This morning when I was writing up the review for Coraline I noticed that I was getting the discounted price for the Audible.com Audiobook instead of the regular price. I had checked out Coraline through my library for kindle. And Amazon, unlike all other formats puts a marker in your Kindle library. That marker keeps any notes and highlights in your account just in case you want to go back and purchase the book later. This is a nice feature.
But with the new Whispersync for Voice (syncing Kindle and Audiobooks so you can alternate between them), Audible and Amazon have started discounting the books when you purchase them together. In some cases the discount makes it cheaper to purchase the Kindle version and the Audible version together instead of just the Audible version (this is the case with all of the JRR Tolkein Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books.)
I think there needs to be a Whispersync discount because to use Whispersync for Voice you have to purchase both formats.
But what I discovered this morning is that if you check out the Kindle book from the library you get the discounts on Audible. To test this out I went to my Library wish list and looked for a popular book that I thought would be Whispersync enabled. Interview with a Vampire is enabled. Once I checked it out from the library and pushed it to my Kindle, I checked Audible and it gave me the discounted price of $3.95. So instead of using an Audible Credit or paying the member discount of $23.52 I can purchase the book for $3.95 (and I still have the credit of $3.01 after getting a $10 promotional credit from Audible and using $6.99 on the discounted Hobbit yesterday.)
There are two different formats of Kindle one that sends the book to you wirelessly and one that you have to load via USB cord. I tried them both (the USB version I used William Gibson’s Spook Country) and they both give the discounted price.
So even if you do not use Kindle, this is a great way to get discounted audiobooks. Anyone can get a kindle account just by using your Amazon email and registering it with your library as you check out the book. If you have never used your library to check out a book for kindle here is a post on how to do it.
Related articles
- Whispersync for Voice (bookwi.se)
