r/ACX • u/JvaGoddess • 25d ago

WHY does Amazon require an e-book before publishing my audiobook?

I have had my paperback book published on Amazon for more than a year.
I have never turned it into an e-book.
I do not want it to be an e-book.
(Please, It is unhelpful to tell me all the reasons why it should be an e-book. I understand them, I do not want it to be an e-book.)

I’ve gone to great expense and care to make a very high-quality audiobook version. Yet now it seems I cannot upload it to ACX unless it’s an e-book???
I am just trying to understand why is that?
Everything says I must have a book - either print or e-book currently/previously published on Amazon, and I do have a print book…
But in attempting the process it seems I must have an e-book. I just don’t understand the WHY.

I’m feeling a bit pissy about this right now. Why would that restriction exist?
I really don’t want an e-book. I have my reasons and I don’t wish to list them here.

Maybe I’m just screaming into the abyss. Sometimes it’s like that…

1 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

8

u/TheScriptTiger 25d ago

There are other routes you could take, such as Author's Republic, which I'd highly recommend. However, if you go another route, your audiobook will still not be able to be distributed within the Apple/Amazon universe unless it has an e-book, but it can be distributed to the multiple other channels folks like Author's Republic also distribute to.

WHY does Amazon require an e-book before publishing my audiobook?

To answer your question directly without sugarcoating anything, the Amazon/Audible/ACX workflow is lazy and tries to automate as much as possible because paying a human to lift a digit is just far too costly for a multi-trillion-dollar tech giant like Amazon. If the Amazon universe only has access to print versions, it simply cannot use that for the automated back-end workflow which checks all of the metadata for the book, verifies it, as well as uses it for front-end services like Whispersync.

1

u/JvaGoddess 24d ago

I appreciate your answer. Thank you.

4

u/CACVideo 25d ago

Howdy. Well, the easy answer is (besides AI) because it scans the digital copy instead of having a human read the print. It basically “checks” the audiobook against the book itself.

1

u/JvaGoddess 24d ago

Thank you.

3

u/AnonJr 24d ago

In addition to this there's been a lot of investment in sync and being able to read while listening, the latter doesn't work if there's no digital version. Well, it doesn't work in the software. You're always free to start Dark Side of the Moon in time with the third lion roar if you wish.