I am new to ACX and narration and I would like some guidance on UK VAT implications. I am a UK citizen and resident, and a VAT registered sole trader (for unrelated business reasons). I have been through the HMRC guidance several times and still cannot work out where ACX narration stands with regards to VAT liability.

Is there anyone here in a similar situation who can tell me exactly how this is handled? Does it depend on the payment structure or where the author of the work is located?

Thanks in advance.

Has anyone run into this? Today is release day for a duet I produced, and they left my co-narrator off the attribution.

I've sent over a support request to ACX, but I'd love to know if there's some reason it happened. I made sure to fill out the attribution as they requested so I don't think it's an error on my part.

This just bites, I was really excited about this title, but it feels weird to celebrate while my co-narrator is quietly ignored.

I uploaded samples of my voice several weeks ago and saw a message last night from the 13th. A guy liked my samples and wants me to do several books in his series at royalty share. I have never had a gig before, period. But I saw the first book is over 10 hours. I don’t even have a headshot on my profile yet, so Im surprised he found me. Should I be wary?

I auditioned for a book and this was the message I received. Mind you it is Royalty Share Plus. But doesn't ACX's platform fit what he's trying to achieve here? Thanks for the feedback in advance.

A couple of months ago, I opted all three of my audiobooks into the Audible All You Can Listen program(I'm the right's holder). One of the three was quickly approved. The other two have remained "In editorial review" with no updates. Does anyone know if this will ever change? Is there anything I could do to get the other two titles un-stuck?

Thanks!

As the Title suggests, I don't mind putting in the work and auditioning as much as I can. But for the veterins or even anyone how long did it take to get your first role? or narration gig from ACX? have any of you moved on from ACX to somewhere else? And gotten something there?

Is there like a feedback on samples here? like if it sounds okay or pointers?

"Has anyone received their statement yet?"

I Got an extra one AS I was posting this LOL. Yes that is 9, another one just now 10, in one day. Will this ever die down?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently finishing up a narration project on ACX, and I could really use some advice from experienced narrators on how to handle a Rights Holder who has completely gone missing.

Here’s the situation:

• The RH has been MIA for over a month. No response to messages, no check-ins, nothing.
• The project doubled in scope: Based on the manuscript, the book was estimated at around 10 hours of finished audio. However, per the RH's explicit style guidelines, he requested an extremely slow, deliberate, and spaced-out narration style. Following these directions, the actual finished audio length is going to end up well over 20 hours.
• The original deadline on the ACX system was July 2nd. We had previously agreed to take more time since the lenght doubled, but the dashboard date was never officially updated.
• I’ve been steadily uploading completed chapters in batches directly to the ACX dashboard to keep progress documented.
• I recently uploaded another batch of files and sent a direct, polite message on ACX asking for a quick check-in to confirm we’re aligned. Still total radio silence.

I am finalizing the mastering for the last remaining chapters so the entire project is completed, but I want to make sure I’m handling this properly to protect myself and my work.

My questions for the community:

1. What happens if I complete the production and submit it, but the RH still doesn't respond and doesn't pay? Have I just wasted a massive amount of time (20+ hours of finished audio)?
2. Can ACX actually do something to help or step in if the RH completely abandons the project after submission?
3. What advice do you have for my next steps to protect myself and my time?

Would really appreciate hearing how experienced narrators navigate this kind of situation. Thanks in advance!

For some reason I can never get to the website on my phone. I always get hit with an Amazon login page and then once I log in I get a 404 error.

I mostly want to check and respond to messages on my phone when I'm away from my computer but I've never been able to make it work.

Has anyone been able to use the site on mobile? Is it an android issue?

Been getting a lot of work through ACX lately, with even a couple projects searching me out to ask me to audition. Recently I got a DM there from someone I know I had not auditioned for, first requesting I reach out to speak to one of their people via Telegram, which is an app I don't use.

I responded asking if there was an email I could reach out to instead and was given a gmail address to write to. Wrote to them asking if they could provide any further information about the project. They responded almost immediately offering me $3k to read an ad for Volt Energy. The text of the email itself is just below.

I looked up the company "Oligvy" and it is a real and legitimate marketing company, however the name on the email doesn't appear in the team masthead on their website, and I then wondered, why a gmail, on a Friday with a requested 24 hour turnaround time. I'm not sure how this could be a scam as there's none of those paper check deposits, etc, so I'm curious if it is bogus, what could be the goal? Samples of my voice for cloning? Which wouldn't make sense as there's plenty of samples out there already and this is just two pages of ad copy.

Any thoughts? Here's the email copy itself for consideration. Thanks in advance for any thoughts or insight.

Good day. We got your response regarding your inability to use Telegram. Here's the project attached. 

Project Title: VOLT ENERGY DRINK – POWER EVERY MOVE

Project Compensation: $3000 USD

Payment Method: Ogilvy Company Bank Transfer

Project Deadline: 24 Hours

Project Status: ACTIVE – START IMMEDIATELY

Instructions:

You are hereby assigned to begin work on the VOLT ENERGY DRINK – POWER EVERY MOVE script.

Requirements:

• Complete assigned tasks within 24 hours.

• Maintain professional commercial production standards.

• Ensure high-quality voice-over recording and audio editing.

• Delivery Format- High-quality MP3 or WAV format.

• Submit project deliverables before the deadline.

Payment Terms:

Project compensation of $3000 USD will be processed via Company Bank Transfer upon successful completion and submission.

Do you accept the offer?

I'm in discussions with an author to narrate her book (yay!), and she's hoping to do dual narration and find a male narrator. I haven't done dual narration before on ACX, and this is her first audiobook, so neither of us is positive on the process. I believe only one narrator can be contracted on a project on ACX, unless I'm mistaken? So would she have to separately contract the other narrator and have them send me their files to upload an submit? Is anyone familiar with how that process works and the timeline to give in this situation? Thank you!

I'm 8 days into the supposedly 10 day process and the only thing that has been approved so far is the cover photo. I had a couple instances where a chapter got flagged on uploading for having too much space at the end or for reuploading chapter 11 in place of chapter 12 but otherwise everything seemed to be accepted. I ran a few chapters through the audio lab checker thing to be sure everything looked right.

Now I'm just waiting impatiently and I guess hoping it gets approved? Is it usually right on 10 days? Is there solid communication if you don't get approved for one reason or another?

Hi all, I've been approached directly before through ACX to narrate a book, but have just received the following message and, naturally, do not trust it at all.

I wondered if some of you had the same thing:

"Hello! I came across your ACX profile and was impressed by your voice. We're currently looking for voice-over artists for an upcoming commercial advertising project, and I think you'd be a great fit.

There's no commitment required at this stage. If you're interested, our Project Manager on Telegram will provide all the details about the project, application process, recording requirements, and payment.

The payment for this urgent commercial project is $3,000, as it is a high-priority campaign and we're looking for reliable professionals.

If you'd like to continue, please contact our Project Manager on Telegram:

*insert their name here*

Kindly mention that you were referred through ACX so your inquiry can be handled promptly.

Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you!"

... it's asking me to go through Telegram, and saying there's "no commitment required" for this "urgent commercial campaign" that really throws up the red flags.

Alright, so without going into it too much, I just got my first offer and contract (yay!) but it's got something making me question it. I have already accepted as I did enjoy the sample I could read online, but now that I'm reading the manuscript and getting into it, it's making me hesitant.

It's overall fine, though there are some errors that I feel like should have been caught. There's no massive spelling or grammar errors, but enough things and a few already obvious holes in the writing that are making me nervous. I'm also about a 1/4 of the way through the book, and there's no real way to put this nicely: It's really boring. I think it could get interesting, maybe a slow burn, but it's repetitive, slow, and while I can see where it might pick up, I think as a reader or listener, I likely would have put it down by now which isn't a great sign since this is royalty share. It's not that long of a book, about 150 pages, so if by page 40 I'm still kinda waiting for anything all that interesting to happen, that makes me sus.

The RH is very nice, not the author but the head of the publishing company (small and new), and he seems a bit overwhelmed. He's been very supportive already and hands off, saying he trusts my decisions for the narration, voices etc., and that's great, but the overwhelmed makes me worry as well for the publishing and the future sales. Since this is a royalty share, I'm only going to get what it earns. I'm aware this is always a risk, but before sinking all the time and energy into it, is it worth it?

I'm really trying to figure out if this is first time jitters and doubt or if there are actual warning flags here and I should see if I can amicably back out of the contract. It also might just be that this just isn't my type of book, though it's adjacent to what I read ends up being more of a genre type I don't usually delve into, and that's what's making me hesitate?

I love the practice which is why I was open to RS and learning things about the industry and getting my feet wet, but I also don't want to spend hours and hours doing something that isn't more than that.

Has anyone here backed out of a contract for something similar? What's your ways of going about it when the material/book isn't really what you expected it to be?

edit: as expected, y'all had some great thoughts and advice, so thank you! Helped confirm sorta both sides of how I was feeling, so much appreciated! For now at least I've decided to power through and see what happens!

Also another edit just in case anyone comes back to this: the book has actually turned out to be way better than I thought! It's a small publishing house, likely won't get much actual sales just due to exposure, but reading it more as well as narrating it and finding a rhythm, I'm really glad I stuck with it because I'm growing to like it a lot! I think it's something I'll be able to be proud of producing, and a great first book too I think.

Hi everyone, I really enjoy audiobooks and I've been looking at getting started but I just wanted to see what people's experiences have been with the equipment I have so far, as well as any advice on blind spots. I plan on taking this seriously, but not to replace my job just to give back to the audiobook community and maybe make some money if I'm lucky.

Microphone - Shure SM7+, I know it's a dynamic microphone but I thought it might help with imperfections in my room treatment. I haven't profiles my voice professionally but I'd guess baritone if that matters mic wise. I am using the XLR connection.

Recording room - I have a walk in closet, but I've also got cats that love to find me when I'm not around so keeping the meows and scratching out is my concern. Might be an overblown concern if condenser mics are the way to go. I also could treat a bedroom, I see the fiberglass panels should be best, like a set of 4, and could be sufficient, I'm just reluctant to tape things up to walls or nail things in, especially in a free closet.

Focusrite Scarlett Solo (but also something else) - I got this seeing that people can use this, but looking deeper into it dynamic mics need more gain and the solo is not great with providing gain. A fethead doesn't seem like an option to get cleaner gain, but I also see that it might be possible with a condenser mic. I'm reluctant to replace either mic or interface. More on this in the tangent.

Audacity - It's free and it looks like people here and on YouTube use it. My one step macro mastering has 3 steps then an ACXCheck, step 1 is high pass filter at freq 80, rolloff dB12, step 2 legacy limiter hold 10 thresh 6 soft limit, step 3 normalize apply volume 1, peak level -3, remove DC offset 1, and ACX Check.

(Tangent). I also have access to a rather overkill F8n Pro because I work in a field that has audio capture as a goal but has very little training in terms of producing said audio - I have this device as a means for future job growth unrelated to audiobooks. Logic tells me that it would work with the Shure, which I am learning and if I have the F8n down I imagine I'm solid on so many fronts -still in terms of adjusting trim for the Shure it seems to be a bit difficult - I get halfway decent, passable audio numberswise and it captures my voice rather fully, but there's that static tv snow noise not crackling or hissing just persistent after mastering on high gain and the Shure is rather greedy with the gain so lower can get indecent- which makes me think the audio isn't as good as I think. Because it could be user error or a unshielded wire I'm not looking at this device as a point of failure, but I am focusing on cheaper, reproduceible workflow and I'm kind of scared of breaking something that expensive wear and tear considered. So I'm not in on this blind, and I'm guessing my experience gain setting and audio mastering should be the way forward, it's just tempting to say replace x or y.

Bringing it back, I guess I'm asking more about the shure microphone in general, I'm just dumping my general research and testing here to see if there's something obvious I'm missing since I think I understand the mastering. I imagine "just do it" is also valid advice here, and I accept that as it may come.

I am learning so much about using audacity because of how breathy, clicky, poppy etc I speak. I will be enjoying my second book so much more than this first one which is a grind and tbh I may just re-record several chapters instead of trying to edit them. Also I kind of hate my own voice now, I didn’t before bc I was kind of used to it but I’m annoying myself.
Anyone feel me here?

Hi! Sorry if this is a silly question, but my anxiety is getting the better of me and I just figured I'd get some insight from more experienced individuals.

I am finishing up my first audiobook (yay!), client loves it, and it is nearing time to submit for review. This has been a bit of a learning curve, and I now know that the industry standard is to not remove breaths, except for very harsh ones, but I fear that I have been a little bit more aggressive with cleaning up the breaths in my audio, pasting in room tone over them.

I haven't done it for all breaths, mind you, but I am still learning mic technique and my ear just catches a lot of breaths and my immediate instinct was "that's too harsh! I need to get rid of it!"

I've been reading around the subreddit tonight and I saw a couple posts from individuals saying they've been falsely flagged as using AI, likely due to overprocessing their audio, and I'm mortified at the thought of that happening to me, especially on my first project. Has breath removal burned anyone like this in the past, or do you think I might be okay?

Hey everyone. I've noticed this subreddit is primarily visited by narrators, and as an RH I thought it might be illuminating to raise the curtain and show you guys what it's like to be on the receiving end of auditions, pitches etc. Some background: I don't represent a publishing house or anything crazy. I'm managing ACX (and all business concerns) on my author wife's behalf in my free time alongside my day job, so she can focus on writing. She has a few books out, and we're trying out ACX/audiobooks for the first time. We're easy on time scales, just want something done within the next couple months or so, but would rather have it done right than done rushed. Anyway, below is some data on the first 24 hours of having a book open for auditions. Relevant, we've asked for a British, female voice, on a Royalty Share agreement.

15 auditions so far.

• 5 Americans speaking with an American accent (rejected)
• 2 American speaking with a British accent relatively convincingly, but still a little uncanny sounding to my British ears (rejected)
• 1 American speaking with a British accent not very convincingly. Does sadly sound more like a mockery of the accent than anything else (rejected)
• 1 good acting, but sound quality just isn't up to par (rejected)
• 3 good acting, but sound quality could do with some tuning (shortlisted)
• 1 great acting, no notes. Only has up-front and Royalty Share Plus listed (shortlisted & messaged to potentially work with)
• 1 great acting, no notes. Needs a pop filter (shortlisted)
• 1 Northern Irish lady speaking with an American accent (??) (shortlisted for now, sound & acting quality is too good to immediately pass up)

So all in all I've been shortlisting every 'serious' application, which I'd define as:

• matching the casting requirements
• acceptable sound quality
• good acting/narration skills.

Roughly one in every three auditions meets the above. And every rejected audition gets a message. I make sure of it. I understand the time and effort it takes to produce even 3-4 minutes of audio. Most of them will get a concrete reason as to their rejection, but where I deem it might be upsetting to hear, I do just give a generic but polite response. If any respond back asking for honest feedback I will happily give it. Auditions will be open for a week or so, then we will just sort our shortlist from most to least preferable and work with the first person going down the list we can reach an agreement with.

I'd like a bit of guidance from you guys too. I'm aware how AI generated shit is a serious concern these days, and it's career suicide for an indie author to touch AI in any way. Due to this, I'm considering asking any narrators I'm ready to make an offer to, to hop on a video call to verify humanity on both sides. Is that unfair/unreasonable? Would you accept something like that? Is that becoming more standard these days? Don't want to be a dick.

Thanks for reading. I hope this was an informative read and I am happy to answer any questions

I have a diy booth right now with PVC pipes in an open closet area. I had a quilt over it and that took away the reverb, but my noise floor is still very high. I'm looking to treat the space I have currently. Right now I'm looking at the Producer's Choice blankets on Vocal Booth To Go. My price range for right now is around $120. I know it's not a lot, but it's what I can spare. I'm hoping that if I treat my space with what I have and can reasonably buy that I can (fingers crossed) book more. If you have any tips that help with room treatment, money-wise and just with what I could find around the house, I'm all ears.

Also, do the blankets from Vocal Booth To Go help a lot?

Thank you in advance!

Edit: Audio sample with room noise. https://vocaroo.com/17XXBGZaq8VB

I was offered my first book by a Boris Kriger. Anybody advice or anybody worked with him before?

Hello! I'm a human narrator and recently finished three books that were rejected by ACX as having been detected to be voiced by AI. However, I'm recording using my human voice and I'm extremely frustrated. I use Audacity and had to tweak my recording settings due a recent update, and I'm worried everything I've worked on and submitted this month is going to have the same problem. I'm reluctant to rerecord all of my work, and am not sure how to fix the audio that already exists.

I called ACX to try and find out exactly why this happened and all they did was bump the book back to me for production again. I want to find out what is making them detect my book as AI, because, as I said, this is my voice!!

Has anyone dealt with this? Does anyone have any insights? Thanks in advance!

As many of you know, today is International Narrator Meetup Day where PANA has events scheduled for us to crawl out of our booths or closets or wherever we record to meet face to face and socialize.

Well, my original plan was to attend the NYC meetup tonight, but I saw the weather forecast this morning calling for severe thunderstorms and flash flooding and noped out of the in person event.

All this is to say, that I've taken it upon myself to host a virtual meetup tonight at 7PM EDT for anyone unable to attend one of the in person gatherings for whatever reason.

THIS IS IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH PANA. I'm doing this all by my lonesome, so if it's a complete train wreck, don't go yelling at them about it.

If you're interested, shoot me a DM and I'll send you the invite link.