Audiobooks on the cheap?

I’m an audiobook devote. I work with numbers most of the day, so I can easily put in headphones and process medical claims and balance the bank accounts, all while listening to a book.

I like to read…and do feel audiobooks give you a different experience, but love being about to transport myself to a different place while I’m doing mundane things like bookkeeping, driving or doing the dishes.

 

There’s two major downfalls to audio books…

The first is narration. Sometimes a narration can ruin a book.  If a narrator changes in the middle of a series it can ruin the book for you (Ghost Story…I missed you Marsters L you can narrate for me any day, just saying.)

The other is Price.  Audiobooks are just as expensive as hard back books.  Going for $23 to $30 or more.  Even with a subscription to audible you’re still looking at $14 to $13 dollars a book, and this can be hard to justify when you can get a lot of ebook now for $6.99 or cheaper. (even the popular authors are around $9.99)

Amazon has been doing this Whisper-Sync for a while now.  Get the ebook with the audio and you can pick up right where the narration left off, or right were you stopped reading.  Have to go get the kids…no problem just pop in the earphones and you don’t have to leave you book behind/

Well last night I discovered something odd.  For some books it’s actually cheaper to get the ebook AND the audio book together.

Amazon is encouraging you to get the audiobook when you by the kindle version by discounting it.  A LOT!

TIME FOR MATH!!

Let’s look at Wool by Hugh Howey.

 

The Audiobook is $29.95. If you have a membership it’s $20.96. 

You save $8.99

But wait I want to use my credits.  A gold membership credit cost $14.95. 

You save $15.00.  Membership pays…

Let’s look at the new deal with Amazon. I can buy Howey’s Ebook for $5.99 and if at time of purchase I ADD ON the Audiobook it’s only $1.99.  So I get both for $7.98. 

You save $21.97 and $6.97 over the cost of a credit.

Not every book is like this.  And this doesn't work for every book, but for most you can get both book for less then the $14.95 credit cost.

You need to look for the tag on the audible page:

·         Whispersync for Voice

Listen to Edge of Shadows, then pick up right where you left off with the Kindle book, available from Amazon.com for $4.99. Learn more

Get this Audiobook for the reduced price of $1.99, when you buy the Kindle edition first.

So if you want to try out Audible.  This might be a way to give it a try.