Where is the best non-subscription based place to buy audio books from?

[Deleted member 29691]

I really want to start listening to The Expanse novels but I don't fully understand how Audible works. I'm paying a monthly sub to get discounted books? With a book credit once a month?

Basically I'm going to be listening for about 5 hours per week. At that rate, is it better to just buy the audiobooks outright someplace else? If so, where?

Or would it be a better value to just suck it up and subscribe to audible?

Also, I thought audible used to let you buy books without a sub, is that no longer the case?

I just want to listen to Leviathan Wakes already. Thanks!

 

[BourbonJungle]

One thing to note with audible is that your monthly credit costs $15, which can be redeemed for books of a much higher value. If I saw a good title under $15 I'd pay for it directly and save my credit for something more expensive. Was the most economical way for me to build up a little library, and once I had too big a backlog of books, I put it the subscription on pause then cancelled the membership till I get caught up.

 

[Kraid]

Yeah, the subscription to Audible is for the monthly credit you use to buy a book. You don't have to be subscribed after that.

Libby might be an option if your local public library offers it (I checked and mine does in Audio & eBook formats).

 

[ratify]

Audio books are pretty expensive normally so you may be better off going with the Audible subscription model and just spending the $15 a month for a credit. You get your first month free with 2 credits so you can at least get the first two books in the series completely free if you sign up then cancel. Or keep going and pay $15 for the other 7 books. You'll end up spending something like $105 total.

If you are in the US (not sure about other countries), another option is to use your local library and an app like Libby, Overdrive, or Hoopla to get all the books for free. You can get a free library card from your local library (all online), then use that to log into one of these apps and get audiobooks from your local library downloaded directly to your phone/tablet for free. It's awesome but the downsides are you only keep the books for 2 weeks and, since this is a popular series, there will be a wait before you can start listening.

 

[Deleted member 29691]

One thing to note with audible is that your monthly credit costs $15, which can be redeemed for books of a much higher value. If I saw a good title under $15 I'd pay for it directly and save my credit for something more expensive. Was the most economical way for me to build up a little library, and once I had too big a backlog of books, I put it the subscription on pause then cancelled the

Audio books are pretty expensive normally so you may be better off going with the Audible subscription model and just spending the $15 a month for a credit. You get your first month free with 2 credits so you can at least get the first two books in the series completely free if you sign up then cancel. Or keep going and pay $15 for the other 7 books. You'll end up spending something like $105 total.

If you are in the US (not sure about other countries), another option is to use your local library and an app like Libby, Overdrive, or Hoopla to get all the books for free. You can get a free library card from your local library (all online), then use that to log into one of these apps and get audiobooks from your local library downloaded directly to your phone/tablet for free. It's awesome but the downsides are you only keep the books for 2 weeks and, since this is a popular series, there will be a wait before you can start listening.

Click to shrink...

membership till I get caught up.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, the subscription to Audible is for the monthly credit you use to buy a book. You don't have to be subscribed after that.

Libby might be an option if your local public library offers it (I checked and mine does in Audio & eBook formats).

Click to shrink...

Thank you for your responses. So I sucked it up and resubbed to Audible.

It turns out they now ONLY sell books for credits. You do not have the option of paying for the cost of the book with a 30% membership like you used to.

So The Expanse series has short novellas that an hour each. They cost 1 credit. The 20 hour full novels also cost 1 credit. I am not going to spend 16 bucks on a credit to buy a 1 hour novella.

What a dogshit change to their service. I guess this ain't it. Time to check the library?

Thanks again for your replies.

 

[Deleted member 29691]

OK the novellas are 4 dollars a pop on Google Play so I could always get those there.

This is stressing me out way more than it needs to.

 

[Ultima_5]

Doesn't apple sell em in the books app

 

[Ra]

It turns out they now ONLY sell books for credits. You do not have the option of paying for the cost of the book with a 30% membership like you used to.

Click to shrink...

This is uh.. not true my comrade. Not in my web browser:

 

[Deleted member 29691]

This is uh.. not true my comrade. Not in my web browser:

Click to shrink...

Rad, I'm going to have to try in a browser. The article I read said this change happened in April for Android specifically, and when I subbed today it made me sub through Google Pay.

EDIT: YESSSS THAT WORKED! I was able to buy the novella through the audible website for 4 bucks and it added it to my account, thanks so much!

 

[Hilarious_Bearious]

I have a library of a couple of dozen books on Audible and I don't think I've paid more than $10. Once you've done the two month trial $1 trial, they offer you an extra free/cheap month when you try to quit. Once or twice a year they email me offering to comeback for 2 or 3 months for $1. I'm not a big audiobook user, so it's more than enough for me.

 

[TripleBee]

Rad, I'm going to have to try in a browser. The article I read said this change happened in April for Android specifically, and when I subbed today it made me sub through Google Pay.

EDIT: YESSSS THAT WORKED! I was able to buy the novella through the audible website for 4 bucks and it added it to my account, thanks so much!

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I think you just can't buy on mobile so that they don't need to share a cut.

 

[Deleted member 29691]

I think you just can't buy on mobile so that they don't need to share a cut.

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Yeah that's exactly it.

Also, throughout this spiral, I've learned that they sell all the novellas as a single book, which is best purchased with a credit, so I'm going to be using credits on the entire franchise... And really didn't need to go down this rabbit hole? But now at least j know how to research prices and buy individual books if it's more cost effective in the future.

 

[breakdancing duck]

I really want to start listening to The Expanse novels but I don't fully understand how Audible works. I'm paying a monthly sub to get discounted books? With a book credit once a month?

Basically I'm going to be listening for about 5 hours per week. At that rate, is it better to just buy the audiobooks outright someplace else? If so, where?

Or would it be a better value to just suck it up and subscribe to audible?

Also, I thought audible used to let you buy books without a sub, is that no longer the case?

I just want to listen to Leviathan Wakes already. Thanks!

Click to shrink...

I believe Audible will let you buy a book without a subscription but overall the costs are much higher than Apple. I'd recommend a library card and Libby. My library gives me access to 18,000 audiobooks. You have to wait for newer releases, but I have enough of backlog to always be able to have a new book lined up.

 

[Deleted member 29691]

I believe Audible will let you buy a book without a subscription but overall the costs are much higher than Apple. I'd recommend a library card and Libby. My library gives me access to 18,000 audiobooks. You have to wait for newer releases, but I have enough of backlog to always be able to have a new book lined up.

Click to shrink...

I'm definitely going to look into that thank you. I used it when I was in a major city, I wonder if I'll get the same sort of access out in the sticks. Does it matter which library you have a membership to?

 

[Ra]

Rad, I'm going to have to try in a browser. The article I read said this change happened in April for Android specifically, and when I subbed today it made me sub through Google Pay.

EDIT: YESSSS THAT WORKED! I was able to buy the novella through the audible website for 4 bucks and it added it to my account, thanks so much!

Click to shrink...

Yeah I only knew that because I use the Windows desktop app, which is so trash the store in it is literally broken and you can't buy anything through it, so you have to go to the website to make your purchases.

 

[breakdancing duck]

I'm definitely going to look into that thank you. I used it when I was in a major city, I wonder if I'll get the same sort of access out in the sticks. Does it matter which library you have a membership to?

Click to shrink...

It matters, but hopefully your library is part of a sharing system. My local library is one room, but it shares a system with larger cities.