Last updated 2/23/21

I was reflecting this week about being able to create audiobooks from my studio here in Atlanta for the past 10 years.

To be clear, I’ve recorded all of my audiobooks in my studio. However, when I started narrating early in the millennium, most publishers didn’t want to hire home studio narrators.

I always said I could fly any where; Atlanta is the home of Delta Airlines, after all. The answer was always “Why should we fly you to NY or LA when we have an abundance of talent nearby?”

Everything changed in 2011 when Audible developed ACX.com, its marketplace for narrators and rights holders to get together to produce audiobooks.

I’ve been there since day 1 when the site was in beta test:

• 1/12/11 — Audible invited me to a super secret, hush hush conference call.
  • On 1/12/21, I tweeted my journal page from that day.
• 1/14/11 — I was on the call and learned about ACX. Audible asked me to be a beta tester, and I immediately said YES!
  •  On 1/14/21, I tweeted a 1:30 video reading from my journal entry that day.
• 5/12/11 — Audible launches ACX to the world.
  • I announced it that day in this blog post.
• 9/18/11 — After submitting 23 auditions on ACX, I won one from a publisher. The book was Dixie Divas, which was the first in a series of 5 books and a bunch more I did for Belle Books, the publisher. Dixie Divas was a royalty share book that has paid several times what my PFH rate would have been and continues to make money for me every month!
• 1/22/14 — The Heart of the New Thought, my first book as a RH, went live.
  • I wrote about it in this blog post.
• 5/15/14 — Part 1 of my article about audiobook marketing appeared on the ACX blog.
• 5/20/14 — Part 2 of my article about audiobook marketing appeared on the ACX blog.
• 4/7/16 — My article How to Act Like an Audiobook Narrator appeared on the ACX blog.
• 11/2/18 — I was the featured guest on ACX University.
  • I wrote about the video and added links in this blog article.

Of course, I’ve written MUCH more about ACX here on my blog! I’m also a frequent contributor in narrator Facebook groups, particularly the Indie (ACX and Others) Narrators and Producers Group, where I developed and maintain the extensive group FAQ.

I’ve been delighted each time John Florian at VoiceOverXtra has shared one of my articles with his audience. After republishing one of them recently, John asked me if I’d be interested in doing a webinar about ACX.

I responded to him the same way I did to Audible about beta testing ACX 10 years ago: YES!

I’m thrilled to announce VoiceOverXtra hosted my webinar Put Yourself in the ACX Driver’s Seat on 11 February 2021!

You can download the 3-hour recording, my 90+ slides, and my extensive list of resources at on my Shop page.

Karen Commins

Karen Commins is an award-winning, professional audiobook narrator, producer, publisher, writer, and leading curator of information about the audiobook industry. In addition to earning a BA in broadcast journalism and MS in computer information systems, Karen has completed extensive specialized training in voiceover and audiobook narration technique, as well as digital audio production. She's also the chief cartographer of NarratorsRoadmap.com.

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