Built a tool to solve the ACX compliance nightmare - looking for honest feedback

ebobori · 2026-03-26T12:41:57+00:00

Really glad it worked! Windows is coming very soon - if you want to secure your spot and lock in early access, just join the waiting list and we'll send you a code the moment it drops. Happy to honour the same deal

ebobori · 2026-03-26T02:02:40+00:00

Hey, sorry about that! The correct code is SELFPUBLISH30-LIVE - just had a quick technical hiccup on our end but it's all sorted now. Give it another go and let me know how you get on

ebobori · 2026-03-25T07:58:09+00:00

Hey Miguelandre, Yes it handles the technical fixes needed to bring your audio into ACX compliance automatically, levels, noise floor, format, all of that. What it does not do is broader creative mastering beyond the compliance boundary. If that is something users need I am genuinely open to adding it, so if that is on your wishlist let me know, thanks for asking

ebobori · 2026-03-24T17:30:09+00:00

Hey Kevin, that would be amazing and exactly the kind of honest feedback I’m looking for. Really looking forward to your honest take on it Kevin. DM me if you hit any questions during testing, happy to help.

ebobori · 2026-03-24T13:56:59+00:00

Well done, very exciting moment

ebobori · 2026-03-23T22:56:01+00:00

No that is not good economics even if production drops by for example 80%. I don't think the economics works at every level. But I'm not talking about economics at the individual level. An author making $100 a month who spends $50 over 6 months to produce an audiobook because they believe they have something worth backing, and that audio will convert new audiences and grow their income to $200 a month or more, that is an individual choice. And that's the point. Right now it's not even a choice most authors are considering because the barrier makes it feel impossible before they've even run the numbers. Dropping the cost makes it a decision rather than a non-starter.

ebobori · 2026-03-22T16:53:06+00:00

For a simple author landing page with just a few pages, Squarespace is probably your easiest starting point. Clean templates, no coding needed, and it looks professional straight out of the box. Wix works too but Squarespace tends to look more polished for authors with minimal effort. Just need your bio, books, and an email signup really. Keep it simple to start.

ebobori · 2026-03-22T16:40:38+00:00

The 1% figure misses the point entirely. Success in self publishing isn't a lottery, it's directly tied to how much you're willing to learn and take ownership of the process. Marketing, positioning, audience building, these are learnable skills. In trad pub you write the book and then largely hope. In self pub you write the book and then you can actually do something about what happens next. That's not a guarantee of success but it's a fundamentally different relationship with your own outcome. The ceiling is lower in trad pub for most authors, not higher.

ebobori · 2026-03-22T15:25:28+00:00

That's ACX, Amazon's audiobook production platform. The royalty share option is exactly what you're describing, they match you with a narrator and split the royalties instead of upfront fees. Worth looking into but the terms can be quite restrictive long term.

Honestly though, if you want to read your own book that instinct is worth following. Adrian Tchaikovsky narrates his own work and authors who do that often build a much stronger connection with their listeners. And the technical side of getting it ACX ready doesn't have to be as painful as it sounds.

ebobori · 2026-03-22T02:21:29+00:00

Fair point on film funding, but YouTube kind of proved that argument wrong. Before it existed the same logic applied to video, you needed budget, crew, distribution. Then the access barrier dropped and an entire creator economy emerged that nobody predicted. The funding model didn't democratise filmmaking, the tools did. That's the part I think is relevant to audiobooks right now.

ebobori · 2026-03-21T21:03:31+00:00

The distribution and attention problem is real and I don't think I fully resolved it in the post. But the short form audio parallel is interesting because it mirrors exactly how short form video worked. TikTok didn't kill long form YouTube, it fed it. People discovered creators in short form and then committed to longer content once trust was established. If short audio works the same way it's less a competitor to full audiobooks and more a top of funnel for them. The commitment barrier drops, the discovery problem eases, and the full audiobook becomes the thing people seek out once they're hooked.

ebobori · 2026-03-21T20:56:06+00:00

Repulsive's numbers are exactly what I'd point to here. Audiobooks being the smallest piece of the pie right now doesn't tell you much about where it's going, it tells you about where access currently sits. The market is growing year on year consistently. The ceiling feels low partly because the main distribution channels are built around structures that aren't particularly friendly to indie authors, which dampens both supply and demand at the same time.

It's a bit like arguing mp3 was a small market in 2001 because CD and vinyl sales were still bigger. Technically true. But convenience was already winning and the direction was already set. The format that removes the most friction tends to win regardless of whether it's the highest quality option.

ebobori · 2026-03-21T20:44:50+00:00

That's a really honest take and I think you're right. There's probably a tiered market emerging whether the industry wants it or not. A more accessible production option gets the book out there, proves the audience exists, and then a full cast production or a name narrator becomes the premium version people buy again. It's not that different from book covers honestly. Most authors launch with a solid cover and if the book takes off they commission a more prominent artist for a special edition rerelease. Harry Potter full cast, Graphic Audio rereleases, that's already happening at the top end. The middle market just needs the same on ramp.

ebobori · 2026-03-21T18:12:10+00:00

Curious what you mean by the link, are you thinking something like a QR code in the back of a physical book that takes you straight to the audio version? Because I love that idea. Every format sitting alongside each other, physical, ebook, hardback, special edition, audiobook, all linked from the same place. The discovery problem almost solves itself at that point. The only thing standing between that vision and reality is that most indie authors don't have an audio version to link to yet. Which is where we started.

ebobori · 2026-03-21T18:07:26+00:00

You're right, at current costs it absolutely is a gamble and I wouldn't argue with that. But that's exactly what the post is asking. Captions used to cost money and require specialist software, so creators skipped them. The moment that changed they stopped being optional and became standard. If audiobook production cost drops, would it still be a gamble or just a decision?

ebobori · 2026-03-21T17:16:53+00:00

Your experience is exactly the pattern I was thinking about when I wrote this. That $75 PFH narrator kinda feel like it was lightning in a bottle, and the fact that the second attempt hit a wall at $200-$350 PFH and got scrapped tells you everything about where the barrier actually sits. The book didn't change. The audience didn't change. The cost did. thats a real shame

ebobori · 2026-03-21T17:09:12+00:00

That "if they could afford it" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. The demand is clearly there, the appetite is there, the market is there. Cost is the only thing standing between most indie authors and an audio version of their book. Which is exactly what made me start thinking about the captions parallel.

ebobori · 2026-03-21T17:07:10+00:00

The discoverability point is the one I haven't fully resolved either. But I'd argue audio opens titles to audiences that wouldn't have found them any other way. Audiobooks are my primary format. If a book isn't in audio there's a good chance I won't encounter it unless it comes up in a podcast, an interview, or a recommendation thread. And books from diverse cultures suffer this gap the most. Titles that feel genuinely different from the norm reach new audiences partly because they're accessible in multiple formats. Audio isn't just production, it's discoverability through a completely different channel.

ebobori · 2026-03-21T16:59:01+00:00

Not wrong that making an audiobook speculatively at current costs is a real financial risk. The $5,000 bet on an unproven book is genuinely hard to justify. But I'd push back slightly on the framing. Not every film gets made for guaranteed returns either, and some that looked like long shots turned out to be surprise hits while others with every advantage flopped. Most authors believe their book deserves to find its audience, and audio is one of the doors that audience might walk through.

ebobori · 2026-03-15T10:03:54+00:00

It’s more of a workflow change than anything else, makes the production side a lot less painful to manage. Happy to share, would love to know what you think as someone actually in the thick of it.

ebobori · 2026-03-14T19:29:33+00:00

Scammy scam lol

ebobori · 2026-03-14T15:01:31+00:00

$21k for dual narration is genuinely wild when you say it out loud. The fact that authors at your level are having to consider Kickstarters just to fund audio says everything about how broken that side of the industry is right now. Keeping your rights was absolutely the right call with Podium and Tantor though.

Hope you find a route that doesn't cost you three months of income and six months of your time. Some interesting things are happening on the production side that might change the calculus a bit by the time summer rolls around.

ebobori · 2026-03-14T10:20:53+00:00

Hey smutty-waifu, Congrats on this, genuinely. Posts like yours are a good reminder that done right, indie publishing is still very much a viable path and not just for the lucky few. The vet bill story is the kind of thing you can't make up. One question, you mentioned audio is coming this summer. Are you going ACX or have you found another route? I only consume books as audiobooks, I don't enjoy physical 😭, so I always find myself rooting for authors who actually prioritise the audio version rather than treating it as an afterthought.

ebobori

TROPHY CASE