I was reflecting this week about being able to create audiobooks from my studio here in Atlanta for the past 10 years.

To be clear, I’ve recorded all of my audiobooks in my studio. However, when I started narrating early in the millennium, most publishers didn’t want to hire home studio narrators.

I always said I could fly any where; Atlanta is the home of Delta Airlines, after all. The answer was always “Why should we fly you to NY or LA when we have an abundance of talent nearby?”

Everything changed in 2011 when Audible developed ACX.com, its marketplace for narrators and rights holders to get together to produce audiobooks.

I’ve been there since day 1 when the site was in beta test:

• 1/12/11 — Audible invited me to a super secret, hush hush conference call.
  • On 1/12/21, I tweeted my journal page from that day.
• 1/14/11 — I was on the call and learned about ACX. Audible asked me to be a beta tester, and I immediately said YES!
  •  On 1/14/21, I tweeted a 1:30 video reading from my journal entry that day.
• 5/12/11 — Audible launches ACX to the world.
  • I announced it that day in this blog post.
• 9/18/11 — After submitting 23 auditions on ACX, I won one from a publisher. The book was Dixie Divas, which was the first in a series of 5 books and a bunch more I did for Belle Books, the publisher. Dixie Divas was a royalty share book that has paid several times what my PFH rate would have been and continues to make money for me every month!
• 1/22/14 — The Heart of the New Thought, my first book as a RH, went live.
  • I wrote about it in this blog post.
• 5/15/14 — Part 1 of my article about audiobook marketing appeared on the ACX blog.
• 5/20/14 — Part 2 of my article about audiobook marketing appeared on the ACX blog.
• 4/7/16 — My article How to Act Like an Audiobook Narrator appeared on the ACX blog.
• 3/2/18 — I was a panelist for ACX at VOAtlanta to discuss Creating Your Audiobook Career.
  • I created this list of resources for attendees, which can help you, too!
• 11/2/18 — I was the featured guest on ACX University.
  • I wrote about the video and added links in this blog article.

Of course, I’ve written MUCH more about ACX here on my blog! I’m also a frequent contributor in narrator Facebook groups, particularly the Indie (ACX and Others) Narrators and Producers Group, where I developed and maintain the extensive group FAQ.

I’ve been delighted each time John Florian at VoiceOverXtra has shared one of my articles with his audience. After republishing one of them recently, John asked me if I’d be interested in doing a webinar about ACX.

I responded to him the same way I did to Audible about beta testing ACX 10 years ago: YES!

I’m thrilled to announce VoiceOverXtra hosted my webinar Put Yourself in the ACX Driver’s Seat on 11 February 2021!

You can download the 3-hour recording, my 90+ slides, and my extensive list of resources at on my Shop page.

The post Put Yourself in the ACX Driver’s Seat Webinar appeared first on Karen Commins.

I haven’t done so because I don’t know how to acquire the audio rights needed to produce these audiobooks. I’ve extensively researched the topic on-line, and I even bought a book titled How Authors Sell Publishing Rights. Unfortunately, everything I found was vague and didn’t answer my questions.

I decided to consult an attorney who specializes in intellectual property and publishing.

Even better, why not talk to an attorney who’s also a Grammy-winning audiobook producer!

Best idea of all, why not host a webinar so other narrators can learn with me!

I’m thrilled to announce that Jessica Kaye will be my guest speaker on the webinar titled How to Acquire Audiobook Rights!

We’re meeting on Tuesday 9 August at 8pm ET/5pm PT, and the cost is $49 per person.

Jessica has over 25 years experience in audiobook creation and publishing. She’s the founder of Big Happy Family Audio, an audiobook distribution company, as well as an attorney in the firm Kaye & Mills. 

If you’re interested in learning how to acquire audiobook rights, click here to get more information and to purchase the recording and materials.

The post Upcoming Webinar on Acquiring Audio Rights appeared first on Karen Commins.