Moving a book from Audible

First, which deal is it?

Sign in to ACX, open the title, and look at its contract. Two lines matter: Distribution, which says Exclusive or Non-exclusive, and Payment terms, which names the deal.

• Pay for Production: you paid the narrator or producer a fee per finished hour. It can be switched.
• Your own production: you recorded the book, or had it recorded outside ACX, and uploaded the files yourself. It can be switched.
• Royalty Share or Royalty Share Plus: you split the royalties with the narrator instead of paying a fee. It cannot be switched.
• Distribution already says Non-exclusive: you can sell the book here now.

Pay for Production, or your own production

ACX lets you change a title from exclusive to non-exclusive once it has been on sale for at least 90 days.

• Write to ACX support from the email address in your ACX Account Settings; a request from that address is handled faster.
• Name the title and give its ASINs. ACX does not show the ASIN on the title page, but Audible does: it is the code starting B0 at the end of the book's address on Audible. A book usually has one for the UK and Europe stores and another for the US and Canada; give both.
• Audible handles the request within 30 days and emails you when the change takes effect.
• You get one change per title, so be sure before you ask. Changing back later is at Audible's discretion.
• Do not put the book on sale anywhere else until ACX has confirmed. Until then it is still exclusive.

A letter you can copy. Fill in the parts in square brackets:

Subject: Change to non-exclusive distribution: [title]

Hello,

Please change the distribution for my title [title] (ASINs: [UK and Europe ASIN], [US and Canada ASIN]) from exclusive to non-exclusive. It is a [Pay for Production / self-produced] title and has been on sale for more than 90 days.

Please also confirm how it will be handled under the new royalty model.

Thank you,
[your name]

What it costs you on Audible

Audible pays less on a non-exclusive title, so the switch lowers what each Audible sale earns you:

• Under the older model, 25 percent instead of 40.
• Under the model Audible opened in May 2026, 30 percent of a cash sale instead of 50.
• You can no longer make Audible promo codes for the book.

The older model closes at the end of 2026, and a title not enrolled in the new one by then stops being sold on Audible. Enrolment is in My Projects on ACX and takes effect on the first of the next month; ask about it in the same email thread.

Whether the switch is worth it is your call. On Illuminory you get 70 percent of the price before VAT on every sale, and your Audible listing stays where it is.

Royalty Share and Royalty Share Plus

These titles have to stay exclusive to Audible: ACX's Book Posting Agreement, section 13, does not let them be changed. The narrator is paid from Audible's royalties, so the deal only works while the book sells there alone.

If your narrator would agree to end the deal, ask ACX what is possible before anything else. We cannot sell the book while it stands.

If a publisher holds the audio rights

Then the switch is theirs to make, not yours. Ask them whether the audiobook can be sold non-exclusively, and have them write to us if it can.

If the book is already wide

If you sell the audiobook through a distributor such as Voices by INaudio (formerly Findaway Voices) or Author's Republic, and it is not exclusive anywhere, there is nothing to switch. Check that your agreement with the distributor lets you also sell direct; most do.

Your audio files

Under ACX's production terms the finished recording belongs to you, the rights holder, not to the producer and not to Audible. So the files are yours to bring here.

• The MP3 files your title holds on ACX are fine. They were made to ACX's own standard, which matches what the Illuminory apps play.
• If your narrator or producer still has the WAV or AIFF files they exported before upload, those are better still. Send those if you can.
• If you produced the book yourself, use your own exports.
• An Audible download is not a master. It is locked to Audible's apps, and we cannot use it.

Once ACX confirms

Get in touch on the authors' page with the book's title and ACX's confirmation. What else to send is in What you bring: the files, a square cover, the blurb and who narrated it. The terms for authors are the whole agreement, with nothing to sign.