Any updates? I lost my codes too. I have given only 4 codes and I have a screenshot from every message where I give a code. Still, ACX doesn't give my codes back... 

 

Findaway is now warning that it is taking ACX 45 days to process a submission. I have one going on a fifteen days wait now.

That's right. I phoned them and the lady told me its taking upward of 30 BUSINESS days that a book can be in audible review vs the 10 to 14 business days.

I was beginning to panic and thought my account had been flagged but was relieved to hear that, even though i wish they were pushing them out quicker.

 

Findaway is now warning that it is taking ACX 45 days to process a submission. I have one going on a fifteen days wait now.

 

I noticed one of my audios has not shown up and its been well over the 14 days. I've emailed them to find out why there is a delay and will phone them. Anyone run into this?

 

2 of my authors are now in business again. They are no longer freezed and 3 books are live now, after 3 months...

 

Fingers we eventually get something

Well, that's something. I got one of those back in late November. Not the exact words but investigating was what they said. Despite emailing about five times asking what's happening, they ignore me.

I'll keep writing every week from now & see what happens.

I see in the Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/ACXNarratorsProducers/ that the scammers are just continuing on happily unhindered. There must be so many rubbish books on Audible now from the scammers. Just beyond a joke too that they have their fingers in our pot & get our codes taken because of their dishonestly. So there is less $$ to go around to legitimate authors.

And for anyone who wants to tell me the scammers just have a different business model, do your research. Nobody listens to these books. They are "read" by people paid to hit download & hit play.

If I ever hear back from woeful ACX, I'll report back too.

 

Whelp finally an update from acx, kind of. They didn't get my name right 😂

Hello Vidya,

I am responding to your escalation on Jeff and Don's behalf. I wanted to inform you that we are looking into your request and will get back to you with our findings as soon as possible.

In the event you need help with anything else, feel free to contact us. Replay to this email directly exec-relations@audible.com

Best regards,
Muriel G.

Well, that's something. I got one of those back in late November. Not the exact words but investigating was what they said. Despite emailing about five times asking what's happening, they ignore me.

I'll keep writing every week from now & see what happens.

I see in the Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/ACXNarratorsProducers/ that the scammers are just continuing on happily unhindered. There must be so many rubbish books on Audible now from the scammers. Just beyond a joke too that they have their fingers in our pot & get our codes taken because of their dishonestly. So there is less $$ to go around to legitimate authors.

And for anyone who wants to tell me the scammers just have a different business model, do your research. Nobody listens to these books. They are "read" by people paid to hit download & hit play.

If I ever hear back from woeful ACX, I'll report back too.

 

Whelp finally an update from acx, kind of. They didn't get my name right 😂


Hello Vidya,

I am responding to your escalation on Jeff and Don's behalf. I wanted to inform you that we are looking into your request and will get back to you with our findings as soon as possible.

In the event you need help with anything else, feel free to contact us. Replay to this email directly exec-relations@audible.com

Best regards,
Muriel G.

 

Okay guys, so I am currently mailing with Audible Germany, where you can also publish without ACX. You need 5 audiobooks upfront to be eligible to publish with them.

I now wanted to take the audiobooks that are currently banned on ACX and put them directly into Audible Publishing.

Does anybody know how it is with the rights of distribution? As soon as you upload a project or submit it through ACX... do they have part of the rights? Or is it possible for you to publish it on Audible via another publisher? I guess since they are banned on ACX nontheless, that shouldn't be a problem, should it?

 

I agree with Twisted although I think ACX's statement to you that they "...ask that you do not audition for any more projects by this Rights Holder" is a fairly strong indication of the direction they are headed.

And which direction do you mean? Every rights holder that I worked with in the couple of months got banned!

 

I agree with Twisted although I think ACX's statement to you that they "...ask that you do not audition for any more projects by this Rights Holder" is a fairly strong indication of the direction they are headed.

 

@StRandomx.

That's an interesting reply. Is anyone getting "unbanned" right now? If they are, then it's a bottleneck in the review process and eventually every account will be checked and released (or at least decision will be made). If they're not, then it must be a legal type review where the decision will affect all accounts at once.

Such a strange situation.

I think so as well.... and as someone in this thread stated, their author gut unbanned after 3 months. I have no idea man.

But, can anyone tell me: do you think there is a possibility of ACX deciding that you won't receive money anymore? Like, delete your audiobooks from the platform and leaving you alone with the problem and without any of the income?

I rely on my ACX income veeeeery much. So it would absolutely hit me if anything went wrong ._.

 

Just received another answer from the amazing ACX support, which should prove that they practically ban everyone right now:

Greetings,

Thank you for contacting ACX!

I understand you'd like to know the status of your recent submissions which have been delayed.

The delay is due to our internal teams reviewing the Rights Holder's ACX activity to ensure compliance with our content guidelines and terms of use. Until this work is completed the titles associated with this Rights Holder will remain on hold, and will not be made available for sale. While we hope our internal teams complete this investigation soon, as you can tell from the wait thus far, we cannot guarantee it. In the meantime we ask that you do not audition for any more projects by this Rights Holder.

ACX would like to clarify that your account is not under review, and you are free to work on other projects.

We certainly appreciate your patience while we work toward resolution of this matter.

For any FAQs, please visit our Help Center here: https://audible-acx.custhelp.com

To review the ACX User Conduct and Content Acceptance Guidelines: https://audible-acx.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8887

The ACX Account Holder Agreement: https://www.acx.com/help/account-holder-agreement/201481940

Sincerely,
The ACX Team
ACX.com
Original Message
Dear ACX-support,

could you please tell me if there is any possibility to know the status
of a current audiobook?

Should I just send you a link of the title or how can I know that?

Thanks a lot,

Patrick

 

Just resent my earlier email to ACX and CCed Jeff since i never heard back, see if anything happens, otherwise I'll get my royalty share narrator involved. I have a new release i haven't been able to get hardly any reviews for since the codes were taken away, so sales have understandably been nada

 

But couldn't it be a bit counterproductive for a German to submit his audiobooks non-exclusively on audible? Because royalties will go further down, and as far as I know those other platform that findaway publishes in are not known in Germany?

Google Play isn't known in Germany? Kobo? And don't forget the library services like Bibliotheca, and OverDrive!

Here's a link to the complete list of distribution partners at Findaway: https://support.findawayvoices.com/portal/kb/articles/where-will-my-audiobook-be-for-sale

Audible/ACX/Amazon aren't the only fish in the Audiobook business...

 

I suggest this: sign up with Findaway Voices. They could certainly use you, and Findaway handles distribution of audiobooks. If the author doesn't want a book sold through ACX/Audible/Amazon, it isn't sold through those vendors. Findaway CAN post your audio to Apple, and doesn't rely on ACX for that distribution portal.

But couldn't it be a bit counterproductive for a German to submit his audiobooks non-exclusively on audible? Because royalties will go further down, and as far as I know those other platform that findaway publishes in are not known in Germany?

 

And Findaway gives out free codes too, the Listener just has to download the app at AuthorDirect to redeem them (Listeners speak very highly of AuthorDirect).

 

So guys, I checked this forum and thread several times already and decided to sign up as well and write this for you guys.

I have over 100 audiobooks produced as a narrator and currently am the best known narrator in Germany for self help books. We sell over 400 audiobooks per day.

Still, the ACX problem hit me in November.

I have worked with so many authors from across the globe, mostly from Germany and America.

Even my American Author got freezed now. They keep telling me that my Account was not under review, so I should feel free to produce further audiobooks. Well, thanks! Now I can get further work done for zero money and earnings.

Over 15 audiobooks are now on hold for me. Those are several thousand $$$ a month, just missing. It is the work from October until today, and whenever I message ACX, I of course get no answer back.

I find it interesting that EVERYBODY gets banned at the moment. Not just my own publishing account, but also those of everybody I know. Literally, I know just 1 person with a functioning ACX account... at least by now.

Even my American author got banned. I first thought that Germans got banned because they were not signed up properly, but what do I know. Everything worked out well so far.

So with the ban, do you guys think we will still receive all of our income along the way? I don't know why, but I'm afraid they will also freeze the income?

With 15 audiobooks on hold, I will not proceed with ACX. I will start a new business, even though I as a narrator who is known on German TV, cinema, radio and among the internet, love producing audiobooks. I guess there is a point when you need to let something die

What I have learned so far: never give another company, person or whatever the power about your business. It is YOUR work, YOUR money that you put into it and YOUR business... but their platform. So we are f*cked nontheless

Let me know what you guys think!

I suggest this: sign up with Findaway Voices. They could certainly use you, and Findaway handles distribution of audiobooks. If the author doesn't want a book sold through ACX/Audible/Amazon, it isn't sold through those vendors. Findaway CAN post your audio to Apple, and doesn't rely on ACX for that distribution portal.

 

So guys, I checked this forum and thread several times already and decided to sign up as well and write this for you guys.

I have over 100 audiobooks produced as a narrator and currently am the best known narrator in Germany for self help books. We sell over 400 audiobooks per day.

Still, the ACX problem hit me in November.

I have worked with so many authors from across the globe, mostly from Germany and America.

Even my American Author got freezed now. They keep telling me that my Account was not under review, so I should feel free to produce further audiobooks. Well, thanks! Now I can get further work done for zero money and earnings.

Over 15 audiobooks are now on hold for me. Those are several thousand $$$ a month, just missing. It is the work from October until today, and whenever I message ACX, I of course get no answer back.

I find it interesting that EVERYBODY gets banned at the moment. Not just my own publishing account, but also those of everybody I know. Literally, I know just 1 person with a functioning ACX account... at least by now.

Even my American author got banned. I first thought that Germans got banned because they were not signed up properly, but what do I know. Everything worked out well so far.

So with the ban, do you guys think we will still receive all of our income along the way? I don't know why, but I'm afraid they will also freeze the income?

With 15 audiobooks on hold, I will not proceed with ACX. I will start a new business, even though I as a narrator who is known on German TV, cinema, radio and among the internet, love producing audiobooks. I guess there is a point when you need to let something die

What I have learned so far: never give another company, person or whatever the power about your business. It is YOUR work, YOUR money that you put into it and YOUR business... but their platform. So we are f*cked nontheless

Let me know what you guys think!

 

I suppose you could return the book later and get an Audible credit back to use on something else, but i don't know if that actually works or not.

No, they can't return the book and get another code. I asked Audible about it. Probably in the past they could with the old redemption way. I think a lot of audible customers though are using Audible as a library these days as my returns have really grown over the last six months. It's very annoying. A year to return an audible is quite unreasonable!

As long as you give a code away, you are susceptible to the scammers. What happens is, Scammer hires someone cheap on Fiverr to create him an audiobook. Scammer puts "his" audiobook up on Audible, receives free promo codes. Scammer-author creates free-trial Audible accounts, redeems his promo codes with them. Audible pays Scammer-author in full for the redeemed promo codes.

This is increasingly growing. I'm a member of a Facebook group of mostly narrators and they are bombarded every day by spam identical messages asking if they'll narrate a three hour book for $25 an hour. They're told to talk slowly to ensure the book is over three hours. They don't care about the quality. Nobody is going to listen to them. Most of the time they say when they look at the book the editing is woeful and seems like it's written as a conversion from another language. Most narrators are wise to them being code farmers. They've known about code farming long before we did. It's been going on for awhile, which means for a long time these crooks have had their dirty fingers in the ACX shared pot too. Just like KU.

These messages target new narrators, which they can tell are new because whenever a profile is edited it comes up as new apparently. Thus wiser, experienced narrators receive the emails or messages as well, and they say the common factor is that they had just updated their profile.

Other thing, many of us aren't aware of is that your narrator also receives the same amount of codes whether it is 50:50 split or paid for completely. So a code farmer asks for their codes too and therefore they receive 200 codes to use. That is a lot of money returned for probably around $150 investment in a shonky three hour pirated or ghost written book.

It's been more than two months now since they took my codes. I gave out a lot of codes to my reviewers over the years. That might also have set off alarm bells because it's the same people I send codes to. However, if they checked their accounts they'd see they behave like real humans listening to books. I also just produced a couple of novellas back in July and October, so I think the fact that they were just over three hours long may have pinged me up as well. Although if they checked, they'd see I've had these books out for years and they are well reviewed.

They wrote to me and said they were investigating this back in November and were very friendly about it. Some guy from the Audible executive team wrote, but I've heard nothing since. I've written over and over again and they ignore me. It's so damn rude and wrong. Yet, they use my book in promotions for Audible because one of them that I market sells really well. I've sold more than five thousands audibles in the last twelve months, introduced hundreds of members through their bounty system and they do this?

If I'm a code farmer, how come they slap an 'Only available on Audible' sticker on the cover of my most popular audible (covering up a chunk of my nice cover), invite me into Prime reading across three countries now, over and over again and pay good money. Then the latest is a Kindle Deal in the UK in February. They are so enthusiastic in supporting a supposed code farmer, aren't they?

It really has flattened me, I can say that. I've spent a lot of money on my Audibles and it's been so disgusting to be treated this way and really hobbled my Audible business. I had a book in production at the time and two just released when this happened and I can't promote them. I'm setting up a business outside my author business to diversify my income. Yes, I could diversify where I load my books, but honestly I don't want to spend the extra time and if Audible or Amazon slam down my business because I'm caught up in something that would still impact even if I'm wide. Just my thought process.

All I can say, is keep writing to ACX if you've been affected and jeff@amazon.com. I intend to.

 

As long as you give a code away, you are susceptible to the scammers. What happens is, Scammer hires someone cheap on Fiverr to create him an audiobook. Scammer puts "his" audiobook up on Audible, receives free promo codes. Scammer-author creates free-trial Audible accounts, redeems his promo codes with them. Audible pays Scammer-author in full for the redeemed promo codes.

But Scammer has a problem. Amazon maintains algorithms that constantly prowl around looking for this sort of thing. So, to trick the algorithms into maybe not noticing him, he gets himself some "cover." This cover is that he gets ahold of legitimate Audible authors' promo codes, and redeems them in his scammy-accounts. He doesn't end up with any money for doing this, but the more legitimate redemptions his scammy-accounts have, the more likely a scammer-searching algorithm might not notice them. Until it does.

Scammer-author is spotted, and to deal quickly and cheaply with him, Audible simply tells ALL the Audible authors of ALL those promo codes redeemed in Scammer's scammy-accounts, "No more promo codes for you!" Fine. Problem solved. Scammer can't get (and cash in on) any more promo codes from his "audiobooks". Problem is though, the innocent authors' promo codes that Scammer used for cover are treated no differently that the Scammer's promo codes, hence the nastygram sent to LOTS of very astonished Audible authors. Amazon knows its net is sinking not just the scammers, but innocent authors used in the scam as well, but doesn't care.

Amazon is not going to use its time to figure out how an Author's codes got into a Scammer's hands. They did. That Author is now probably forever on that Scammer's list, indeed the Scammer has probably made even more attempts to get codes out of the Author. But they can't. Why? Because Amazon won't give that author any more codes.

The only solution as far as I can see, is for Amazon to change the system.

 

I read part of this thread and I have no idea how to use ACX promo codes properly.

A couple of questions still stuck into my mind:
- Could anyone use the promo codes to redeem books other than it was published with?
- How scammer exploit promo codes?

Before the change to the new promo code system last fell, you could redeem any audiobook with a promo code. You'd shop on Audible, add the audiobook to your cart, and then enter the code at the end to "pay" for it.

Now, the code is very specifically tied to the book. You don't go to the book's page and add it to your cart, you go to the promo code redemption page, enter your code, and then the book shows up in your cart and it's "paid" for with that code.

I suppose you could return the book later and get an Audible credit back to use on something else, but i don't know if that actually works or not.

 

Anyone had any updates from ACX? :/

 

Susan-- ACX/Audible has put out a video where Senior Director Christina Harcar says she is responsible for trying new things, and if they don't work, making them go away. To me, this sounds like a Troubleshooter. You may want to SNAIL MAIL her a letter of your predicament.
Audible's address: 1 Washington Park, 16th Floor Newark, NJ 07102, Attn: Legal Department,Fax: 973.820. 0505

Thank you so much. I'll definitely look into that as another avenue.

 

Susan-- ACX/Audible has put out a video where Senior Director Christina Harcar says she is responsible for trying new things, and if they don't work, making them go away. To me, this sounds like a Troubleshooter. You may want to SNAIL MAIL her a letter of your predicament.
Audible's address: 1 Washington Park, 16th Floor Newark, NJ 07102, Attn: Legal Department,Fax: 973.820. 0505