (Reddit, March 2024)

“The only issue I’d speak to is the length of time it can take to bring a project to market. This can take a substantially longer than expected time frame. And yes… they are very specific about quality control as they want to make sure listeners have a great experience. […] If you expect to earn six figures in 3 months doing narration, you might have to adjust your expectations accordingly.” (Trustpilot, May 2021)

Great for beginners

Anybody can sign up to narrate on ACX, which is a great way to start a creative side hustle with no prior experience. While there are other platforms out there that are equally beginner-friendly, few have top-quality jobs, high rates, and the wealth of professional resources offered by ACX. This makes it an excellent place to start your career as an audiobook narrator.

User reviews:

“I started from nothing a few months ago […] and began auditioning on ACX. As of today, I’ve seen four audiobooks through to completion. They’re not big, don’t pay much, but it’s a start. I’ve auditioned for a lot of books, and the vast majority get no response. But, every audition builds essential skills, imo. You learn a little more each time.” (Reddit, August 2023)

“Out of roughly 50 auditions on ACX, I’ve produced 5, and am working on my 6th. […] I have no formal training and haven’t used a coach.” (Reddit, August 2023)

“I’m a full-time narrator and I started on ACX. […] It’s a good place to build a portfolio with royalty share projects.” (Reddit, February 2023)

“I had no audio experience, but significant acting experience, and I’ve been working steadily basically from the beginning. So it CAN be done.” (Reddit, March 2020)

It’s on you to spot fraudulent rights holders

As mentioned, there’s a real risk that you’ll encounter illegitimate audiobook narration gigs on ACX. Plenty of negative ACX reviews highlight this issue, sharing horror stories about lost earnings and unpaid labor.

User reviews:

“I am a narrator. Both of my books were pulled due to the fact that they do not check to see if the producer has the rights/permission from the author. I had put in well over 80 hours of work between the two projects.” (Trustpilot, June 2022)

“Just notified after a month that my completed audiobook was cancelled. No explanation. After finally getting someone on the phone they said the rights holder was a fraud and had stolen the rights. Wouldn’t you think they’d vet these titles before posting them? Or at least tell you it’s on you to do that?” (Trustpilot, January 2021)

“Narrators BEWARE! I worked hundreds of hours on books that turned out to be frauds and ACX refused to compensate me for my time (despite a contract that specifically promises to do so).” (Trustpilot, August 2020)

Competition is fierce

One drawback to working on a renowned platform with a huge user base is that you’ll be competing with the pros. While there are no barriers to entry and everyone can take a stab at narrating Audible books, if you’re new to the field, be prepared to be overlooked in favor of top audiobook narrators.

User reviews:

“You’ll be going up against seasoned professionals with dozens or hundreds of books under their belts (like me!) So keep your expectations realistic.” (Reddit, February 2023)

“Fair piece of warning here, it’s not easy. Great voice over artists make it seem effortless, but it’s a very difficult job that requires skill, experience, and talent. You’ll be competing against narrators who have been doing this for 20 years and have 300 + titles under their belts.” (Reddit, February 2022)

“Authors always tell me they’re sifting through more than 100 auditions. That’s a lot to choose from, and even if the vast majority are terrible auditions, you’re likely contending with more than a few top-notch narrators on every audition. The odds are not in your favor here.” (Reddit, March 2020)

If you’re interested in becoming an ACX narrator, here’s how to get started:

1. Go to ACX.com and click the “Get started” button in the top-right corner. If you have an Amazon account, sign in. Otherwise, you’ll need to create one.
2. Select the “Producer” account type. Next, enter additional details about your account.
3. Once you’re inside ACX, start creating your profile:

• • Upload a headshot or logo
  • Write a bio, including any specific genres of interest
  • Add relevant voice acting or narration credits and accolades
  • Include a link to your professional website, if you have one
  • Upload high-quality audio samples that demonstrate your experience, expertise, and range

With your profile done, you can start searching for projects that fit your preferences. In order to apply, you’ll need to submit a 15-minute recording as your audition. It needs to be edited at the same level as a complete audiobook production.

If the rights holder is interested and wants to hire you, you should set up a time to discuss the project and negotiate the terms of your contract, including pay and the delivery schedule.

The great thing about ACX is that you get to read audiobooks for money. Plus, you don’t need to be an established audiobook narrator or voice actor in order to land gigs. You can even use it to establish yourself in voice acting or audiobook narration.

The main drawback is the platform’s poor vetting process, which leaves the door open to fraudulent projects and no-pay gigs. Of course, it also takes a ton of work to produce a single book, but this is par for the course if you’re looking to become an audiobook narrator.

Pros and cons

Before you sign up as a narrator on ACX, consider the main advantages and disadvantages, according to professional audiobook narrators currently using this marketplace.