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Comment by damontal | Hacker News Reader

One problem I have with audible is that because I'm paying around $15/month I feel the need to use my credits on books that cost more than this. So I miss out on shorter books, plays, etc I'd like to read. I have a bunch of books in my wishlist that are around $9 and I won't burn a credit on them.

I guess that's part of their business model... get you to spend money in addition to your subscription.

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I've been using Libby to listen to audiobooks from my local library. I often have to wait for anything popular, but otherwise it's been fine. I don't mind having to "return" the audiobooks either--it's a good incentive to actually listen to them!

Stop thinking of it as a 'subscription'. It isn't, it's a purchase model, where they happen to prefer to take regular payments.

You can sign up to Audible, pay the money, spend your credit, then cancel, all within 10 minutes. Then you can do the same thing again, immediately afterwards.

If your credit cost you less than $9, you should buy the title using a credit, not cash.

I'm surprised they've managed to convince so many people to think of it like it's Netflix, where you pay periodically for temporary access to the full library. Audible have never offered rentals, and their model is nothing like the Netflix model at all.

Also, arafalov's points about the 24 month subscription, and the don't-cancel discounts, are great tips.

Why don't you just use moneydollars for those titles as you want to start them and save your credits for the bigger books? That's what I've been doing.

Unless you're buying very cheap audiobooks, you'd be better off upgrading to a heavier 'subscription' and spending the extra credits, rather than paying in cash.

I wish someone would make a netflix for audiobooks. I'm guessing licensing is an issue.

Depending on where you are, this may be freely available to you right now through your local library.

Talk to your local library about whether they're on Overdrive / Libby. If so, you can listen to unlimited audiobooks, ebooks, magazines, and comic books 24/7. It's fantastic. It's free. Yay public libraries.

Also, keep in mind that, depending on where you live, you may be able to carry cards for multiple libraries. In California, for instance, many major public libraries only require state residency. So, while traveling within the state, pick up library cards for as many libraries as you can. When I was living in California, I had library cards for Los Angeles County, Los Angeles City, Santa Monica, San Jose, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland, and I could use the e-resources of any of these libraries.

Additionally, there is a plugin for Firefox called "Available Reads" that allows you to enter your Overdrive account information for your various library cards. Then, when browsing goodreads, the plugin will show you the Overdrive availability of the books you are browsing at all of the libraries at which you are a member, and provide links out to the catalog entry for those libraries' copies of the ebooks/e-audiobooks.

Yes. Most publishers want 25-40% of the book's cover price.

ACX/Audible pays 40% for exclusive royalties. So your $30 audiobook will get you $12 in royalties. Amazon makes $3 from your subscription or $18 if someone buys it straight up.

Even at a 25% royalty structure you're still looking at $7.50/audiobook which doesn't work well with an all you can listen/netflix style program as 2-3 books puts the store in the red. Some companies will offer 'all you can listen' but will cut you off if you listen too much.

To get it to work publishers would need to agree to a flat fee for unlimited listens for a period of time. Which doesn't seem likely at this point.

Scribd's model is pretty close. They've moved from a monthly token system to flat fee for nearly unlimited listening.

Audible has just started doing that, but only for Romance novels. A very specific subset of the market, including some "fun" filter options.

Scribd is an Audible competitor. It's all you can eat for $9 /month (I think). I used it for a while, and really liked it.

I dropped my subscription because my podcast list filled all of my audio time, and my physical books filled the rest of my reading time. But if I ever go back to audio books, Scribd is definitely my first choice.

You can buy credits 3 at a time for a discount usually. Also you can suspend your monthly subscription for a few months (and still retain all your books+credits). Finally, you can return titles you don't like up to year after purchase and get your credit back.

If you buy 2-year 24-credit subscription, your per-title cost drops to about that $9. And that means you can wait until 2-for-1 sales and have lots of credits to benefit from.

Also, if you try to unsubscribe, they sometimes offer a much-reduced rate per-book :-)

Try https://auditus.cc

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