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Is ACX collapsing?

2K views 20 replies 10 participants last post by  Blerg et al. 
#1 ·
I'm wondering if anyone has heard anything that would explain insanely long review times at ACX. I uploaded my audiobook on April 24th and it is still listed as under review. That's 3.5 months.

I've asked them if my account is under review. They've said no. I've asked if my book dropped off of their review schedule for some reason. They said no. All they tell me is that they have a lot of books to review and that they will let me know when mine is reviewed.

Is anyone else having this problem? Has anyone heard of anything that might explain this? I know that they have hired and fired a CEO since April, but does anyone know of anything else going on? Because, something is clearly going on over there and they just are being upfront about whatever it is.
 
#3 ·
The scam was that ACX gave out free codes to authors but when listeners used those codes, ACX paid royalties to those authors. Scammers then lept into recording and submitting garbage, created umpteen fake "listener" accounts, then used these codes to buy their own garbage. This resulted in a voluminous number of fake accounts and projects that ACX is having to wade through. Last I heard the wait time is now four months.
 
#6 ·
I have a book I submitted on 25 March that's still under review. I've also had books approved the next day.

Generally, if books were submitted in March/April, they're often still stuck in the queue. Later books do generally get dealt with within a few weeks.
 
#8 ·
Amanda M. Lee said:
There are some older books that have been caught up. Newer stuff is going through. Also, if you're exclusive to ACX and have a narrator that has been tested through them your audio is going through in as little as three days.
I'm exclusive & my narrator is pretty well known. Haven't had anything take more than a week max. (I think the week was back in March or April.)
 
#9 ·
Usedtoposthere said:
I'm exclusive & my narrator is pretty well known. Haven't had anything take more than a week max. (I think the week was back in March or April.)
That's interesting. Because my book is exclusive and this is my 49th audiobook through them with the same narrator.

But I'm glad to hear that other people are having an easier time with them. I just don't understand how they can treat their "partners" with such dismissive unprofessionalism. They could easily give us an approximate date of release. It's basic math. Instead their response is "we'll let you know". How is anyone supposed to plan future productions like that? Such a horrible company!
 
#10 ·
I published my first three audio books through ACX in June and though they said it could take up to 30 days to approve a release (assuming there are no issues), all three of mine were approved/released in 10 days. I was quite surprised. Waiting months is beyond unreasonable.
 
#13 ·
Alex Anders said:
Wait a second. Does that mean that if we resubmit the older book, it has a shot at being released within a week?
Don't know, but I've been in a back and forth with them about setting up an upcoming release as a pre-order, and the ACX rep indicated that as long as there were no issues with the submitted files, they could honor a release date within 30 days of submission.
 
#15 ·
Alex Anders said:
Couldn't you resubmit it as a new book?
When you put up a new KDP ebook version, and claim it (and suppose KDP is not going to flag you for something--or ban your account for double-dipping), and put up new audio for that...

But that seems a highly unwise path to take given the risks, and I'm not even sure you'd be successful anyway.
 
#17 ·
Alex Anders said:
Fair enough. But it would be crazy town for ACX to knowingly not review a book and then get upset when you make your book one of the ones that gets priority.
ACX is hands down the worst company to be dealing with right now. Hands. Down. Don't tempt them, because they'll ban you and will not respond to any of your messages.
 
#19 ·
Patty Jansen said:
ACX is hands down the worst company to be dealing with right now. Hands. Down. Don't tempt them, because they'll ban you and will not respond to any of your messages.
And this is one of the many reasons why the US government is considering breaking up Amazon. Monopolistic arrogance mixed with fear and intimidation! As a congressman said during their hearings, "Is this the way you treat your "partners"?
 
#21 ·
Just chiming in to add some data. I submitted two ~5 hour audiobooks. One of them was submitted in Jan. The other was submitted in April. Both came out in May. So one took about 90 days and the other took just under three weeks. I checked in with ACX regularly and they told me there were no issues, just that they were working through a backlog.

Both audiobooks went through different narrators and producers, so it could be that one sailed through QC checks, while the other got hung up for one reason or another. Or it could be that they've got two lists, a fast normal list and a backlog list that they occasionally add to.

I had a friend who received an email from them back in Feb confirming the backlog. Though in his case, he had  had asked to make changes to his submission, so the purpose of the communication was to let him know that because of the changes his book had to be put at the back of the queue, which was a bummer because he'd already been waiting 30 days and had to start over. I imagine there are a few people who have been bumped to the back of the backlog for similar reasons.
 
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