ACX's Old Audiobook Royalty Model Ends This Year: What to Do Before It Does

ACX is retiring its legacy royalty model by the end of the year. The new model pays 50% exclusive and 30% non-exclusive. Here's what changes and what to do.

By Gundi Gabrielle

3 min read

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If you have an audiobook on ACX, there's a deadline coming, and it's closer than most of the KDP chatter suggests.

By the end of this year, ACX is discontinuing its legacy royalty model, as ACX explains on its blog. To keep your audiobook distributed through Audible, you have to move your titles to the new royalty model. Skip it, and the other option is to stop distributing.

I'm keeping this ACX royalty model update clean and tied to ACX's own pages, so you can decide in five minutes whether you need to do anything.

What's changing in the ACX royalty model (the official version)

ACX has said that by the end of the year the legacy royalty model will be discontinued, and that by then you must either enroll your titles in the new model or discontinue distribution.

The new rates, according to ACX:

Enrollment opened to all ACX creators on May 26, 2026. In the dashboard, you select Enroll titles on the banner at the top of the My Projects page, choose your titles, and confirm.

How the new ACX royalty model calculates royalties

This is the part that's different, so read it slowly.

For Audible's membership offerings, ACX says your royalty equals Member Value multiplied by your contractual royalty rate. Member Value is the price of a listener's monthly membership plan, minus taxes and fees.

In plain words: the percentage went up, but what the percentage is applied to changed. That's why I wouldn't assume your income goes up or down until you've looked at your own numbers for a few months.

There's also an optional program called All-You-Can-Listen. Creators enrolled in the new model can opt titles into the AYCL catalog in the Premium membership plan.

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Who should act on the ACX royalty model change now (and who can wait)

Act now if:

• ✦You already have audiobooks distributed through ACX
• ✦You're planning to release a new audiobook before the end of the year
• ✦You use ACX as your main audiobook route and don't want your titles to stop distributing

You can mostly ignore it if:

• ✦You don't have an audiobook yet (just plan to start on the new model)
• ✦Your audiobook is distributed somewhere else entirely

Your simple to-do list

1. 1Log in to ACX and open My Projects.
2. 2Look for the blue enrollment banner at the top.
3. 3Choose the titles you want to move and confirm.
4. 4Decide on exclusive or non-exclusive distribution. The rates above depend on it.
5. 5Note your distribution choice in your own records, so you can compare earnings later.

Don't leave it until the last week of December. Account changes are easier to fix when you're not racing a deadline.

Still unknown (and worth watching)

• ✦What your actual earnings per sale look like under Member Value. That depends on your titles and your listeners' plans.
• ✦Whether ACX will extend or change the end-of-year deadline for the legacy royalty model. Nothing I've found says it will, so plan as if it won't.

I keep every change I can verify in one place: the latest Amazon KDP updates. For the bigger picture on expanding a book into audio and other languages, see Step 8 of my Amazon KDP publishing guide.

A quick note from someone who's been doing this a while

I have books on ACX too, and I'm updating them all now (finally!). After a decade of publishing, deadlines like this one are where authors lose money by accident: not because the new rules are worse, but because nobody told them there was a switch to flip. The five minutes it takes to enroll now is cheaper than a stalled audiobook in January.

If you only do one thing after reading this: open ACX today and look for the blue banner.

Created By

Gundi Gabrielle

Top 100 Business Author · Carnegie Hall Conductor · Founder of Golden Bestseller Empire

Hey, I'm Gundi, and for over a decade, I've helped thousands of everyday people turn what they know into a bestselling book.

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In my earlier years, I was a classical conductor & organist, touring the world, incl. Carnegie Hall & a performance for the Pope on St. Peter's Square.

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