Audible.com, the world's largest producer and seller of digital spoken-word entertainment, today announced that the Audiobook Creation Exchange, the online audiobook rights marketplace and production platform it launched in 2011, produced ten times as many audiobooks in 2012 as it did during its debut year.
"We are thrilled that our vision for ACX has been embraced and that the system is working," said Jason Ojalvo, Audible VP Content Creation. "It is wonderful to see so many authors (and actors) finding success on ACX, giving new voice to their work and expanding their audience too. The success of the Audiobook Creation Exchange has proven that every audio right has value, and that in 2013 there's every reason for all authors and rights holders to make sure their books are available in audio."
Ojalvo added, "The prodigious output of quality audio titles from ACX in 2012 surpassed the number of titles added to the Audible store in 2012 from our top three audio providers combined. We're also proud of the fact that the average star rating of ACX titles as awarded by discerning Audible listeners matches those of leading audio publishers."
ACX's audiobook production platform allows authors, their agents and publishers access to the thousands of talented actors and studio professionals who bring books to life in audio. ACX enables online auditions and project management systems, and features programs to help authors learn how to narrate their own books. Rights holders can hire a narrator or producer, or create entrepreneurial partnerships with sharEd Royalty structures that allow audiobooks to be produced without upfront costs. When an audiobook is created, ACX includes instant access to Audible.com's digital distribution platform, and rewards authors and producers with a graduaTEd Royalty structure that can top out at 90%. ACX also provides sales acceleration tools that publishers, authors and narrators can use to earn special bonus royalties for sales they help generate.
"The ACX system changed our world," said Crossroad Press publisher David Niall Wilson. "Thanks to ACX's no-cost production option, we have been able to expand our tiny audio catalog to over 150 titles."
"I've heard from friends and family that audiobooks are the only way they find time to read anymore," said Hugh Howey, best-selling author of Wool (forthcoming in print from Simon & Schuster). "ACX made self-publishing an audiobook as easy and painless as Kindle does for eBooks. The quality of the auditions I received simply blew me away."
"ACX is the best audio publishing platform I can imagine for authors: it's simple, straightforward, and the royalty structure is killer," said The Personal MBA author Josh Kaufman, who used the ACX platform to distribute the audiobook version. "My audiobook is one of my core products, and I love that ACX's structure rewards ongoing promotion."
"I believe the ACX system is a template for success in the digital age," said New York Times best-selling author Bob Mayer, who has turned 27 of his books into audiobooks using ACX. "The platform has allowed me complete control of my audio empire. I think the ACX program is an essential ingredient in the success of any author today."
Among other authors who have used ACX to make or distribute audiobooks are New York Times best-selling author Tucker Max, radio and television personality Greg Fitzsimmons, best-selling romance writer Bella Andre, and Tracey Garvis-Graves, whose best-selling eBook On the Island led to a two-book deal with Penguin.
Participating rights holders on ACX from launch include Random House, Inc., HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., and Pearson Education; participating rights holders' representatives include Janklow & Nesbit Associates, Writers House, and Levine Greenberg Literary Agency, Inc.
Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment on the Internet, offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible's mission is to establish literate listening as a core tool for anyone seeking to be more productive, better informed, or more thoughtfully entertained. Audible content comprises more than 100,000 audio programs from more than 1,800 content providers, including leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Audible is also the preeminent provider of spoken-word audio products for Apple's iTunes Store.
