Listen to Me Cheaply

I listen to a lot of books. A lot. And honestly, although I've written about the "Listen" app for audiobooks, I tend to use Audible more than anything else anymore. Part of the reason is the Android app finally has more fine-grained speed settings. (I prefer around 1.4x speed.) iPhone people don't have that seemingly simple feature. Just saying.

The main reason I've been using Audible, however, is the pricing. Yes, I'm a Platinum subscriber, so I get two credits a month. But, it's the "add narration" feature on the Kindle store that really does it though. It's often cheaper to buy the Kindle version of a book and add Audible narration for less than the cost of the audiobook alone! That's not always the case, but it's always worth checking. Look at my example in the screenshots.

Yes, this book is free. But, you can add Audible Narration for $2.99. Notice how much it would cost to buy the book outright: $21.99! Not all books come with such a good deal, but many do. And if you add Audible narration, the book is added to your Audible account like any other book. You never have to read the Kindle version, but it's still nice to have both—especially when it's cheaper than just buying the audiobook!

Shawn is Associate Editor here at Linux Journal, and has been around Linux since the beginning. He has a passion for open source, and he loves to teach. He also drinks too much coffee, which often shows in his writing.

Load Disqus comments