Crafting an engaging description for your audiobook is crucial in enticing potential listeners to purchase it. We'll provide guidance on ensuring your description adheres to ACX's requirements, ensuring a seamless submission process.

In this article:

• How do I set up a profile for my title on ACX?
• What are the Audible product description requirements?
• How do I add critic reviews to the publisher's summary of my audiobook?
• Will Audible make changes to my audiobook’s title or description?
• What am I allowed to include on my Audible sales page?
• How do I include extra text in parentheses in my audiobook title?

How do I set up a profile for my title on ACX?

First you need to claim your title, and during the claiming workflow, you'll be asked to add a description as part of the Title details. To learn more visit Claim my title.

Note: Make sure you adhere to the product description requirements found below

What are the Audible product description requirements?

Your ACX audiobook product description is the text providing details and interest for your audiobook to potential listeners. This section can summarize your audiobook and may include links to your website(s).

If your book’s description mentions supplementary material, such as a PDF, we’ll hold the title for a week while we confirm the PDF has been received by ACX. Visit Edit your audiobook to learn how to submit a PDF. If the PDF has not been received after a week, PDF references will be deleted from the product description and your book will be made available.

In addition to being engaging to listeners, product descriptions must adhere to the following: 

• Product descriptions can be no longer than 2000 characters, including spaces. Descriptions longer than 2000 characters will need to be shortened before they can be published.
• Product descriptions should be absent of critic reviews and will not be approved if they include them.

You are able to change your description while in production. 

How do I add critic reviews to the publisher's summary of my audiobook?

Critic reviews, trade reviews, or editorial reviews can be added to the publisher's summary of your audiobook. You can add up to three critic reviews to the publisher's summary. Please make sure that the reviews come from critics, not customers, and that they are for the audiobook, not the print or ebook edition. If you would like to add critic reviews, please contact us.

Will Audible make changes to my audiobook’s title or description?

Audible does not apply style guide rules to ACX titles and descriptions. Our goal is to leave your title and description as much in your own voice as possible. We will correct any errors we find in spelling, punctuation, or grammar, and fix any formatting issues (such as no space between sentences or other formatting that affects readability). When writing your title and description, you may find it helpful to follow the Chicago Manual of Style, the style guide used by all major US book publishers—you will find some of these suggested guidelines below.

Title/Subtitle

Capitalize:

• First and last words
• All verbs including very short ones

Lowercase:

• The articles the, a, and an
• All prepositions shorter than five letters (to, as, on, from), except when they are being used adverbially (Look Up, Turn Down) or are the first or last words in the title/subtitle
• The conjunctions and, but, for, or, and nor, unless they are the first or last words in the title/subtitle

Description

Note: If you need your description to include specialized font (bold, italics, underlined, etc.) or other formatting like bullet points, contact us after the title has been submitted to QA for review.

Formatting:

• Do not use ALL CAPS, which will make your audiobook description resemble a "hard sell" advertisement.

Italicize:

• Titles of books/audiobooks, novellas, newspapers and magazines, plays, TV shows, radio programs, book-length poems (The Iliad), album titles, blog/website/podcast titles (HuffPost, Kirkus Reviews, This American Life), paintings, drawings, photos, statues, and other works of art.
  • Example: From the author of USA Today and New York Times best seller Damaged, the gripping story of a woman caught in a horrific cycle of abuse.

Quotation marks:

• Use for titles of short stories/essays (audio under 60 minutes), newspaper or magazine articles, book chapters, songs, and individual TV show episodes.
  • Example: A collection of stories about the fabulously rich, including "The Inconsiderate Waiter" by J. M. Barrie, "The One Million Pound Bank Note" by Mark Twain, and "Alf's Dream" by W. W. Jacobs.

Straight font (no italics)/ no quotation marks:

• Titles of book series or movie series.
  • Example: There are seven books in the Harry Potter series.

Ellipses:

• At the end of a full sentence, use four dots.
  • Example: You should be careful what you wish for....
• In the middle of a sentence, use three dots and no space before or after.
  • Example: And then I thought...is this for real?

Commas

• Use before and after a name that is nonrestrictive—that is, if the sentence still makes sense if you remove the name.
  • Example: Master storyteller Helen Dunmore writes the story of Sapphire and her brother, Conor, and their discovery of Ingo.
• Use between independent clauses (parts of a sentence that read like a complete sentence themselves) separated by a conjunction (and, but, so).
  • Example: Nathair has been deceived, but now he knows the truth.

Spaces between sentences

• There should be only one space between sentences.
  • Example: The library holds secrets of several murders. The dead won’t rest until the murderer checks out too.

Unnecessary capitalization

• Do not use unnecessary or arbitrary capitalization.
  • Example:
    • Incorrect: The Ketogenic Diet will help you lose weight fast.
    • Correct: The ketogenic diet will help you lose weight fast.

Audiobook-centric language

• Change all instances of "readers" to "listeners," "read" to "listen to," "pages" to "minutes," "page turner" to "thriller," and so on. There should be no references to a print version of the book; it should refer only to the audiobook.
  • Example:
    • Incorrect: Blowout is a riveting page turner you'll want to read with the lights on!
    • Correct: Blowout is a riveting psychological thriller you'll want to listen to with the lights on!

What am I allowed to include on my Audible sales page?

Title and contributor information

The title, subtitle, author name, and series information on the audiobook's cover image should match the corresponding metadata fields as closely as possible. Please note that words in the title, subtitle, your audiobook's category, your publisher name, and the names of the author and narrator automatically become searchable keywords on the Audible site. We may remove additional keywords placed in the title or subtitle of your audiobook.

Description

Use your description to entice potential listeners with a summary of your book. Let listeners know what makes your book interesting. Give them an idea of what kind of audiobook it is. If you're stuck and need ideas, check the backs (or inner dust jacket flaps) of print books you like, or ask someone you trust how they would describe your audiobook. In addition, we cannot accept any of the following information in the description:

• Reviews, quotes, or testimonials unless they are from published authors or professional reviewers, such as those associated with the publication or website that regularly reviews books;
• Requests for customer reviews;
• Pornographic, obscene, or offensive content, such as erotic or pornographic excerpts from the text of your book;
• Phone numbers, physical mail addresses, email addresses, or clickable URLs. An abbreviated, non-clickable web address such as Audible.com is acceptable. Do not include "www" or "http", as these are not required by modern browsers;
• Advertisements or promotional material;
• Time-sensitive information (for example, dates of promotional tours, seminars, lectures, future release dates for other books in the series, etc.);
• Availability, price, alternative ordering information (for example, instructions to visit other websites for placing orders); and
• Statements about charity donations without reference to a registered charity promotion that can be verified, such as your state's Charitable Registration Filing number.

How do I include extra text in parentheses in my audiobook title?

You may use text in parentheses; however, from time to time, Audible editors may make revisions to the title of your audiobook to ensure it's properly presented on retail pages. This is often done when a title contains information within parentheses.

These are examples of when Audible editors may make revisions to the title of your audiobook:

• If the information is really a subtitle: The text will be placed in the subtitle field.
• If the information is descriptive or contains keywords: The text will be added to the title's keywords, provided that they are truly relevant to your title. Titles may have a limit of three keywords or brief keyword phrases.
• If the information is imprint related: This information will be removed.
• If the text denotes series information: This information will be added to the series field.
• If the information pertains to the title's category: The information will be removed from the title. Audible editors will consider such information when categorizing the title.