How to Create a KDP Audiobook on ACX: 9 Steps for Active Publishers

You need three things in place before logging into ACX. First, a published or draft Amazon listing with an active ASIN — ACX pulls book data directly from Amazon's catalog, so an unpublished or suppressed KDP listing won't appear in ACX search. Second, an ACX account linked to the same email as your KDP account (or your publishing company's Amazon account). Third, your rights must be clear: you must own or control the audio rights to the book. If your book is traditionally published or you've signed any rights agreement with a third party, check that contract before proceeding.

One more thing to confirm: ACX is currently available to rights holders in the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland only. If you're publishing from outside those territories, you'll need to look at Findaway Voices or a similar distributor instead. See our ACX vs Findaway Voices comparison for a side-by-side breakdown.

Go to acx.com and sign in with your Amazon account credentials. On the ACX dashboard, click the orange "Get Started" button or navigate to "I Have a Book" in the top menu. Type your book's title or ASIN into the search bar. Your book should appear with its cover art pulled from Amazon's catalog. Click "This is my book" next to the correct listing.

ACX will ask you to confirm your rights. Select "I am the author/rights holder" and confirm the audio rights are available. You'll then be taken to your title's ACX project page, where you can choose to produce the audiobook yourself ("I want to produce this book myself") or post a casting call for a narrator. For this tutorial, we'll cover both paths.

Avoid doing this: Don't claim a title if you're unsure about audio rights. ACX's rights confirmation is a legal declaration. Claiming a title you don't have audio rights to can result in account termination and potential legal exposure.

ACX gives you three production options once you've claimed your title. Self-narration/self-production means you record and master the audio yourself, then upload finished files directly. Royalty Share means you post a casting call and a narrator produces the book in exchange for 50% of your ACX royalties for 7 years — no upfront cost, but a long-term revenue split. Pay-for-Production means you hire a narrator/producer at an agreed per-finished-hour rate, you retain 100% of royalties, and there's no ongoing revenue share.

Pay-for-Production rates on ACX typically run $150-$400 per finished hour (PFH) as of 2025, though we don't have category-specific data to break this down further by genre. A 60,000-word nonfiction book produces roughly 6-7 finished hours of audio, so budget $900-$2,800 for a professional narrator. Royalty Share is cost-free upfront but check the math: if your audiobook earns $500/month, you're giving up $250/month for 7 years.

Avoid doing this: Don't select Royalty Share for a title with unproven sales history. Narrators taking Royalty Share deals are betting on your book's performance too, and the 7-year lock-in affects your flexibility to renegotiate or switch platforms.

On your ACX project page, fill in the production details form. You'll need to specify the audiobook's language, whether it's abridged or unabridged (always unabridged for standard KDP titles), and the approximate finished runtime if you know it. You'll also write a brief description for narrators — this appears in your casting call and should describe the book's tone, target audience, and any pronunciation notes for character names, technical terms, or place names.

Upload a sample script of 1-2 pages from your book. ACX requires this for casting calls so narrators can record a 1-5 minute audition clip. Choose a passage that represents the book's typical tone — not the most dramatic scene, not the driest, but something in the middle that shows range. If your book has multiple character voices or accents, include a passage that demonstrates that requirement clearly.

Avoid doing this: Don't skip the pronunciation guide field. If your book has unusual names, technical jargon, or regional dialect, a narrator who mispronounces key terms throughout a 7-hour audiobook is a guaranteed one-star review magnet.

If you're self-narrating, record in a treated space — a closet packed with clothes works if you don't have a dedicated studio. ACX requires a noise floor of at least -60 dB and no more than -3 dB peak. Use Audacity (free) or Adobe Audition to monitor levels in real time. Record each chapter as a separate WAV file at 44.1 kHz, 16-bit, mono. Do not record in stereo — ACX rejects stereo files.

If you're working with a narrator, they'll upload finished audio directly to your ACX project dashboard under the "Files" tab. You'll see each chapter listed with a green checkmark once uploaded. ACX gives you a review window (typically 60 days) to approve or request corrections. Listen to every file before approving — once you click "Approve," the project moves to mastering and you lose the ability to request retakes without renegotiating with the narrator.

Avoid doing this: Don't approve files in bulk without listening. A common mistake is clicking "Approve All" to speed up the process, then discovering a mispronounced character name on chapter 12 after the project is already in ACX review.

Before uploading, every audio file must be mastered to ACX's technical requirements. The three non-negotiable specs are: RMS loudness between -23 dB and -18 dB, peak level no higher than -3 dB, and a noise floor below -60 dB. Export your final files as MP3 at 192 kbps, mono. ACX's QC system runs an automated check on every file and will reject the entire submission if even one file fails.

Use ACX's free Check tool at acx.com/narrator — paste your file in and it returns a pass/fail on all three metrics instantly. If your RMS is too low (quieter than -23 dB), apply a limiter or normalize in Audacity. If your noise floor is too high, you likely have background hum or room noise that needs a noise reduction pass. Skipping this step before upload is the single most common reason for ACX submission rejection.

Avoid doing this: Don't use MP3 files recorded at less than 192 kbps, even if they sound fine to your ear. ACX's automated QC will flag the bitrate and reject the file before a human reviewer ever hears it.

On your ACX project dashboard, go to the "Upload Files" section. Upload each chapter file individually — ACX does not accept ZIP archives. The upload interface shows a progress bar per file and runs the automated QC check immediately after each upload. You'll see a green checkmark (pass) or red X (fail) next to each file. Do not proceed to submission until all files show green.

Once all chapter files are uploaded and passing QC, upload your retail audio sample separately in the designated "Retail Sample" field. This is a separate upload from your chapter files. Then fill in your audiobook's metadata: title, subtitle (if any), author name exactly as it appears on your Amazon listing, narrator name, and the book's categories. Mismatched author names between ACX and your Amazon listing can cause distribution delays of 1-2 weeks while Amazon's catalog team reconciles the records.

Avoid doing this: Don't use a pen name on ACX that differs from your KDP author name unless you've already set that pen name up on your Amazon author profile. ACX cross-references the author name against Amazon's catalog.

At submission, ACX asks you to select your distribution terms. Exclusive distribution (ACX/Audible/Amazon/Apple Books only) earns 40% royalties. Non-exclusive distribution earns 25% royalties and lets you also sell through other audiobook platforms like Findaway Voices, Libro.fm, or your own website. The royalty difference is significant: on a $14.95 audiobook, exclusive pays $5.98 per sale versus $3.74 non-exclusive.

For most KDP authors publishing their first audiobook, exclusive makes sense — Audible holds roughly 63% of US audiobook market share (Statista, 2024), so you're not giving up much volume by skipping other platforms initially. You can switch from exclusive to non-exclusive after your current term expires, but you cannot switch mid-term. If you already have a strong email list or direct sales channel, non-exclusive gives you more flexibility from day one.

Avoid doing this: Don't confuse ACX's distribution exclusivity with KDP Select exclusivity — they are separate programs. Being in KDP Select for your ebook does not require ACX exclusivity for your audiobook, and vice versa.

ACX does not let you set a fixed retail price the way KDP does for ebooks. Audible sets the price based on the audiobook's runtime, and your royalty percentage applies to whatever Audible's system prices it at. A book under 1 hour typically lists at $6.95, 1-3 hours at $14.95, 3-5 hours at $20, 5-10 hours at $25, and 10+ hours at $30 or higher — though Audible adjusts these periodically and we don't have 2025-specific pricing tier data to confirm exact current figures. Check Audible's current pricing tiers in your ACX dashboard under "Pricing" after submission.

You do control the price on Apple Books if you're distributing non-exclusively. Apple Books lets ACX set a suggested retail price, which you can adjust through your ACX settings. For Amazon's direct audiobook listing (separate from Audible), the price mirrors Audible's system price automatically.

Avoid doing this: Don't assume your audiobook's Audible price will match a competitor's. Runtime is the primary pricing driver, not genre or perceived value.

After submission, your audiobook enters ACX's quality review queue. The review team checks for audio quality, metadata accuracy, and content compliance. You'll receive an email notification when the review is complete — either an approval with a projected Audible live date, or a rejection with specific notes on what failed. The most common rejection reasons are audio files failing the -60 dB noise floor spec, a missing or incorrectly formatted retail sample, or author/title metadata that doesn't match the Amazon catalog entry.

If approved, your audiobook typically goes live on Audible and Amazon within 30 days of submission. Apple Books distribution can take an additional 1-2 weeks after Audible goes live. Once live, check your ACX dashboard under "Sales and Royalties" to monitor performance. Royalties are paid monthly, approximately 45 days after the end of the sales month — so January sales pay out mid-March. The KDP Audiobook + Ebook Combined Income Case Study covers how to read those combined revenue reports across both platforms.

Avoid doing this: Don't delete your ACX project and resubmit if your book is rejected — respond to the rejection notes directly in the ACX dashboard and resubmit the corrected files. Deleting and restarting resets your position in the review queue.

Problem 1: Your book doesn't appear in ACX title search.
This almost always means your Amazon listing is either in draft, suppressed, or was published too recently for ACX's catalog sync. Wait 48-72 hours after your KDP listing goes live, then search by ASIN (not title) in ACX. If it still doesn't appear after 72 hours, contact ACX support through the "Help" link in your dashboard and provide your ASIN directly.

Problem 2: ACX QC rejects your audio files for noise floor.
Open the rejected file in Audacity, select a 1-2 second clip of silence between sentences, go to Effect > Noise Reduction > Get Noise Profile, then apply Noise Reduction to the full file. Re-export at 192 kbps mono MP3 and re-run the ACX Check tool before re-uploading. If your noise floor is still above -60 dB, the problem is your recording environment — a running HVAC system, computer fan, or street noise is bleeding through.

Problem 3: Your royalty rate shows 25% instead of 40% after selecting exclusive.
This is usually a contract timing issue — ACX's system sometimes defaults to non-exclusive if the exclusivity checkbox was not confirmed before the final submission step. Contact ACX support immediately with your project ID. Do not resubmit the project. Support can correct the contract terms on the backend if caught before the audiobook goes live.

Problem 4: Your Audible listing shows a different author name than your Amazon book page.
This happens when your ACX account is linked to a different Amazon account than your KDP account, or when you used a variation of your pen name during ACX metadata entry. Contact ACX support with both ASINs (ebook and audiobook) and request a catalog merge. This is a known issue for authors who manage multiple pen names across separate Amazon accounts, and support can resolve it, but expect a 5-10 business day turnaround.