Audio Books 101 with Hot Listens

Audio books are getting more and more popular these days. I've tried listening to a few but for some reason I can't muster the same focus as I have with a traditional or ebook. 

Unlike print books, there are more cogs involved in listening and liking an audio book. Aside from the story, I think the narrator's voice is important and as I am fond of reading fantasy, I take offense when names and other jargon is mispronounced.

Then there's the whole Audible thing. How does the membership work? How do I get deals? How does credit work? See I'm lazy/a dunce so I decided to go ask an audio book expert and enthusiast, Loupe of HOTLISTENS, to give me the basics.

The ins and outs of audible.com

audible.com is a seller and producer of spoken audio entertainment, information, and educational programming on the Internet. Audible sells digital audiobooks, radio and TV programs, and audio versions of magazines and newspapers. Through its production arm, Audible Studios, Audible has also become the world's largest producer of downloadable audiobooks. On January 31, 2008 Amazon.com announced it would buy Audible for about 300 million. The deal closed in March 2008 and Audible is now a subsidiary of Amazon.

Audible is a must-have for an audiobook junkie, like us at Hotlistens. It has the largest selection of audiobooks available for download that I have found on the internet. With a membership, it is also pretty inexpensive compared to buying individual downloads or CDs.

There are a couple of different membership plans you can do with Audible.  There are two different month-to-month plans where you get either one or two credits per month.  Each credit is worth one audiobook (for most books, I've never seen one that is more, but there are some out there).  With this program, you pay each month and the costs for each book is either $11.48, if you get two credits per month, or $14.95 if you do just one credit per month. These are a month-to-month deal and you can cancel at anytime.

Audible also has annual membership, where you can purchase all your credits up front.  This is great if you are a beginner and need to build your library, but it will also be hard on your wallet up front, though cheaper in the long run.  You can do 12 credits, for $12.46 each, or 24 credits at $9.56 each.  This is the best deal if you can afford to drop the $229.50 in one lump sum.

Audible also gives you extra benefits besides the credits.  You can rollover credits, so you don't have to use them in the exact time allotted, but they do limit how many you can rollover depend on your package. You also get a discount if you want to purchase books over the amount of credits that you have, a 30% discount off the regular Audible price. If you use all your credits, Audible will usually offer you a deal to purchase three additional credits at a decent price (the emails don't list the price and it has been a while since I've used all mine up).

Audible also offers many special sales for members only.  They do a lot of Buy One, Get One or Three for Two sales, but you have to use credits for those. There are also the $4.95 sales, where they put select books on sale for, as the sale is called, $4.95.  I've picked up a ton of new books and found new authors this way.  Lastly, they have sales, where if you purchase 4 regular priced books in one month, you get a $10 credit to your account.  This isn't every month, but I think they do it about twice a year.

Lastly, and this isn't just for members, is when you purchase a Kindle version of a book with Whispersync, you can then purchase the audiobook from Audible at a discounted price.  The price of the Kindle ebook and audiobook will vary, but I've frequently purchased the Kindle version and then the audiobook and saved a credit because it was cheaper.  This is especially true if there is a Kindle sale.  I saw one recently, the Kindle ebook was $1.99 on sale and then the audiobook went down to $1.99 too.  Of course, I had just purchased this book, but luckily, it was during the $4.95 sale, so I was only out $0.95, so I wasn't too disappointed.  I've gotten where I'm purchasing less through Barnes and Noble and more on Amazon for this reason alone.

How to use Whispersync

      

Happy listening from Hot Listens 

 

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I hope this 101 helped those of you who are thinking of trying or converting to audio books. On that note, can you give me recommendations? Who is your favorite narrator and which book should I listen to first to ease me into listening rather than reading?