This document addresses common issues that may arise during audiobook production, including situations where the rights holder—author, publisher, literary agent, and author’s estate— is asking for too many edits, delayed or missing payments for production work, and other instances of unresponsive rights holder behavior.

In this article:

• The rights holder has been unresponsive since I completed our production. What can I do?
• What happens if my rights holder does not send the up-front payment for my Royalty Share Plus or Pay-for-Production project?
• The rights holder is requesting too many edits on the audiobook. What do I do?

The rights holder has been unresponsive since I completed our production. What can I do?

For Royalty Share contracts

If you honored the terms of the Royalty Share contract and didn't miss any due dates, we can submit a request to have your production deemed approved or help you work with the rights holder to move forward. Email info@acx.com to let us know if the rights holder has been unresponsive.

For Pay-for-Productions contracts

First, email info@acx.com to let us know if a rights holder has been unresponsive. To ensure you’re paid for your work, ACX will not allow Pay-for-Production projects to move into our quality assurance review process until the producer selects “I’ve been paid“ in the ACX.com system. You should only select this button once you’ve received the funds for your project. We can reach out to the rights holder to encourage action. If our emails don't yield positive results, please refer to the ACX Production Standard Terms Agreement.

What happens if my rights holder does not send the up-front payment for my Royalty Share Plus or Pay-for-Production project?

To ensure you’re paid for your work, ACX will not allow Royalty Share Plus projects to move into our quality assurance review process until the producer selects “I’ve been paid.” You should only select this button once you’ve received the funds for your project.

The rights holder is requesting too many edits on the audiobook. What do I do?

Please refer to the Production Standard Terms contract to review your rights while in production. We also recommend you use the message center to communicate with the rights holder in depth regarding the changes they are requesting and the time frame in which to complete them.