ACX Audiobook Royalties: How Much Do You Get Paid?
Time for some ACX talk, lol.đ
US audiobook sales have grown year over year for each of the past 12 years, with revenue increasing by 9% to $2 billion in 2023, according to the Audio Publishers Association.
The three largest platforms for audiobook listening are Amazon, Audible, and Appleâall three of which are served by the audiobook distributor ACX.
So itâs not surprising that many self-published authors/rights holders are looking to enter the audio arena.
In working with book coaching clients, I regularly encounter authors who are trying to determine if an audiobook is right for them and if they should distribute it through ACX.
And like you, theyâve got the same questions:
How much can you earn on ACX? Is ACX worth it for authors? How does ACX pay? And is ACX worth it?
First of all, so weâre on the same page, the basics about ACX and who itâs for.
What is ACX?
ACX (Audible Creation Exchange) is an online marketplace where authors, narrators, agents, publishers, and rights holders can create audiobooks. It was launched in 2011 by Audible, which is now an Amazon-owned company.
Rights holders, meaning self-published authors and anyone who owns the rights to the audiobook edition of a book, such as a deceased authorâs estate, a small publishing company, or a literary agent, can use ACX to distribute their audiobook.
ACX Distribution
When you publish an audiobook to ACX, distribution is with Audible, Amazon, and Apple Books.
Who is eligible to publish a book with ACX?
According to ACX, âindividuals and companies resident in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland who have a mailing address, valid local Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and banking details for one of these countries.â
If youâre not from the US, UK, Canada, or Ireland, youâll need to use Findaway Voices by Spotify, Audiobooks Unleashed, Lantern Audio, or some other distributor to get your audiobook to Audible, Amazon, and Apple Books.
You must also have an ebook or print book edition already for sale on Amazon. This is a requirement unique to the ACX platform.
How much can you earn on ACX?
That depends on whether or not you entered into a royalty share agreement and whether or not your audiobook is ACX exclusive or ACX non-exclusive.
You have the option of narrating your own book or hiring your own narrator or audio engineer to assist you.
Under the Pay-for-Production (P4P) Deal option, you can hire a narrator (producer) through ACX and pay them upfront by their full production fee directly. Payment is based on the producerâs per-finished hour rate.
In a Royalty Share Deal, you split royalties 50:50 with the producer for 7 years.
In a Royalty Share Plus (RSP) Deal, you pay a reduced upfront per-finished hour payment and split royalties 50:50 with the producer. Not all producers do these deals.
If you produce your own audiobook or hire a narrator with a Pay-for-Production (P4P) Deal on or off of the ACX platform, you have the choice for your audiobook to be ACX exclusive or not.
If you enter into a Royalty Share agreement through ACX, your audiobook must be ACX exclusive. That means you cannot list it for sale through any other platform.
ACX Royalties are explained here.
ACX Exclusive Royalties
ACX offers a 40% royalty rate for ACX-exclusive distribution. Sort of, but not exactly. So donât stop reading.
Being âACX exclusiveâ means that your audiobook will be available only on Audible, Amazon, and Apple.
The exclusive agreement is valid for a 90-day minimum.
You must contact support to get out of the exclusivity agreement.
You may opt out of or opt into ACX exclusivity once. After that, approval is at ACXâs discretion. Note that it can take up to 30 days for your decision to go into effect.
ACX Non-Exclusive Royalties
ACX offers a 25% royalty for non-exclusive audiobooks. Again, sort of, but not exactly. There are some caveats, which I will explain later, so read on.
How do you get paid on ACX? And what are some ACX royalty examples?
Royalties are paid monthly, usually âin the last week of the month following the end of the billing period.â
So if you sell books on July 1, 3, and 5, youâll get paid in late August.
Payment is by direct deposit or paper check.
There is a $10 minimum monthly threshold. âAudible will only send payment if your earnings for that month exceed $10. If the total earned is less than $10, the balance will carry over to the following month. If, in the following month, you make less than $10, it carries over as well, until you have earned more than $10 in a month or more than $50 total.
As ACX notes, âyour payments will come directly from Audible in the local currency of your region (USD, GBP, EUR, CAD).â
You will not earn a royalty for qualified returns made within 7 days of purchase.
You will not earn a royalty for promo codes that are redeemed.
ACX exclusive authors get up to 25 free promo codes that can be redeemed by listeners in the US and UK retail marketplaces. Promo codes can be used to generate reviews, for publicity purposes, or as giveaways to fans and followers. If certain conditions are met, more promo codes can be had.
You can also get bounty referral links through ACX. In short, you make $50 if someone clicks on the link you share with them and signs up for an Audible membership, buys your book, and is still an Audible member 61 days later.
And yes, the income is taxable.
ACX Audiobook Pricing
First of all, you donât get to set the price. Each retailer sets the price based on the length. And they can change the price at their discretion.
For audiobooks under 1 hour, your audiobook price will be less than $7.
For books of 1 to 3 hours, your audiobook price will be $7 to $10.
For books of 3 to 5 hours, your audiobook price will be $10 to $20.
For books of 5 to 10 hours, your audiobook price will be $15 to $25. $19.95 seems to be a pretty common price in this range.
For books of 10 to 20 hours, your audiobook price will be $20 to $30.
For books of 20 to 30 hours, your audiobook price will be $25 to $35.
ACX Royalty Rates: How Much Do You Get Paid on ACX?
Letâs use an example of one of my clientsâ books:
Itâs 61,000 words, 5 hours and 47 minutes (5.8 hours), and it retails for $19.95 on Amazon.com.
With ACX, you donât necessarily make 40% or 25% of your audiobookâs list price. In fact, more often than not, youâll make less.
Hereâs why:
With ACX, each sale will fall into one of the following categories:
1. ALCâAn a la carte purchase made by a non-member at Audible, Amazon, or Apple Books for the regular list price. You get 40% or 25% royalties, depending on whether your book is exclusive or non-exclusive.
For an ACX-exclusive book with 40% royalties, sheâd make $7.98 per ALC sale.
For a royalty share agreement, sheâd make $3.99 per ALC sale.
For a non-exclusive book with 25% royalties, sheâd make about 4.99 per ALC sale.
If she were to upload the book through another distributor, sheâd either have to pay a monthly distribution fee, or sheâd make 80% of the 25% ($3.99), or less than that, per ALC sale.
2. ALOPâA cash purchase made by an Audible member at a 30% discount of the regular price or when thereâs an exclusive sale. âRoyalties are based on the amount the member paid.â
Hm. For our $19.95 book marked down to $13.97,
An ACX-exclusive book makes $5.59, and she makes $2.79 with the ACX royalty share.
A non-exclusive book makes $3.49, but if another distributor is used, she again must either pay a monthly distribution fee or take 80% of the 25% royalty ($2.79) or less.
Are there exclusive sales where the price is more than 30% off? That I donât know.
3. ALââA purchase made by an Audible member using a membership credit that they receive on a monthly basis for a fee. Since credits can be used to purchase audiobooks of any price, they are valued differently than cash payments. Audible uses an allocation factor to determine the value for the credit each month.â
This is where the largest portion of sales are madeâthrough Audible members redeeming their credits.
In ACXâs own words, âHistorically, this has meant that the royalty payment for a member sale tends to be about one-half of the royalty payment for cash a la carte sales to non-members.â
In 2020 and 2021, authors began to realize that something wasnât adding up. As explained in âAudibleâs Messy Math,â the terms of service and the answers they were getting from ACX were misleading. The allocation factor wasnât changing monthly like the KDP Select Global Fund payout for Kindle Unlimited Books does.
Audible authors were observing that their earnings were thus much lower than expected.
âAudibleâs Messy Mathâ found that
A $19.95 exclusive book was getting, in effect, about a 21% royalty, or $4.15 per member sale.
A $19.95 non-exclusive book was getting, in effect, about a 13% royalty, or $2.59 per member sale.
Authors were making even less for non-exclusive books not listed directly with ACX.
In 2024, Audible rolled out a new (optional) royalty model, updating the payment structure for AL sales:
âAudible takes a memberâs plan value (Plus or Premium Plus) and adds the value of any additional credits used, then divides that value among the titles the member listened to over the course of the month. That figure, multiplied by the contractual royalty rate, comprises a creatorâs royalty payment.
Once I get further details on that, Iâll update this article.
I donât have statistics for you, but authors report that a large portion of sales come from Audible members who are not paying the list price.
Many audiobook listeners, unless they have a strong connection to an author, think, âWhy pay $19.95 for an a la carte audiobook purchase on Amazon.com when I could wait until the audiobook is on sale? I use my Audible membership (or even get an Audible membership), buy the same audiobook for $9.95 from Barnes & Noble or Kobo, or borrow the audiobook for free from my library (if my library has it)?â Under all of these scenarios, the author makes significantly less money per book sold.
Calculate how many audiobooks you would have to sell to break even and to remember that â40% royaltyâ or â25% royaltyâ is misleading.
Bottom line is this: Even if you sell 100 copies of your $19.95 audiobook on Amazon.com and your book is exclusive, youâre not going to make $798. Youâre going to make less than that. And it may not be enough to recoup your production costs.
For more on the math behind ACX royalties (and the controversy surrounding it), see Colleen Crossâs article, âHow Audiobook Authors and Narrators Are Paid by Audible-ACX. We Think,â on the Alliance of Independent Authorsâ website.
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Is ACX worth it?
That depends on your location, your budget, your audience, your goals, and other factors such as the length of your book.
Donât underestimate the power of a large online following, email list, or active marketing strategy in selling books.
Ever seen someone dip their toes in the pool ever so gingerly because the water is really cold? Maybe eventually they take the full plunge, but itâs not like theyâre doing that running cannonball right from the get-go!
If you expect to have high upfront costs, donât jump in hastily. You may want to leap, or inch your way in, after preparing yourself more fully.
If your book is really short, it might be less likely to be redeemed with Audible credits, and if your book is really long, it might be less likely to be purchased a la carte. Anecdotal evidence on Reddit suggests that 6â8 hours is the sweet spot for Audible sales.
You might see more sales per book once you have a series on Audible vs. one standalone novel, for example. So it might make sense to wait (or to be patient as you add titles over time).
Non-exclusivity has its benefits, especially as a North American author, now that audiobook sales are booming. It might make sense to be non-exclusive and to try for library sales (too), which you canât get through ACX. You might go âall inâ on another platform, like Findaway Voices by Spotify, Kobo, or Google Play Books.
Considering that ACX, with distribution to Audible, Amazon, and Apple, has such a large portion of the market share, it will continue to be a viable option for authors and rights holders of audiobooks. Letâs just hope for fair, transparent, and continued improvements in royalty payments in the future.
âDaniel
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