On Writing and Storytelling: All Too Quiet on the ACX Front

Friday, February 20, 2026, Orlando, Florida

Another Friday in Central Florida, another workweek wrapped up.

This one has been frustrating on several fronts. My producer for the Reunion: Coda audiobook, Stefan Lee, finished recording on Tuesday, February 10. I submitted the project to ACX the following morning, which kicked off their four‑step quality assurance process—a process that can take up to 10 business days.

A week ago, ACX emailed me to confirm that the cover art passed their strict requirements. That left three remaining steps: the metadata review, the audio file QA, and the final verification. Since then…silence. No updates, good or bad.

Maybe Presidents’ Day slowed things down. QA involves both human evaluators and automated checks, and if the human side of the operation had Monday off, that’s one more day added to the queue—especially since ACX doesn’t do QA on weekends. And Reunion: Coda is a long, complex audiobook, clocking in at over 15.5 hours, so perhaps that’s part of the holdup. Still, I don’t quite understand why the metadata review hasn’t budged. How hard can that part be?

I’m the first to admit I’m not an expert in audiobook production, and patience has never been my strongest virtue—especially when it comes to my writing. Even so, my earlier audiobooks (Reunion: A Story and Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen) didn’t feel quite this stressful, even with the extra work of redoing their covers in Canva Pro.

The workday isn’t over yet, so I’m holding onto a cautious optimism that ACX might nudge the project forward before evening.

In the meantime, I made some progress yesterday on The Jim Garraty Chronicles omnibus by fixing a few more of those stubborn subheadings in Kindle Create. I’m not working through them in any particular order—more like a random hopscotch pattern—so I’m not sure how many remain. Whether it’s the tedium of the task or my ongoing irritation with Kindle Create’s quirks, the whole thing feels like wading through molasses. My mind drifts to other things: the political dysfunction of the current administration in the White House, or the strange, winding path my life has taken since 2015. I want to finish the omnibus, absolutely, but depression does sometimes dim the creative spark, and my focus isn’t what it was when I was writing Reunion: Coda and Comings and Goings.

So yes—slow going. And Kindle Create’s unresolved formatting flaws certainly don’t help.

Still, there was a bit of good news this morning. KDP notified me that next week I’ll receive $21.35 in royalties for January’s sales. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s certainly better than the $5.68 KDP currently estimates for February—unless, of course, a few more books find their way into readers’ hands before the month ends.

And that brings me to a small, sincere request:

If you’ve enjoyed my work, or if you’ve been meaning to explore the world of Jim Garraty and the people who orbit his life, my books are available on Amazon and through the Expanded Distribution network. Every purchase—whether it’s an ebook, paperback, hardcover, or audiobook—helps more than you might think. It supports the writing, the long nights, the revisions, the production costs, and the quiet hope that these stories will continue to find the readers they’re meant for.

Thanks, as always, for being part of this journey.