I’m happy to report that the two stolen audiobooks have been removed!
If you’re an author and have had a scammer steal your book and make it into an audiobook, go to Amazon and fill out the copyright infringement form. Go to this link and then click the blue “form” link if you want to file online. They have a process to mail in a copyright infringement complaint, but I find it easier to do this online.
One of my readers who reported the stolen audiobook on Amazon was told to go to ACX. A couple of narrators I communicated with said they went to ACX. So if you’re not an author, it sounds like going to ACX directly is the way to go.
To all authors, as a preventative measure, claim your books if you can. Unfortunately, there are some authors who can’t claim their books because they live in a country that won’t them get into ACX. I hesitate to say which countries since it might give some scammers ideas on which authors to target. I have a feeling my scammer was following my blog posts. That scammer might still be, for all I know. Suffice it to say, if you’re an author in the United States like I am, you can go and claim your books.
If anyone working at ACX happens to be reading this post (which I doubt is the case, but who knows?), it would help authors a lot if the KDP dashboard worked like the Smashwords dashboard. At Smashwords, I can click on the audiobook link to create an audiobook and it takes me directly to Findaway Voices. If KDP required the author to be signed into their KDP dashboard in order to transfer their book to ACX, that would be a huge preventative measure from future scams. This is a win-win all the way around. One, the book would automatically be “claimed” on ACX when the author transfers it over there. Two, the narrators would be able to trust that the author is really the owner of the book they are going to create into an audiobook. Three, this would also protect the authors in countries who are unable to access ACX. Four, this would establish trust in the ACX brand. Right now, ACX’s reputation has suffered because of this. As an author, I don’t trust it. I’m taking my business to Findaway Voices. I’m sure this has made narrators hesitate to want to work on ACX, too.
Edited to add: I realize authors don’t need an account at Smashwords to create audiobooks on Findaway Voices. I just used that as an example of how KDP (where authors create their ebooks on Amazon) can be used in conjunction with ACX.
In the meantime, all authors can do is claim their books as long as they live in a country that makes this possible.
Ruth Ann Nordin's Author Blog 
I’m glad that you are back in control of your property. This kind of theft must be very frustrating. I have bought all the books I have of yours on Apple. I hope that they deal fair. I must admit that I am looking forward to the audiobooks you will be making. I hope it is a very successful endeavor and I will certainly be one of your first customers. Happy rest of the summer and thanks for writing.
It is frustrating. I’m always glad when the matter is resolved. I hope now I can get back to writing.
Apple has been good to me. I have no complaints there. I use Smashwords to distribute to them. I plan to download my audiobooks as they are created, and I’m planning to use my Apple account for them. Findaway Voices is the service I’ll be using to upload and distribute the audiobooks. It’s going to take a while to go through my backlist. I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to get all the books done since I write much faster than I can have audiobooks created. My plan is to pay the narrators so they can have something upfront. I feel it’s only fair that I honor their time in reading the books. I don’t have the voice for narration. Like Tom Larson, I’m clumsy, and I run into things from time to time. My reading is a lot like that. 😛
Anyway, I figure I’ll focus on getting my favorite books made into audio. I’m starting with the Marriage by Fairytale Series (The Marriage Contract, One Enchanted Evening, The Wedding Pact, Fairest of Them All, and The Duke’s Secluded Bride) for the Regencies. Then when that is done, I’d like to go to the Marriage by Scandal Series (The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife, A Most Unsuitable Earl, His Reluctant Lady, and The Earl’s Scandalous Wife). I’m not sure where I’ll go from there with the Regencies. In historical westerns, I am going to start with Eye of the Beholder and His Redeeming Bride. I haven’t decided where I’ll go after that. I might do the Wyoming Series since I like it so much. But for the most part, I want to concentrate on the Larsons. They’re spread out across more than one series, so we’ll see how things go.
I’m glad to hear you’re interested in audibooks! 😀
I like audiobooks a lot but have realized I tend to buy them for books I have already read and know. When I’m too tired some nights to read I like to play an audiobook of a story I like before bed. It can help me relax before bed, and the lower register of a mans voice also adds to the chill effect. I am also trying to learn to knit and find an audiobook keeps me company while practicing. I will enjoy listening to your books very much and look forward to their release. I was hoping that you would one day put some of your books on audio, and I bet you would do just fine if you ever wanted to record 🙂 Thanks for writing. I so enjoy visiting with all the characters in your books.
Since audiobooks are more expensive than ebooks, I don’t blame you for checking out the ebooks first. I always rent a movie before I buy it. I’m not even sure what I should charge for audiobooks. I’m going to have to look at other authors in historical romance and see what they’re doing. There is so much I have to learn about this. 🙂
Years ago, I did a sample reading on You Tube. I had forgotten all about it until today. It was from Loving Eliza. Back then, I was playing with making book trailers and audio files. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFvHkPrbb_U&t=50s
I saw at the end of that sample that I mentioned a podcast. I forgot I had experimented with that. LOL It turned out that I ran out of file space and didn’t know what to do at the time, so I deleted the podcast channel I had created. I’m sure there was an option to buy more space. I just didn’t know it at the time.
I just listened to your YouTube sample of Loving Eliza. I think you did a fine job reading the book! You had me hooked. I found I also enjoyed the pictures. I’m really looking forward to your audiobooks someday and I’m sure you will pick great readers to bring them to life. If you ever decide to do one yourself, I think that would be great too. Thanks for writing
Just a heads up, once you’ve chosen a voice narrator not all companies guarantee that it will be that person and they don’t tell you that your narrator has been replaced. I’ve had two authors that have mentioned it. One of them described that after going through tons of work listening to samples and picking the voice that was perfect they asked for an update on the project. Only to hear, not only the wrong voice but a voice that so didn’t go with the character that she pulled her contract. She was told that the original voice actor had other work at the moment and they substituted the other actor. She was super NOT HAPPY.
Do you know what company did this? I’m paying one narrator outright for the files, so all I have to do is upload them to Findaway Voices. They will go on to distribute the audiobooks for me. But I’m also using Findaway Voices for another narrator who wanted to do the royalty-spilt with 50% upfront. Findaway Voices is charging me/her/us 30% for going between us. If they are taking 30% just to put the book together, then they owe me the right narrator.
They owed the author this happened to the right narrator, too. I’m not trying to say they didn’t. I hit “post comment” too soon.