Phony offers! Bogus writers! No money! Okay at the risk of sounding like a ranting loon I will describe my first, and last, experience with ACX "Audiobook Narrator" job platform. I'm a veteran stage, tv and film actor with over 20 years of professional experience. In late spring '21, I decided to try my hand at audiobook narration, as many of my actor friends have sung its praises for the work. I will preface this, as an actor, 'work' is how I get benefits like medical insurance. In the ACX platform an actor can audition for any audiobook that is being cast. I filtered out anything that was non union since I wouldn't be able to work a non union job as a union actor. I chose a title that sounded fairly interesting, "The 7 Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great". Having never been married, I thought I could make a couple of bucks and possibly walk away with some new information about the institution. This was to be my first audiobook narration audition done in my apt. I laid down the audition track which was a short excerpt from the audiobook and sent it off to the writer/author/ producer. It was to be 'royalty share' pay plan and since I'm a professional actor with a great voice, I fully expect my books to sell! Within 10 minutes, I received an email saying "We love the audition! You've got the job!" I was floored. I know my sound is unique but was this possible? My first audition? Wow, I'm gonna make a killing in Audiobook Narration!! Whoopee. Pandemics be damned. My next step was to learn how to use the editing equipment well enough to record a 123,000 word book in a month! Since I'm more into sports and women than tech/geeky things, my next thought was, "This is gonna be a LOT of work". My first assignment was to upload a 15 minute sample of the first chapter in 48 hours. This would cement my relationship to the author, Dr. Terry L. Orbuch, also known as Dr. Love from the Dr. Phil show. I literally spent the next two days recording and editing these 15 minutes. Seriously had to be about 8 hours total of the two days. Being the perfectionist that I am and not being tech savvy enough to know the editing software I read and re read the chapter out loud until I could do it in its entirety without a mistake! Exhausting, right! And, that was just 15 minutes! Phew. Okay, well, part two is now done. I send the 'first 15 minutes' off to Terry. I ask if she knows anyone in a studio who might be able to cut this piece together? It might make it go a LOT faster than if I do it myself. Then I wait for a response. And, wait. And wait.No response from the author for two days which is FINE! Dr. Love's got more to do than check up on her progress of her audiobook! Probably appearing on Dr. Phil or CNN that week.Four days go by. Nada. Not a peep from Terry. Not even a nuzzle. I send an email query to ACX Narrator Support asking if they have any advice when an author stops responding to the narrator. Two days pass from that email with no answer. On the third day, I receive a call from someone at Amazon, Audible's parent company. They told me that they removed the title from their website and that the 'author' was actually not the real author but someone else in the world that probably would have taken a completed audiobook and tried to sell themselves OR sell it to the REAL Author!! Excuse ME!?? I was blown away at how LAX the security was for the ACX, Amazon Brand! I literally spent close to 10 hours of my time working on this thing only to have be a complete mirage of actual employment. I now do data entry work instead. At least I know that the who, what, where and when I am to be working and for how much is actually real! I will pass on audiobook narration and ACX from now on. And, as an aside to the audiobook craze, I prefer to pick up a book and read it myself anyway. Don't people read in this country anymore?
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Audiobook Creation Exchange ACX.com is the first online platform that connects rights holders with established producers to enable any professionally published book to become an audiobook.
