This one probably should have come earlier, but you likely won’t get a reader the first day. Even if you do, I recommend you not jump on the first one, so while you’re waiting, get acquainted with the terms and rules. Where do you find those rules?
On the ACX Platform banner running along the top of the page there are 5 links.
About ACX
How It Works
Promote Yourself
Need Help, and
Search.
Don’t think of this Search as the search we’re all used to, where you can type in a word and up will come all manner of possible answers. No, this search is how authors or publishers find narrators (or “producers,” as they are known here). And how producers find “Titles Accepting Auditions.”
Click on any of those 5 choices except the “Search” one. Each of those 4 options will bring up a page having a lovely column running down the left-hand side, with all kinds of intimidating titles like “ACX Audio Submission Requirements” and “Rights Holders” and “Submitting Auditions.”
I just started clicking on those links. I’m a button-pusher and I’ll follow links all over trying to learn things. Like, “Rights Holders” are any person or company who holds the audio rights to a book. If you are self-published, that means you are the Rights Holder.
I recommend you just start down that column and begin reading. Find out whether you would be better off doing your book yourself (you’ll probably discover it’s not for you and you’re in the right place). You will learn that you get paid for the previous month, but that you must earn $50 in royalties to get that payment.
Even if you read everything through, a good portion of it won’t make sense until you start using it. At least you’ll know where to find information and hopefully answers later on – because you almost certainly will have questions.
One other thing: ACX does NOT have a Search box anywhere. At least, not a “Search,” search. We’ve already met what they have under the “Search” on that top bar. Instead, they have Frequently Asked Questions on that lovely left-hand column, but thankfully those are quite complete. The only problem is, you often won’t remember where you read something and there is no way to do a real ‘search’ to find it. Inconvenient? Yes. If you are truly desperate for answers, they do have a “contact us” section. To find it, go to the very bottom of that left hand column, and find “Need Help?”
Click on that and it will give you several options of how to get a real answer from a real person. Before you call, look at the information inside the “Rights Holder” and “Producer” checklists. ACX has worked very hard to anticipate questions and gives plenty of information on every possible problem clearly, and you may well find your answer.
About this time, head bursting with new knowledge, hopefully you will feel ready to tackle the job of preparing for and getting auditions.
(original blog date 8/20/2015)
