I have a really dumb question for Pjaye. I saw on another thread where you said you listen to a lot of audio books. I know nothing about audio books but have to travel 30 - 40 minutes each way to work and I think I would be able to get through a lot of books this way. Can I ask how you do it? As in, what format? I found an Australian audio book website where a Harlan Coban book was $47.00 for 10 CDs. Is that how you do it? Seems a bit expensive for one book. Is there somewhere I can go to download an audio copy? What do I download it to that I can play in my car? Is there an iPhone app? I am clueless. Thanks for any information you can give me!
Not a dumb question at all...I learnt a lot of what I know now from asking other audiobook listeners on Goodreads as well.
I have yearly subscriptions at both Audible and Downpour. Both are digital downloads (no CDs)
At Audible you "buy" credits and 1 credit = 1 book (no matter what price it is) You can sign up for a monthly subscription or you can buy 12 or 24 credits all at once.
I get the 12 all at once option, which is $149.00 Officially that entitles me to buy 12 books, which means they are about $12.50 each, but being a member they have lots of sales and often there are deals to get two books for one credit (then they are only $6 each), or they have other sales where all the books are $4.95 or $5.95. Then I don't use my credits for those, but pay by credit card.
They also have a daily deal...a different book each day that is usually $3.95 So I check that out each day too and buy what interests me (at $4 it's hard to go wrong!)
if you want to buy other books, you can buy them any time as a member at the 'members price' which can be anywhere between $5 to $25 but never as much as what you saw.
I've also bought some books through Audible/Amazon 'whispersync' deals. Recently I bought Wuthering Heights, the Kindle book was $0.99 and you buy and pay for that first, then you get a link to buy the Audible audiobook and that was and extra $1.49, so a 14hr book for $2.50.
Downpour is slightly different, I have a monthly subscription there as well, but it's $12.99 a month for one book, however at any time during the month you can buy as many books as you want and they still only charge you $12.99 each. They also have lots of specials, ranging from $4.99-$9.99 each week.
So basically I've never paid more than $12.99 for any audiobook and often it's much less than that. My 12 credits at Audible often gets me close to 18 books if I wait for the specials and deals to come up.
I'm finding it cheaper than when I used to buy paperback books.
Being in the Audiobook group on Goodreads also alerts me to deals and specials I otherwise wouldn't hear about as other ,members all post their 'finds' and recommendations.
Audible has their own app and you can download and play books directly through their app, or you can import them into iTunes and play them through the iTunes app - or any other audiobook player that you download (just do a search for audiobook apps and quite a few come up)
Downpour have an app too - but I've heard it's crap, so I just put their books directly into iTunes, then drag them onto my phone and play them through a free player I like.
Audible have a free trial offer where you get your first book free, you can always sign up and get your first book and see if you like audiobooks before committing to more credits or to a monthly subscription.
That was long...but I hope it helps, happy to answer nore questions if you have them.