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I think Audible works though because of the monthly subscription and the fact people get credits a month in exchange for a book. This credit is purchased at a lot lower cost than paying for the book outright. But it's sold on the basis that people will stay subscribed and thus end up with books they wouldn't of otherwise bought as they are looking for something to spend their credit on this month.

A different model than someone actually knowing the author, waiting for the release and then buying it directly from them. It's essentially free money for author/publisher so they are all rushing to the platform.

> But it's sold on the basis that people will stay subscribed and thus end up with books they wouldn't of otherwise bought as they are looking for something to spend their credit on this month.

Why would someone feel pressure to use a credit? A person can have several extra credits at time. The credit system has a lot of advantages for Amazon, but time pressure isn't one of them.

Credits expire and there is a max of 6.

it's 1 year from 2 April. I was thinking about canceling with the old policy but maybe not anymore. right now I have 3 unused credits.

It is, a little. You can't sustain a listening rate of less than nine books per year. That's because there are no plans that provide less than one credit per month, and you can only put your account on hold three months per year. I suppose you could bank extra credits indefinitely, but if you only want to read six books per year, then after two years you will have a year's worth of credits banked. After four years, you'll have two years worth of credits banked.

There's a hidden 'silver' plan which is one credit every two months. The only way to get that is to talk to/chat with the customer service.

Wow - I would totally benefit from that. I need to talk with them.

I do like to re-listen to some really good classics so I'd rather not cancel my Audible sub.

You don't lose your books when you cancel your sub. You just stop getting credits.

I got it as an option when I tried to cancel. Went forward with the cancellation anyway, as I found it deceptive.

Esepcially the part that canceling would lose all my credits. Didn't know what to spend them on either, so just bought random stuff to use them.

>>but I am 100% sure that in the not so distant future Amazon will completely destroy the whole publishing ecosystem in US and that will have horrendous effect on the quality of what is being written and on the availability of things to read

I really don't think this is accurate. People that love reading will not all of a sudden stop reading because of audiobooks in the same way that people who loved music did not stop going to concerts when records became available. I have no real arguments other than to say that even though I know there are audio versions of the books I like to read I still prefer to consume them in print form. It is just a much more enjoyable experience.

Besides, turning a book into an audio format is the easy part [laughably easy when you compare it to the art of writing a really good book] Writing the book is the hard part. Really, really hard. That is not going away.

Why do you think people won't want the traditional book format any longer? I'm asking because i love podcasts, i love short stories, and i love books, and these all feel completely different to me, and i enjoy them much differently. To me it feels like publishing the business has changed, but that to us there's more great content of all these formats than ever before. I'm into it, i hope this trend continues.