Academy Voices has a brand-new website, and it went live on Thursday, 1 October. People started moving over around six or seven that morning, and by the time I went live with Gabby and Angela at noon we already had people auditioning and signing contracts through it. We walked through the whole thing on the live, and it's also Episode 310 of the podcast.

If you're a narrator or an author and you're wondering what changed and what you need to do, here it is.

Why we rebuilt Academy Voices

The old site did its job. It really did, and it's how all of this got started. But it was held together with duct tape. Auditions went into a comment section, because that's what we had. Everybody's audio and headshots came in as Dropbox links, and at one point there were over 2,000 files in my Dropbox. If an author wanted to hear an audition we needed a whole separate system just to share it with them. Contracts were sent by hand.

So a lot of people's stuff didn't get up when it should have, and people got frustrated with us, rightly so. The new site handles all of that in one place.

Start with a brand-new account

This is the big one. Don't go to the new site and try to log in with your old details. You have to create a new account.

You're not paying again. If you're already a member, your membership links to the new account automatically. If you pay through PayPal, I link it by hand on the back end, so you'll see a little note that your account is waiting to be linked. Once I link it you never have to think about it again. With Stripe, use the same name and the email you used before. Otherwise it won't match up. And if it doesn't match, it's not game over. We built ways to fix that.

And please do this soon. Gabby can't send you a contract unless you're on the new site.

Set up your profile so authors can find you

A lot of people made their account and stopped there. Your profile won't show up to authors until it's finished and approved, so finish it.

Add your headshot. Put up at least one demo or sample. Fill out your bio. Then it comes to me, and I look at every single one before it goes live. That's on purpose. Every narrator on Academy Voices is checked by a person, which is how we keep it a place for real human narrators.

Once you're approved, the system builds your own profile page for you. Go to the front of the site and click on your name to see how it looks. I think it's beautiful, and it's yours.

Auditions and contracts, all in one place

Auditions are up on the new site now and people are already auditioning.

If you auditioned for projects on the old site, nothing is lost. We decided not to move those auditions over. Those projects are still being cast, and once Gabby casts one, she sets it up in the new system and you get offered the contract right there. Those projects won't go back up for auditions.

When you get a contract, the system puts in due dates on its own, one for your 15-minute check and one for the finished book. That's a template, just like on ACX. If you need more time, send the contract back with the dates you need. There's flexibility, and this first couple of weeks is going to be a little wacky for all of us anyway.

You can message us right inside the site, and there's a place to send a support ticket too.

Your sales and royalty statements

This is one of my favourite changes. You get a sales overview where you can see your sales. You can also download your own monthly statements as PDF or CSV files.

It's updated about three times a month, as the reports come in from the platforms. It's not a running daily tally, because the platforms don't pay that way. Every one of them reports on a different schedule, and they're usually two to three months behind. Before, a lot of people didn't even know where to find their numbers.

And here's something that's new. If you narrated books with us and you're not a member right now, you can still log in and see your royalties. You won't see new auditions, but you still get paid for your books, so you should be able to see it.

The free audio checker

Every member gets the audio checker. It's included. You upload your file, it checks it against the standards, and if it doesn't meet them you hit fix and it fixes it.

Angela used to spend a huge amount of her time running people's audio through her own setup to get it up to standard. Now the system catches it first. If your noise floor is too high, it kicks the file back to you, so you know before it ever gets to her. I've never seen a tool like that anywhere else.

The tools bundle

On top of that there are paid tools, because they cost money to run. We bundled them the way people asked us to. Each month the bundle gives you eight hours of the proofing tool and two full script preps. You also get six social media post generations. You can pay monthly or for the year, and top up if you run out. Your dashboard shows the bundle, and your subscription tab shows everything you're on.

For launch day I gave everyone an hour of the proofing tool and one script prep free so you can try them.

For authors

The author side used to be a few links I'd stuck in a library tab. Now authors have their own portal, built for them.

Authors also get a launch kit for their audiobook, with emails, social posts of all kinds and a launch calendar, because we want every author to have something to sell with. A package for narrators to promote their books is coming too.

If you don't see something yet

If you finished a book in September and you can't see it on your account yet, don't worry. It hasn't gone anywhere. We have a backlog, and we're moving projects over by hand, so give us a couple of weeks for the full move. Coming next is a big push to get authors to know we exist, a blog post for every audiobook so each one has its own page, and a newsletter.

Join Academy Voices

Academy Voices is $9 a month or $97 for the year, at academyvoices.com. If you're a VO Journey Academy member, you get 6 months of Academy Voices free with your member code.

And if you want to see how we train narrators before you join anything, our live classes are open to everyone during Free Class Week, 12 to 15 October. It's free, you just sign up.

Go make your new account and finish that profile. I'll see you on there.

Anthony