Producing Our First Audiobook Through ACX

Shadow Fusion LLC recently published its first Audible audiobook, Search for Haven by Justin Oldham, through audiobook distributor ACX. We had looked around at various companies, but ACX offered the right combination of advantages to meet our needs.

The first step in the process was to ensure that we had a Kindle e-book listed on Amazon.com that met the requirements for building as an audiobook.  Some of those requirements are

• being “live” (released and actively for sale),
• having Worldwide or United States distribution rights,
• being in the English or Spanish language,
• having cover art, and
• being less than 240,000 words (approximately 26 hours).

All of the requirements, along with suggestions for resolving issues related to them, can be found in KDP's Help topics.

Once we verified that our book was eligible, we confirmed that we had the audio rights to the book we wanted to produce. Next, we confirmed that Search for Haven was an appropriate type of book to potentially do well in audio format.  Novels, short story compilations, biographies, histories, and similar prose works make better audiobooks than books like cookbooks, reference books, dictionaries, gardening guides, and picture books.  ACX provides a list of books that don’t usually make good audiobooks.

We signed up as a user in ACX.  To do this, we selected the “Get Started” button on the main ACX page.  New users can sign up for ACX using an existing Amazon account or by creating a new account using a different e-mail address.

We then set up our user profile.  We selected our name from the upper right corner of the screen, selected Account Settings, and entered the appropriate tax and payment information.  You can also change when you receive e-mail notifications from ACX and update your account information.

The next step was to claim the title we wanted to produce.  On the main screen, under our name, was a circled plus sign and the words “Claim your title”.  We selected that, then looked at the list of our titles that came up.  We found Search for Haven and selected the “Claim Title” button on the right.

We then created a Title Profile.  This is the information about the specific audiobook we wanted to produce, including the author name, a description of the book, how many words it has, what we were looking for in a narrator, and how we wanted to pay for our production.

There are three of options available to you for paying to produce an audiobook through ACX.  The first is a Pay-for-Production.  This is a flat rate of however many dollars you are willing to pay per hour of finished audio.  The second option is Royalty Share. This is where you and the producer (the person or group creating the narration of your audiobook) split the royalties paid by ACX.  You don’t pay a fee.  Instead, the narrator/producer receives their payment over time in the form of royalties.  The third option is Royalty Share Plus.  This is a combination of Pay-for-Production and Royalty Share.  You pay the producer an up-front fee and they receive a portion of the royalties.  This can allow you to access to producers that have higher rates for a smaller up-front fee.

Once we determined how we wanted to pay for the services of a narrator/producer, we were ready to move forward to find one.  To do that, we first needed to develop an audition script.  For our audition script, we chose a couple of short scenes from the book that we would ask the candidates to record.  Next, we selected “Receive auditions for my project to find a Narrator,” then uploaded the document into the Audition Script section of the Title Profile.  You can upload a document with the script or select the “Enter script as text” toggle and type in the audition text.  You can also update audition text during the audition process.  In your audition posting, it’s helpful if you provide additional information to the candidates, such as pronunciation of uncommon or unusual words or names, whether or not there are explicit sex scenes or vulgar language, or anything else you think they should know.  This allows prospective candidates to determine whether they want to try out for your project and to provide you with the best audition possible.

We listened to the auditions that came in until we found one that met what we were looking for.  To listen to auditions, you go to the “Open for Auditions” tab and start listening.  The interface for listening to tracks is similar to an audio player – you use the right-pointing arrow to play the recording.  While playing, it becomes a pause button that you can use to stop the playback.  You can also move the slider around to different points in the recording if you want to hear a specific section or replay the whole recording. 

Once we selected a narrator/producer, we sent them an offer through the ACX interface.  We did this by selecting the “Make Offer” button on the right side of the screen that was on the same line as the specific audition. The offer included the approximate number of words and estimated running time, an estimate of the total payment amount (based on the dollars per finished hour and estimated run time), and dates for when the 15-minute checkpoint and final product were expected to be due. These dates are flexible and can be changed if both you and the narrator/producer agree.

The 15-minute checkpoint is when the narrator/producer provides approximately the first 15 minutes of the audiobook recording.  This is your first opportunity to request changes that can impact the final product.  Examples of things you might ask to have changed include pronunciations, removal of unwanted sounds (hiss, echo, etc.), or whether a particular sentence is read as a question, a statement, or an exclamation.  If you request changes, the narrator/producer will provide a new 15-minute check. 

The final production due date is exactly that – when the final recording is due to you for review and acceptance or request for changes. 

If you already know the narrator/producer you want to select, you don’t have to go through the audition process.  Instead, you can go straight to “Make Offer”.  To do this, you go to “Request auditions for my audiobook”, select “Continue”, then select “Make Offer”.

We received our 15-minute checkpoint recording, listened to it, and requested some changes.  A few days later, we received and listened to the updated version, and then approved it, using the “Approve” button on the right side of the line the player showed on.  Once they received approval of the initial 15 minute segment, the narrator/producer finished the recording process.  When we received the final product, we asked for some minor changes, then approved it, using the “Approve” button at the top right of the screen.

ACX has more information available about this side of the process in their Rights Holder Checklist article.

One disappointment we had was the discovery that we couldn’t advertise the ACX-produced Audible audiobook through Amazon Advertising.  This was one of the routes we had chosen for letting folks know it was available.  Shortly after the initial release, we went to our Amazon Advertising account with the intention of starting an ad campaign specifically tied to our new audiobook.  We were surprised to discover that the audiobook didn’t appear as a product that could be advertised.  While there may be a way to advertise an ACX-produced audiobook through Amazon Advertising, we were unable to find it.

Overall, we found the process of producing an Audible audiobook through ACX to be fairly easy.  The interface is somewhat intuitive, though you do have to be careful to ensure that the option you select at each step is really for the action you want to complete.  It is possible to press an incorrect button and not be able to reverse the resulting action.

Amazon Advertising For an Audiobook Produced Through ACX

Shadow Fusion LLC recently published its first Audible audiobook, Search for Haven by Justin Oldham, through audiobook distributor ACX.  One avenue we currently use to advertise the print and e-books we produce and distribute through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), as well as the hard cover and large print books we produce and distribute through IngramSpark, is Amazon Advertising.  However, we were very surprised to discover that we’re unable to advertise the audiobook we produced and have distributed through ACX (another Amazon-owned company).

Before starting production of the audiobook, we looked at ways to market it.  We were pleased to find that, supposedly, one route we could use was Amazon Advertising.  We moved forward with production – signing up with ACX, entering the information about our title, auditioning and choosing a narrator/producer, offering a production contract, working with the narrator/producer on the content, agreeing to the finished product, and paying the narrator/producer the fee for their work.  Our Audible audiobook was released on July 1, 2024.

Shortly after the initial release, we went to our Amazon Advertising account with the intention of starting an ad campaign specifically tied to our new audiobook.  We were surprised to discover that the audiobook didn’t appear as a product that could be advertised.  We confirmed that the audiobook was available on both Audible and Amazon.com and that we had claimed it on Justin Oldham’s Author Central page.

In the Amazon Advertising interface, you can choose to advertise Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brands.  We’ve advertised Sponsored Products many times over the years, and are still doing so with some of our other books.  As part of setting up an ad using the Sponsored Products interface, you select one or more individual products (whether print book, e-book, or audiobook) listed on Amazon.com that the item you want to advertise from a list.  All of the versions of Search for Haven were shown as available products to be advertised – except the Audible audiobook distributed by ACX.

When we discovered this, we reached out to Amazon Advertising, thinking that there was something wrong with our account.  They told us it that something was set wrong in the listing and that KDP should be able to help us.  When we contacted to KDP, they said that, because we hadn’t released the audiobook through our own KDP account (having instead had it distributed by ACX), there was nothing they could do.  They suggested contacting ACX or Audible.  When we went to ACX, they told us there wasn’t anything in their settings that could be causing the problem and referred us back to Amazon Advertising. We never did receive a satisfactory answer.  After three weeks of going round and round with the three (all owned by Amazon), we finally came to the conclusion that there is no way we’ll be able to advertise this audiobook using Amazon Advertising.  Needless to say, we’re very disappointed by this.

Maybe someone out there has figured out a way to have their book produced and distributed through ACX and advertised on Amazon Advertising.  If so, we’d love to hear about it.

Post-Apocalyptic Alaska

Post-apocalyptic Alaska is one of our favorite themes!  Bibix is a gripping novel by Justin Oldham, set in the aftermath of an alien invasion that has devastated all of humanity.  There might still be hope for the future if the heroes don't kill each other first!

f you would like to imagine how Alaska could be devastated by apocalyptic forces, we recommend Crisis at the Kodiak Starport.  If you'd like to try your hand at role playing in Alaska after "the end," we recommended that you have a look at A.C.: After Collapse.  In the next year or so, we hope to bring you more Post-Apocalyptic Alaska!

Augmentations and Mutations for D.C.: During Collapse

A.C.: After Collapse is a flexible tabletop role playing game (RPG) in a post-apocalyptic setting, published by Shadow Fusion (February, 2019).  Augmentations and Mutations is intended to be a source book for D.C.: During Collapse, A.C.: After Collapse, and B.C.: Before Collapse products.

Augmentations and Mutations was designed to give referees and players alike a comprehensive look at the super science that transformed Humanity before the collapse.  The same technology that saved billions of lives was also used by dark forces to unleash Hell on Earth.  A genetically edited world is the justification for all post-Collapse mutations that are beginning to terrorize enclave residents when game play starts.

This product provides referees with everything they need to plan a post-Collapse game experience that features your own version of "mutants."  Players are also provided with tools that can be used to make a better future, if they're up to that challenge.  The same good intentions that devastated an unprepared world might be just what you need to save the day.

Anthology, During The Colapse

A.C.: After Collapse is a tabletop role playing game (RPG) in a post-apocalyptic setting.  Published by Shadow Fusion (February 11, 2019).  During the Collapse is a collection of insightful short stories that take the reader behind the scenes during the violent years of Collapse.

Many of these astonishing events are briefly addressed throughout the source books you're able to read in the B.C.: Before Collapse, D.C.: During Collapse, and A.C.: After Collapse products.  In this anthology, you will find out about: the heroes and villains who clashed in every corner of a shattering world.  You'll be go behind the scenes as nations falls and new empires begin to form in places where Man and Machine compete for scarce resources.

Was it all for nothing?  Or, can the post-Collapse survivors still find the keys to a better future in the ruins once inhabited by their ancestors?

Anthology, Before The Collapse

A.C.: After Collapse is a tabletop role playing game (RPG) in a post-apocalyptic setting, published by Shadow Fusion (circa February 11, 2019).  Before The Collapse is a collection of short stories intended to give the read an insider's look at the best science and the worst politics that set the stage for a bloody collapse.

Many of these inspiring and heartbreaking events are briefly addressed throughout the source books you're able to read in the B.C.: Before Collapse, D.C.: During Collapse, and A.C.: After Collapse products.  In this anthology, you will find out about: the origins of the mutagenic science and weaponry that changed our future.  You'll be introduced to them men and women who made it all possible, as well as those unsung heroes and heroine who tried to prevent the decline.

Was it all for nothing?  Or, can the post-Collapse survivors still find the keys to a better future in the ruins once inhabited by their ancestors?

Small Arms Volume Two for B.C.: Before Collapse

A.C.: After Collapse is a tabletop role playing game (RPG) in a post-apocalyptic setting, published by Shadow Fusion (February 11, 2019).  Small Arms Volume II is intended to be a source book for this game system.  Small Arms Vol. II defines and describes high-tech caseless ballistic ammunition and the types of firearms that use them.

Real World Fact: "Caseless" firearms ammunition is expected to replace metal cartridge ammunition by the mid to late 21st Century.  For more specific information about cartridge guns and ammo as they appear in A.C.: After Collapse, see the source book Small Arms Volume I  .

During development and testing, a decision was made to seperate metal cartridge firearms from the more advanced caseless variants.  We recognized that some referees would prefer to play scenarios and campaigns without these more advanced weapons (i.e., to play "retro").

Unlike metal cartridge firearms, caseless guns and the powerful ammo they use must be fabricated (i.e., reproduced by computer controlled fabrication systems).  That distinction may be important to referees who like to allow crafting with some limits.  When players are allowed to create Characters who have Basic/Advanced Skills that would allow them to design and "make" (i.e., fabricate) caseless firearms, they would be able to radically change the game environment they live in.

Post-Apocalyptic Nostalgia

"Nostalgia," as we think of the term, is a fondness for the past.  How can you include that factor in any post-apocalyptic RPG?  A.C.: After Collapse achieves that by presenting you (i.e., the referee) with a big backstory--and--a product line of fiction based on the game (e.g., anthologies and novels).

We've done this by including a lot of background material in the Basic Rules and the source books.  All of it is sorted by category, meaning each publication addresses specific portions of pre-Collapse history (e.g., science, military science, medicine, technology, society, and economics).

Haven's Legacy is the first novel, based on the game.  You'll see more storytelling from us in 2020.  Our plan is to release two anthologies and another novel.  All three of these products are being edited now, we hope to have book covers for them by the end of 2019.

Imagine a post-Collapse world in which you decide how much or how little is known about the past.  We will provide you with a simple system to determine how much Characters and NPCs do know about the world they live in.  Some gamers like to draw on a thick rich history full of useful details, especially when that background can be used as clues to solve relevant mysteries.  Others like a more stripped down minimalist approach, they don't want to know any more about the game world than they need to complete an adventure.  Either way, A.C.: After Collapse has what you want!

Character Profile, Tennyson

"Tennyson" is a secondary character who appears in the second half of the novel, Haven's Legacy.  He's an aging android who has a lot to say about the events that lead to the collapse of civilization.  This is the first of we are hoping will be a long line of novels based upon the post-apocalyptic RPG A.C.: After Collapse.

Tennyson was once a Federal judge--one of many forms of artificial intelligence types that were designed and built to help humans govern themselves more evenhandedly.  Lex encounters him in an underground subway terminal.  It's a fictional transportation system in Washington State that doesn't exist, though it serves an important purpose as a backdrop for the overall story.  When he sees it for himself, even Lex realizes it is a literal and metaphorical transition point for him.

Tennyson is more than a living history book, he's the gatekeeper to the one thing Lex wants most.  Much of what he says have very little meaning to Lex at the time, it's easy enough for the reader to guess that all of it will matter to him later in life.  Everything about Tennyson is proof that there are "good" AIs in the post-Collapse world that intend to help their creators.  There are also "bad guys" out there who just don't see things that way.   All of this and much more is intended by the author to makes Haven's Legacy food for thought.  Every end has a beginning, it's all up to you--can you make the future you want to live in?

Character Profile, Lex

"Lex" is the brave teenage hero in Haven's Legacy, our first novel based on the post-apocalyptic RPG A.C.: After Collapse.  As the story unfolds, readers discover that he believes himself to be an orphan.  Lex runs for his life when a large band of bloodthirsty raiders attack the only home he's ever known, massacring everyone who dared to resist.  What starts out as a panicked effort to survive gradually becomes an epic quest to find answers to questions he never wanted to ask.

The clues are there, Lex just has to put them together--and--stay alive!  That challenge is made just a little harder by the fact that he is farsighted, he needs glasses to see people, places, and things far away before they have any chance to hurt him.  Along the way, he feels a storng need protect those who can't defend themselves.  That includes a handful of children who manage to escape the raiders and flee in to the countryside.  Surrounded by dangers he can't always see, Lex puts the pieces of his past together.  What he learns will surprise you.

His path to discovery takes him through places that have long since been forgotten, to the doorstep of a hidden treasure that will do more than give him answers.   Would you be ready to meet the family you never existed?  Could you make your peace with feelings of abandonment?  These are just a few of the challenges Lex must meet and defeat before he can be his better self.  If you are brave enough, the truth of Haven's Legacy might surprise you!

A.C.: After Collapse has LitRPG

Haven's Legacy is the first of what we hope will be many novels based on the post-apocalyptic RPG A.C.: After Collapse.  This novel and the Basic Rules are available from Amazon in Kindle format.  The dust-cover description reads:

 "Sixteen-year-old Lex is a strong-willed orphan who cherishes fading memories of his parents. On the verge of adulthood, he is torn between his desire to help those less fortunate and a growing need to figure out who he really is.When the post-Collapse community he lives in is attacked by marauders intent on looting the place, he must make a difficult decision: fight for what’s right or strike out on his own to find a mythical sanctuary that might not exist.Alone and on the run, he is nagged by the ghost of a dead pilot and tormented by the secrets locked away in his most prized possession. As he begins to make sense of what he finds, Lex discovers more about himself and his family than he bargained for. Can he survive the challenges that lie between him and the answers he’s looking for?"

 "Haven's Legacy" incorporates a number of the game-related concepts you can read about in the Basic Rules, as well as the story mechanics that you've come to expect from action-advanture books
set in a post-apocalyptic world.  Please look for these and other A.C. related products through you favorite online retailer.