I’ve just recently found that I love audio books. I figured they were for the hearing impaired or for workers with long commutes. My commute is only about 15 minutes to work. However, when working to produce the audio book for The Curse of Europa, I figured I should listen to an audio book or two. Now I’m hooked!! Even though my commute is only 15 minutes, that is still a good 30 minutes a day. If I go to lunch I may listen again in my car, or take headphones and listen while I eat. It’s great because it’s hard to find time to read and it is easy now to plug reading into time that is otherwise “wasted”, such as driving a car.
On our trip to Florida (driving from Michigan), it was great. It kept me awake better than the radio. Even laying in the sun. Sure, you can easily read, but it sure is more relaxing to just lay back and listen (especially if the audio book production is top notch.) Many narrators will do certain voices for the various characters. Depending on the narrator, sometimes this can be great, sometimes a bit weird. If you’ve got a good narrator if adds a whole new level to the enjoyment of the book.
So what is this “trick?”
It’s not really a trick I guess. There’s nothing devious or deceitful about it. It’s taking advantage of special pricing if you do things in the correct order. I believe it is Amazon’s way to promote their Whispersync technology. The basic trick is that if you purchase the Kindle version of a book first, you may get a huge discount on the audio book. You can basically purchase both the Kindle version and the Audio version for much less than just the Audio version alone. And you don’t even have to be an Audible.com Gold member. Many times the audio version is discounted down to $4.99, $2.99, $1.99, sometimes even 99 cents for example.
Amazon owns Audible.com. To purchase a book from Audible.com, you can simply login with your Amazon.com credentials. You don’t have to sign-up for their membership to purchase audio books. Members get special pricing and usually get a book a month for free (but you’re paying a monthly membership). So again, you don’t need to do the monthly membership to take advantage of this “trick.” In many cases, purchasing the Kindle version and then the Audible version is still cheaper than the member pricing (use less they use their monthly credit to get it for free, of course.)
Here are some examples from popular books. These are based on pricing as of 5/24/2013
The Hunger Games. If you want to purchase the audio book alone it will cost you $24.95. If you are an Audible.com member, you can get it for the discounted price of $19.58. However, anyone, can purchase the Kindle version for $5.00 and then the Audible version is discounted to $3.95. So… you can get both versions for $8.95. You just saved $16. All legit, all direct through Amazon.com and Audible.com. You can then download the Audible book onto a Kindle or any iPhone or Android phone via the Audible app.
Mocking Jay / Catching Fire. Well, to wrap up The Hunger Games series, you can get both versions for Mocking Jay for $9.48 (save $8.47) and both versions of Catching Fire for $9.94 (save $15.01.) These are well narrated books by the way! I’ve listened to them both.
A Storm of Swords: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book III. Purchase the Audio version for $39.95, or purchase the Kindle version for $9.99 and then get the discounted Audio version for $12.99. So this one is a bit more expensive, but at $22.98 you are still saving $16.97!
Wool Omnibus Edition. You can get the Kindle version for $5.99 and then the Audio version for only $1.99. So this is $7.98 vs. the regular price of $27.95 for only the Audio version alone. Save almost $20. The narration for this book is a little subpar, but okay.
14 by Peter Clines. I LOVED this book. The narrator did an awesome job!! Purchase the Kindle version for $7.99 and get the audio version for only $1.99! Again, the narration on this was superb, I highly recommend. So you get both for $9.98 vs. $21.95, save $11.97!
The Host: A Novel. Purchase both versions for $8.69 vs. $23.95, save $15.26.
Gone Girl. Purchase both versions for $17.98 vs. $28.95, save 10.97.
Theft of Swords: Riyria Revelations, Book 1. Purchase both versions for $11.98 vs. $35.95, save $23.97.
The Martian. This is a GREAT book also. Unfortunately the Kindle version is no longer available because this independent author got a full book deal and sold the rights. The audio version is still available. The audio book is GREAT also; the narrator did a superb job and has almost as many voices as Rich Little. If you were not lucky enough to purchase the Kindle version for 99 cents when it was available, I still highly recommend the audio version for $13.96. However, if you did happen to have purchased the Kindle version, you can get the audio version for just $2.99!!
The Curse of Europa. I guess I would be remised if I left out my own book. You can currently purchase the Kindle version for $2.99. If you do so, you can get the Audible.com audio version for just $1.99. So get both for $4.98 vs. $17.95, save $12.97.
The Classics
Okay, one last item. You can get many classic book for free on Kindle, and then get the audio version for 99 cents in many cases. Sometimes less! Crazy!
A few examples:
A Tale of Two Cities. Kindle version free, Audio version $0.99. It is $4.89 if you don’t “buy” the free version first.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Get both versions for $.049
The Mysterious Island. Both for $0.99
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. Both for $2.99
The Invisible Man. Both for $0.99 I just listened to this. It was a good narration!
The Time Machine. Both for $0.49.
See all the “Free Popular Classics” here: http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=2245146011
Conclusion
So, I think you get the point. I’m not sure how long Amazon will be doing this special pricing promotion, but while they do, you can get some pretty fantastic deals. Most of the time you can simply go to the Kindle version for a book and look for their “Whispersnyc for Voice” box. In the box look for the bolded words: “for a reduced price of $$ after you buy this Kindle book.”
Some discounts are better than others. Some are no discounts at all. I believe it has to be a book with Whispersync enabled. Explore and have fun!
FOLLOW UP POST: Audio Books – Patience can be a virtue
Brian P. Kayser 
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
I have only ever heard one audio book, recorded from the old Ray Bradbury Radio series, complete with sound effects 🙂
But, I believe that they are great to have if you have journeys to do and light is poor 🙂
What do YOU think folks?
As I eluded to in the post, I didn’t think audio books were for me. I’m not blind. I can read! But being an author, I found that any “free” time I had I would use for writing instead. So I wasn’t reading much. I would sometimes read at lunch or waiting at the doctors office, etc. Doing the audio books helps me keep up on books by turning, even my short 15 minute drive, into productive “reading” time.
My first two books I got from the library on CDs. These were okay, but there were like 10 – 15 CDs and then I was limited to my car pretty much. Now doing it via Audible, I just download the books to my phone and I can do it anywhere. In my car I have a bluetooth connection to my sound system. Elsewhere, I can use headphones.
The “Whispersync” thing is nice also. It keeps the audio version and the Kindle version in sync so if I listen to a few chapters in the car, and then find myself at the doctors office; I can open the Kindle version and pickup where the audio version left off. Then when I go back to the audio version, it picks up where I left off on the Kindle.
Sorry, I sound like a commercial for Amazon and Audible. Maybe I should purchase stock!
Reblogged this Brian 🙂
Thanks for the reblog!! I think this is a “litle known secret” and wanted to get the word out…
In these days where every piece of small currency (Cents to you, Pence to me:)) counts, all such information is important 🙂
Reblogged this on Little Blog of Letting Go and commented:
I love you, sir. Really… I…Love…You… 😉 I discovered the joy of audio books when I had and hour and a half bus commute to work. Then I realized they are perfect for helping me get to sleep. this is so perfect, can’t wait to try this “trick”. My Kindle is already one of my favorite things, now it’s gonna be even better! =D
Thanks!! I Love You 2 😉
I love audio books. I’ve found that some books that might be dry or tedious in paperback come alive with the narrator’s voice.
I stick to the Audible subscription, myself. It’s very affordable, and I keep it up until I have a reasonable amount of books in my library, and then I take a break from my subscription to catch up. Of course, in some cases it’s more affordable to go the Whispersync way, but this is just another way to get a discount. $15 for one book a month, $22 for two.
Thanks for that. I do have a subscription / membership right now too. Enjoying my fist three months at half price. The hardest part is trying to figure out the best value for my monthly credit 🙂
Found you through the storyreadingape. As an author about to record a book would welcome advise from those who listen to them. Roughly how long would listening tolerance last? (I realise that depends on how well done) but I want to ‘interrupt a poetic narrative with appropriate music and I wondered time wise when to break it up. Any advice welcome?
Well that really is a “depends” type of a question. If the narrator is good and the topic holds the interest, I’d say there really isn’t a good limit. If you keep them interested and wanting more, then the more the merrier. But maybe a good rule of thumb would be around 15 – 20 minutes.
Thank you Brian. That was my top of the head guestimate.
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