…to ask how Audible works?

[PepperPepperPepperSalt]

I keep on reading people say how much they love listening to audiobooks.

How does Audible actually work? I am finding the website confusing to figure out. Do you have to pay a monthly fee, and then buy the audiobooks on top of that? Does the monthly fee include an audiobook? Do they have free ones available? Can you borrow ones for free via your own local authority library?

If anyone can explain this to me in laymen’s terms, this would be very helpful. Thank you. 🙏

The monthly fee includes one credit which you can then spend on an audiobook of your choice. Then there’s a load of free audiobooks, podcasts etc that you have access to as a member. You can also buy additional audiobooks on top of your monthly credit if you want to. You can if you want pay annually and get 12 or 24 credits in one go, and I think there’s a monthly membership of 2 credits per month as well.

Or you can just buy audiobooks as and when you want them without signing up to the subscription, but then you don’t get access to all the free stuff.

You should be able to get free audiobooks from your library, have a look at their website and it should tell you which app they use.

There is a monthly fee of £7.99. With this, you get 1 credit, which you can use to buy 1 book. You also have access to lots of free books, which are included in Audible Unlimited.

I think you can pay more for 2 credits per month. Or sometimes there are offers to buy more credits, or 2 for 1 offers.

You can try a small sample of a book to see if you like it. And you can return a title for a refund if you are not getting on with it.

Does that help?

one thing worth mentioning you do get to keep the audio books you bought even if you cancel subscription, this includes ones bought with monthly credit

Also, it's worth knowing that you can 'give' an audio book back and get your credit back.

I keep the good ones for a re-listen at some point especially my Pterry Pratchett's but return the ones that I'm not so keen on.

Which reminds me - I must use my credits!

I’ve had audible for about 13 years . I pay £7.99 a month for a credit . I can choose any audiobook I want and keep it . Included is a small selection of audiobooks and podcasts that you can listen to but not keep at no extra cost

They have daily deals where you can purchase audiobooks or buy extra credits .
you can also temporarily suspend your subscription for up to 3 months at a time just by emailing them

if you don’t like the audiobook you have purchased you can return it and choose something else . They only let you do this twice in 12 months though

I also use Libby through my library- not as much selection as audible and if someone else has it you are not able to download it - like at at real library. But it’s free

You can pause membership for 3 months and keep podcast access, or you can cancel membership and keep all the books you have already bought. You can return books but they will tell you off if you try to return too many.
also don't forget if you decide to cancel membership you need to use all your credits first or they will disappear.

How do you return an audible book? Is there a time limit? I've got one that I really didn't click with.

I buy 12 credits at once, as I go through peaks and troughs with my listening.

I tried to use our library which uses 'overdrive' but their catalogue was dire.

How do you return a book pls? And I can't see how to buy a book without rejoining as a member? I want to buy a Harry Potter but it takes me more than a month to get through it!

My library audio selection is free but dire. Can someone tell me what's happened to Kindle ebooks for reading bought via Amazon? I've relied on this for the occasional relaxing, quick read but now although they're still advertised on Amazon, they can't be bought. It's really annoying and must be costing writers £££s in lost business.

@newnamethanks do you mean you've tried to buy them using the app on an Android device? For some reason to do with Google Play Store rules you can't do that any more 🤷‍♀️. You need to buy on Amazon's web site using a browser, then you should be able to see them in the app.

If you are a member, Audible also have regular sales, where you can either get two books for one credit, or books for £3. Like a pp said, there are lots of podcasts and free books. You can also buy more credits.

If you can afford the upfront cost, the annual membership for £110 is far better value with 24 books. You also get quite a few freebee books and podcasts etc.

I rarely finish 24 in a year, so I download books to use up the unspent credits (you can't carry credit over), cancel membership for a while till I catch up, then rejoin.

There’s also free content included in the membership, French and Saunders Titting About is a highlight!

Some libraries use Borrowbox, you can sign up with your library card and get access to lots of books via their app (like a Kindle) and audio books too. All free.

To return books you need to go to the full desktop site (not the app or the mobile site). Go to your account then purchase history and against recent purchases you will see the option to return. This option is only there for a bit so you won’t see it on older purchases (not sure what the time limit is).

12 months

You can return them on the mobile site

Thank you 🙏 all very helpful! I appreciate your answers.

@BlueSkyWarmSea , thank you very much. I've been missing my quick reads.

I think I'm wasting money tbh. I seem to re listen to my old faithfuls and never use my 6 credits. Shameful really .

It's worth noting OP that the maximum credits you can ever have is 6 -'Audible must be rubbing their hands in glee with my stupidity

Oh, is that true? I wonder whether Audible have eaten any of my credits. Ye Gods, why is it so complicated, I find Audible a bit of a PITA TBH 😄.

Yes, don't fancy subscribing to Audible which is why I missed my kindle reads so much, just a couple of quid or so every so often. And I've now got it back buy using Firefox browser instead of app, thanks again.