Please explain Audible to me!

[drspouse]

DS really likes to listen to a book on audio and read it (and they are great for car journeys) - we get them from Borrowbox at the local library and we've bought a couple from Google Play Books but those are so expensive and the library range is limited.
How do you get the books on Audible as the subscription options are so confusing - do you own them? Can you copy them to other devices? Are they all £7 or way way more like the Google Play ones (in which case it's probably not worth it)?
We have Google speakers and we use Android Auto in the car (you can definitely play from Borrowbox, Google Play Books and we also use an app called Hi Fi Cast to cast to the Google Speaker as playing via Bluetooth doesn't work in our older house with very thick stone walls.
Can you play Audible books on your own app or do you have to use Bluetooth?

So, for one book a month it is £7.99.

You pay your £7.99 by subscription. You get 1 credit a month. With that credit, you can buy any audiobook. It belongs to you.

To listen, you download the audible app. Then download each book and listen. You can link audible with alexa and play through them so I assume you can listen in google devices too.

You can buy 3 extra credits for £18 whenever you want. So you get another 3 credits at £6 each and can but any audiobook you want with each of them. So it is a cheap way to buy them and own them rather than the rental subscriptions etc.

If you get a book and dont like it, you can go into your account and then into purchase history and return it. You get your credit back within a couple of minutes. You can do this even if you've listened to the whole book, but not too often. Maybe a handful of times a year. If you return too many then they restrict your return rights for a couple of months.

You can doe load the audible app onto as many devices as you like, and just use your sign in details.

Both my kids have audible on their phones and I've signed in as it is my subscription. They just download the books from my library that they want. And we can all listen to books at the same time.

I can also play an audible book through my alexa echo in my bedroom and they can play a different audible book through the alexa device in their bedroom at the same time.

*download not doe load

For your subscription you also now have access to Audible Unlimited, which has a huge amount of free titles, including classics.

You sign up for an account with Audible. (Although if you've already got an Amazon account, that login will work on Audible too.)

You have to sign up to one of their subscriptions. Personally, I listen to loads of audiobooks so I pay about £110 annually which gets me 24 credits. In Audible World, 1 book = 1 credit.

Alternatively, the base subscription is £7.99 a month, and you get one credit per month.

Then if you want more books you can buy them. Most books are £7.99 each if you don't use a credit. Sometimes they have sales - usually either 2 for 1, or £3 sale.

You listen via the Audible app, on any device that you download that app to (and sign in). I pair my phone (I'm on Apple but it's similar on Android) with my bluetooth headphones, or the car's entertainment system, and listen through that - just like I would with Spotify or Apple Music.

As I understand it, you can't 'move' books from one device to another. Whilst I believe you can switch between devices, I don't think Android syncs very well; so if you get up to chapter 8 on your phone, but then go onto a tablet, it won't automatically find chapter 8 on the different device.

The Android version of the app is a bit clunky, I'll warn you now.

You can use credits to purchase books on the apps, but because of some convoluted argument between Amazon, Google and Apple you can't purchase via the apps at the moment (I don't think, anyway). I tend to buy on the desktop site anyway, because I tend to browse titles when I'm supposed to be working.

I listen to Audible on my various Alexas, and it has no problem in picking up at the right place.

Ah no, unless we can download it and use it on a different app, that's not going to work for us. The Audible app only casts to a Google speaker via bluetooth and that doesn't work in our house, we've tried (someone gifted us a book).

(The cost is similar to Google Play Books so we may as well just buy a few on there when we can't get them on Borrowbox).

Individual books are a lot more than the £7.99 for decent books. An echo dot is only £27.99 I would buy one of those and sign up for audible.

I have an android phone, an apple iPad and I use amazon echo all round my house.

I've never had a book not sync.

If I'm listening on my phone and get home and say "alexa, open audible" then it starts playing my book from where I left it on my android phone. Same with my iPad. No problem with sync at all.

You just have to go into settings and make sure you've selected "sync across all devices."

Also, I've never bought via the desktop site. I always buy on the android app. No problem.

In addition to the above, if you own the kindle version of a book, you can generally pick up the Audible version cheaper. This depends on the book, but on average from £2.99 to £7.

Mine does sync well between devices.

They seem to have monthly sales, either 2 for 1 or £3 books.

Once you buy a book, it is yours.

There are loads of free books and podcasts and the customer service has always been very good.

I use mine in conjunction with the library audiobooks too.

One more thing.
You dont need to move books from one device to another.
Your library is stored in audible. Whether youre signed in on a tablet, a phone or a smart device. Your whole library is there. Multiple phones and tablets and your whole library is there.

You download onto the device you are using (or play straight from the internet on a smart speaker). You can download from your library onto any device you've signed into audible on.

So you can move between devices as much as you like.

Unfortunately we already have a whole house full of Google speakers.
Most of the ones he wants to listen to are £6.99 on Google so that's not too bad. The odd one like Harry Potter is more but most of those are on the library database.

Is a credit valid against any book? I noticed some books (eg a Harry Potter book) are expensive to buy, so is a credit just equal to any book or does it have a maximum value?

Yes it's valid for any book.

Any book and you can cancel any time.

You could sign up for the £7.99 a month and buy the fieat Harry Potter book. Then buy 3 more credits for £18 (so £6 each). Do that twice and then you get all the Harry Potter books for a fraction of buying them normally.

You can then cancel your subscription and sometimes theyll offer you half price for 3 months or a free credit to stay.

Did you know that you can also get audio books for FREE through your local library membership.

Go to your local library (and the neighbouring county - perfectly allowed and they often have a different catalogue) and search "audiobooks" and there will be a page explaining how to do it.

Our local library uses Libby (the neighbouring county where I also have a membership uses BorrowBox).

You do have to wait for copies to be available, and they don't have everything, but it means I only occasionally have to use an audible credit.

(You can also get ebooks for free on these apps too which you can read on a compatible e-reader or your phone/tablet)

Fantastic thank you!

Did you read my OP?

Yeah, shit, sorry. Missed one word there. Sorry I wasted your time trying to find you free audiobooks.

My bad

Did you know that if you return the book, audible take the sale price of the book off the authors turnover, so they make less money. Unfair for many authors who rely on sales to make a living

If you get a book and dont like it, you can go into your account and then into purchase history and return it. You get your credit back within a couple of minutes. You can do this even if you've listened to the whole book, but not too often.

I see PP already said this but yeah, don't do that unless you'd do the same for a physical book bought from eg Waterstones etc. As an author myself I stopped producing audiobooks because of the amount of customers who were treating it like Kindle Unlimited and just listening to the full thing then returning. They can cost thousands to produce and the refund is paid by the authors. Maybe the books were shite, who knows, but nobody said as such in the reviews and they had 4.5-5 star average! Amazon have clamped down a little bit thankfully but kinda gobsmacked people are still touting this to potential new customers. If you're unhappy with the book or narrator or there are quality issues return it straightaway like you would with any other faulty product, not just because you fancy another one AFTER you've listened to the whole thing.

That’s v annoying for you, OP. There’s another method suggested in here - any good?
www.lifewire.com/play-audible-books-on-google-home-5187077

I also think it’s possible to download the audible files to mp3 or similar with a converter, but that would be a pain to do regularly.