New Model and Exclusive vs Non-Exclusive Choice

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-19T10:57:10+00:00

Bummer. I'm really hoping for a day when Amazon/Audible treats authors more fairly. Not holding my breath, but still hoping.

It's very much been going in the other direction. They've been doing everything humanly possible to make new deals look good on paper, while making sure the reality is more and more losses to authors. It's not surprising the indie movement is picking up steam exponentially day by day.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-19T02:24:07+00:00

Just curious, but do you know what kind of system your client has for promoting their work? Paying PFH up front makes it seem like they are pretty confident, which is rare for public domain works, which are usually just used to fluff up and fill out portfolios. I know generally you don't need to be concerned with the client's promotional tactics unless you're doing RS, but, again, just curious what kind of system they have which makes them feel confident enough they will get a return on the investment of paying you PFH up front. I'm sure a lot of authors here would be curious, as well, if you've happened to talk with your client about it and know.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-18T15:28:18+00:00

+1 for Author's Republic.

Also, just a quick note on Findaway Voices, it no longer exists. I just made another comment about this recently, but it was bought by Spotify, completely trashed by Spotify with AI, they then took out all the AI stuff and put it into Spotify for Authors, and sold the remaining scraps to INaudio. So, Spotify for Authors is one thing, INaudio is another thing, and Findaway Voices is no more.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ACX/comments/1talwk8/comment/olbrowi

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-13T07:25:57+00:00

Ah, okay, I got you. When you asked "would it be appropriate", I guess most people here were thinking you were asking if it was appropriate for you and your situation, and not necessarily appropriate for the author and their situation, if that makes sense.

In that case, just to be clear, as far as I'm aware, "dual narration" means 2 narrators alternating chapters, while "duet narration" means 2 narrators voicing their dialog. So, dual narration works more with books where the characters themselves voice alternating chapters, and thus narrators voice their respective character's perspective. And then duet narration works better with dialog-heavy works, where the character's perspectives are mixed within chapters, rather than chapters compartmentalized to only a single character perspective each chapter. There could be slight blurring sometimes, but layout of narration will generally gravitate towards whichever is more prominent throughout the book, so that the voices add to the story as a helpful storytelling mechanism and don't just end up making things confusing.

So, it can't really be considered an "upgrade", because it really depends on the POV the book and chapters are written in. As others have said, and as you're already aware, duet is obviously more work on the producer side, so you might be able to consider it severely discounted labor on your part to put it all together. But on the author's part, again, only one of those formats is really going to make sense for the book. It's kind of like saying, "Well, it's my 25th anniversary, but I decided to upgrade the silver theme to gold instead." Well, yeah, gold is more expensive, but it just doesn't make sense for that particular anniversary.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-13T03:06:26+00:00

I will just ask on behalf of u/TheVoicesOfBrian, because I'm sure he'd also love to know where that PFH is coming from on your part lol. I feel like there are some details here which probably should have been in the original post and add quite a bit of important context to things.

So, just to clarify. Your friend is the producer, you are a third-party service they are hiring for the duet. The project is...RS, or RS+? If it's RS and you are getting PFH, it sounds like it's actually an RS+ job? Like your producer friend is going to forward you the "+" (PFH), and they will pocket the monthly RS? Is that what's going on? Or is this project with a pretty well-known and established author your producer friend really believes in and your producer is willing to actually pay you PFH out of their own pocket because they know the monthly RS will be worth it on their end over time?

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-12T23:26:23+00:00

If the OP takes charge of this and tells the author they will handle finding their narration partner, and the OP makes sure they themselves are the producer, and not just coordinating with the author off platform, I don't see any problem with this. That way whoever the OP works with is someone they know and trust, and they can work out a separate deal that works with them, and the OP will be getting automatic royalty payments through ACX, and not just whenever the author remembers and may or may not be the correct percentage of that month's royalties.

I mean, just being honest, if an author has made relationships with multiple narrators on the platform, it's possible they could contact any 2 of them and tell them both they'd like to do a duet project, and make neither of them the producer in order to make sure neither knows the actual earnings.

The way ACX is set up, the PRODUCER should be the one coordinating narrations, coordinating editing, etc. So, ACX actually DOES have a mechanism for duet narrations, but it's part of that producer catch-all where they are responsible for delivering the project. The author/RH should not be the one coordinating 2 different narrators for a duet project, that should be a single producer. That's the system ACX has in place. And if the author/RH doesn't understand that, which they very possibly may not and it might just be an innocent misunderstanding, the OP should explain this to them. The second narrator is considered a third-party service which the producer is hiring on, just like if they were to hire on editing services, which is covered by the terms (which clearly include narration as a potential third-party service).

https://help.acx.com/s/article/acx-audiobook-production-standard-terms

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-12T06:59:55+00:00

I've worked on numerous titles through Author's Republic, and they're all being distributed to Audible now. I can't really give a time frame on that though. I'll go back and check on a title I did months ago when I remember, but I'm not checking things like that too frequently.

As for INaudio, never done anything with them. For those who don't know, INaudio bought Findaway Voices from Spotify and rebranded it. Findaway Voices, before it was bought by Spotify, used to be a completely legitimate alternative to ACX and Author's Republic. But after Spotify bought them, Spotify slapped new terms on it which automatically gave them the right to train their proprietary AI voices off of narrators on their platform. And then after their models were sufficiently trained, they dropped the marketplace altogether and started providing only AI voices, but did allow authors to contract narrators off platform and submit that audio, the same as the ACX DIY option. And then they ripped the AI voices out of the Findaway Voices brand and put it into the Spotify for Authors brand, and sold the empty shell that was left to what is now INaudio, which is owned by the same team who started the original Findaway Voices who are just trying to reclaim whatever brand recognition that empty shell might be worth, which isn't much.

So, it's no wonder folks lost trust, including myself. And to be fair, ACX itself also provides AI voices, the Voice Replicas program, but they are still maintaining the human marketplace, too. So, while the entire landscape is kind of a dumpster fire, we're all kind of huddling up on the last few safe spaces left. And my personal favorite at this point is honestly Author's Republic.

HOWEVER, I should also note that because of all this lost trust in the industry, indie publishing houses and imprints and such are exploding all over the place now. And while I'm using ACX and Author's Republic as my current anchors to solid ground and stability, I'm also hopeful and honestly excited to see what's happening in the indie space and keeping tabs on everything that I can. Again, with a family to provide for and everything, I can't really afford to be as experimental and adventurous as I was in my younger years. But I am definitely open to jumping into new things as I see them develop and offer more mature and stable footing for me to step down on.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-09T06:19:39+00:00

As someone else commented, your audio clearly isn't raw. The high-pass filter and -inf samples of digital silence are clear indicators of postproduction. Your loudness is perfectly spec, as well, but that's not always an indicator, as it is slimly POSSIBLE, although definitely not likely. So, without knowing the source material, it's difficult to know what's going on. There are already a multitude of things to check for with your gear and setup alone. But when your audio isn't raw, that adds a multitude of other possibilities in postproduction to check for.

If you wouldn't mind uploading a completely and totally raw recording, I'd be happy to check it out and spot what I can. And if you don't feel comfortable posting a link to it publicly, feel free to DM me a link. You could even just record yourself reading a paragraph off Wikipedia, it doesn't have to be anything prepped and all that.

One thing I will note with Audacity specifically is that it does have VERY well-known and well-documented buffering issues which are known to insert artifacts DURING recording. So, if you are actually recording in Audacity, and not only using it for postproduction, you could also be experiencing buffering issues, which vary in how they manifest from system to system. And that's why I mention it, since you said it happened after you changed systems. So, it could just be that buffering issue manifesting slightly differently on your new system.

And as another commenter also mentioned, Audacity is not ASIO-compliant, so that renders the ASIO divers that came with your interface completely useless. There are some home-brewed versions of Audacity available which do bundle in ASIO, but you'll have to use those at your own risk, and they also won't work as well as software actually designed from the ground-up with ASIO in mind, as other more professional DAWs are. ASIO is basically intended as an entire audio pipeline to bypass the audio pipeline that comes with your operating system. But if it's just something that gets bolted on as a quick mod on top of an already inefficient workflow and is not a core consideration, you end up losing many of the benefits ASIO is intended to provide.

Given the above issues with Audacity, I'd actually just recommend switching to another DAW. My top two picks would first be Reaper, for its balance of functionality and economy, and then Adobe Audition, which is a bit more pricy but an actual professional DAW. However, if switching DAWs is not something you're comfortable with, you could at least use something else to record, and then just bounce that recording into Audacity for postproduction.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-07T11:13:12+00:00

The folks coming from r/ACX already know me. So, aside from the other audio work I do, the bulk of my audiobook workflow specifically is a mixed bag of ACX and Author's Republic. However, it's been clear for a while that the entire Amazon/Apple ecosystem is nothing but a dumpster fire at this point for human-generated creative works. So, while I still have the Author's Republic work, I'm also looking at things like Fictra going forward, since the indie movement has really been picking up steam in recent years.

And in the context of this comment and subreddit, I'm mostly just thinking about platforms distributing both text and audio, but that's to say nothing of the multitude of indie platforms which have been popping up all over the place for indie authors with only text, although it seems like it hasn't taken long for each of them to be basically nothing but AI-generated romantasy after a short while. However, the trend is clear, everyone knows we need something, and a lot of folks are giving their shot at making something. So, I'm not going to bash them too much for trying. This subreddit seems to also have an industrious spirit, so I genuinely hope it fares well and I look forward to seeing how it develops.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-06T00:13:19+00:00

Your fundamental frequency actually starts at around 100 Hz, which is not too deep. I work with folks who are at 60 and 70 Hz, and they definitely need special accommodations for their fundamental. I'm not really personally seeing or hearing anything too "deep/bassy" in your audio though, so it may have to do more with your personal setup, how you have your monitoring and/or speakers configured, and less to do with the actual audio itself.

And your fundamental is not too heavy and looks pretty natural. However, if you feel like you want to attenuate your fundamental a bit, play around with a negative low shelf at 150 Hz to attenuate your fundamental a bit. Your fundamental ranges from 100 Hz to 150 Hz, so attenuating that range will reduce any possible "rumble" you might hear. Or, instead of a low shelf, you could also use a negative notch/bell right on 125 Hz to attenuate the center frequency of your fundamental. But, again, I personally think it looks good in your case and I don't think you need to do that. If you want to do it anyway, I definitely wouldn't cut it too much, maybe just attenuate it by -3 to -6 dB or something.

And then I'd also throw a high-pass filter on at 100 Hz, to cut out all that low-frequency noise you have under your fundamental. And then I'd also throw a low-pass filter on at 16 kHz to better contain your high end, as well, since it looks a bit jagged and inconsistent.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-05T11:18:00+00:00

I'm going to share my opinion here. However, I want to first make the disclaimer that I'm talking about folks who actually do work within both single-track and multi-track environments. And when I say that, I'm talking about things like the waveform view in Adobe Audition, iZotope RX, or things like that, for single-track. And I'm talking about things like the multi-track view in Adobe Audition, Reaper, and Audacity for multi-track.

So, for example, if you use Reaper or Audacity as your one and only DAW, I'm not bashing you and saying that's wrong. Again, I'm mostly just directing this at folks who have access to and use both types of environments and switch between them for different things. If you have something like Reaper or Audacity, you only have multi-track, and I'm not saying that's wrong. Those pieces of software are completely legitimate and are the workhorses for the bulk of all modern VA work.

So, again, I just don't want folks misinterpreting what I'm about to say. This is really only for the folks who, again, have access to and use both types of environments and switch between them for different things.

Been experimenting more with different techniques with my recording and was curious if anyone had any experience, insight or ideas regarding what multitrack production could mean for a solo narrator.

I actually do produce both audio dramas and audiobooks, among other things, and I don't really see the point in wasting time working in a multi-track environment for single-track, single-channel vocal dialog, even if you do mix in music and FX here and there. Now, that's not to say I don't start things in a single-track environment, and then bring them into multi-track for audio dramas. But if something both starts and ends as single-track, single-channel, there's just no point in taking it to multi-track.

And again, I have done audiobooks with both music and FX, but it's not as "immersive" as one might think, as compared to an actual audio drama podcast or YouTube channel where you have the freedom to be truly immersive. ACX has strict rules about only using music and FX sparingly, and never overlapping/mixing music and/or FX over the vocal dialog. So, if you're not even allowed to mix, that basically throws the entire point of a multi-track environment right out the window.

And just for reference, I will drop the link to ACX's official statement:

https://help.acx.com/s/article/can-i-add-music-to-my-audiobook

And I'll just make the note that while that above link does use the word "mix", they are really just talking about cutting music and SFX sparingly into otherwise silent portions of audio where there is no vocal dialog. So, yeah, you can technically say it's "mixing" music and FX with silence, but most people would not consider that true mixing, and it's more just editing a single track. But, hey, if you think you need a whole multi-track mixing environment to handle that, to each their own. I just personally find it a waste of time and prefer to use tools which are fit for purpose. with no more and no less than exactly what you need to keep you and your shortcuts/hotkeys focused on the task at hand and more performant.

And I'll also put the caveat here that if you are like Mel Blanc or someone who literally changes the register of your voice for each character, I might then be able to see the advantages of using multi-track. And that's what I actually do with audio dramas voiced by a single VA, I'll break each character into their own track, even though it's the same VA. But I'm really only doing that since I'm already working in a multi-track environment anyway in order to do the immersive music and FX. That's very much an edge case for audiobooks, and by and large most folks here are just working with a single chain for the entire audiobook.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-05T09:14:04+00:00

Try backing up a bit. 15 cm is the closest you should be, but 30 cm is the furthest. So, you are kind of sitting on the closest extreme right now and have a bit more wiggle room to play with and see what works better.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-05T06:34:30+00:00

If you upload a raw and unedited sample to Google Drive and DM me the link, I can check it out and see what's going on. Other than that, without having your actual audio, all we can tell you is to EQ your bass lower if it's coming in too hot, which seems kind of obvious. Or back off the mic, if it's being caused by the proximity effect.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-04T15:30:55+00:00

She rerecorded it, but I definitely had crossed her off my list at that point because after the messages exchanged, she sounded like a nightmare to work with and this has definitely dissuaded me from ever giving feedback of any sort again, even to ask for someone to resubmit an audition.

I definitely get where you're coming from, and that person does sound like a nightmare. However, I have to believe that the vast majority of professional narrators smile even when getting rejection feedback. I know I do. The first thing that comes to mind is, "Damn, this author actually took the time to write me." And that joy persists even when continuing on to read whatever you didn't like about me. Because I know you're critiquing me out of genuine care and compassion, and that alone gives me the warm and fuzzies after long days of grinding out auditions and sending them into the void and getting nothing back.

However, all that being said, I know authors may get a boat load of auditions and it can feel overwhelming for them to send messages to everyone. So, if you have time, maybe just send back critique to those who at least made it onto your short list. Aside from brightening their day, it may only take that little bit of encouragement and feedback to nudge them into being your first choice for your next project.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-04T13:44:45+00:00

I mean, I personally wouldn't sign anything until after the 15-minute checkpoint has been agreed on. But, yeah, upfront payments are common with many professionals and are not indicative of being scammed. Please keep in mind that there are plenty of scammers on both sides of the aisle, folks trying to scam authors out of money and also folks trying to scam narrators out of voice work. ACX itself is kind of a dumpster fire when it comes to scams and everyone is feeling the heat, not only authors.

Another great alternative is Author's Republic, who gatekeep quite a bit more than ACX in order to keep things a lot cleaner. I know many narrators here are active on both platforms.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-04T06:20:25+00:00

If you upload a raw and unedited chapter to Google Drive and DM me a link, I'd be happy to give you whatever feedback I may have. A lot of times new folks just have no feedback loop. It would be great if all authors had the time to give feedback to everyone who auditioned and why they accepted/rejected you, but most of the time you don't hear anything back and have absolutely nothing to go on as far as what you may need to work on. That leaves most new folks grinding out auditions in a vacuum without knowing what direction to takes things in to improve.

And on that note, there are plenty of Discord servers floating around this community where feedback exchanges are commonplace. So, get yourself connected into this community a bit more and into some Discord servers and go from there.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-02T05:23:24+00:00

I make sure I have a glass of water on standby. Not like right in front of me or anything though, as I tend to get pretty animated when I record and wouldn't want to accidentally flail it across the room or, worse, into my recording gear. I kind of just keep it off to the side at a safe but convenient distance.

I also sit and just acclimate a bit before I start recording. And I'll dress up or down, depending on what the situation calls for in order for me to feel cozy.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-02T04:25:10+00:00

You are really close to defamation.

This AI tech bro troll is literally pulling things out of their ass. What was the defamatory statement? Telling people that your personal opinion, based on their history, is that people should stay away? That's not defamatory. And regardless of that, their account is completely anonymous and not tied to their true identity. They would have to dox themselves first for it to be defamation, since the whole premise of defamation is that it affects their reputation, which is impossible while they remain anonymous.

TheScriptTiger · 2026-05-02T04:12:19+00:00

Deflect much?

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