why are audio books so expensive?!

[MegBusset]

I have been looking for some books on Audible.co.uk to listen to while I walk the dog... but am gobsmacked at the prices. Around £20-£25 for most of the bestseller list! I appreciate they had to pay someone to read them but surely after that the cost are negligible? Am I missing something, and does anyone know a cheaper source (short of borrowing from the library and ripping to mp3)?

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

Would definitely recommend an audible subscription for her then!

[Nocomet]

I might get her one sometime, at the moment she is meant to be revising.

[IrnBruTheNoo]

Already been said but go to your local library and borrow.

[DuchessofMalfi]

I assume most libraries now have audiobooks and ebooks you can borrow via their websites. Dorset does, and so does Wiltshire, and Cornwall I believe. I'm in Dorset, and use their website regularly for borrowing audiobooks onto my i-pod. I've listened to Restoration by Rose Tremain, On The Beach by Nevil Shute, Big Brother by Lionel Shriver, One Night in Winter by Simon Sebag Montefiore, and many many more over the past year or so since I discovered I could borrow free audiobooks. It's brilliant.

I have also just been given an Audible subscription for my birthday, so have one book a month from there, and the rest from the library. I get through one or two a week, depending on the length of the book. That habit could get very expensive if I had to pay for them all :o

As I've said before, Librivox's free recordings which you can get from their website or via i-Tunes are generally pretty good. Some of the narrators are better than others, so it can be a little hit or miss, but free books all the same - a good way to access classics which are in the public domain.

[WiIdfire]

Agree with others here.
Audible do a deal for 2 books a month for a year.if you pay upfront you get 24 tokens to spend over the next year and it works out at £4.99 each. I share my account with my husband of course and it works really well. Amazing how much easier housework is when you can read whilst doing it.
If you are not sure whether you get on with audiobooks then sign up with an online library (surrey for example) where you can borrow audiobooks and download them without having to leave the house.

[AnonymousBird]

My library (Essex) has a really good range of downloadable audiobooks for free. it is through a service called One Click Digital and I think lots of counties now use this. it's a bit of a fiddle to get used to it, but I now get them on my iPod fairly easily and I have a wish list of more than 10 lined up so that will keep me going for several months at least.

It's not just little known and old stuff, there are lots of very well known authors and recently published books in all the genres.

[Thewhingingdefective]

Like previous posters I also have a subscription to Audible, borrow audiobooks and e-audiobooks from my library and download numerous podcasts. Gets me through the tedium of housework or driving.

I'm listening to The Silver Dark a Sea by Susan Fletcher through my Audible app at the moment - beautiful....

The last e-audiobook I listened to was Keep The Aspidistra Flying, read by Richard E Grant. Great stuff.