Romance Audiobooks discussion

For the last few days, I haven't been able to get the reduced audio price with library kindle books. Is it me? I'm hoping that this issue is happening because of the 50% sale and that it will come back at a later point.

Anybody else experienced this?

D.G. wrote: "For the last few days, I haven't been able to get the reduced audio price with library kindle books. Is it me? I'm hoping that this issue is happening because of the 50% sale and that it will come ..."

I read in another thread that Amazon is not allowing it any more.

Elizabeth wrote: "I read in another thread that Amazon is not allowing it any more. "

That's a shame. It's also not a good marketing decision. Surely, more people would by the book at a reduced price.

I noticed that too. It's really got me to rethink my decision to purchase audio books from them. I was buying them up like a fiend with the library deals.

D.G. wrote: "For the last few days, I haven't been able to get the reduced audio price with library kindle books. Is it me? I'm hoping that this issue is happening because of the 50% sale and that it will come ..."

I have had the same issue in the last few days

Sassafrass wrote: "I noticed that too. It's really got me to rethink my decision to purchase audio books from them. I was buying them up like a fiend with the library deals."

same here

I was wondering whether it applies to books borrowed by other people. Has anyone try it?

I was thinking it could be related to the publisher - if the library copy is a different publisher than the one that shows "audio" available????

I've tried it with several books, ones that have the exact same publisher as the audiobook and it doesn't matter.

Elizabeth wrote: "I was wondering whether it applies to books borrowed by other people. Has anyone try it?"

I haven't tried that.

Lauren wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "I read in another thread that Amazon is not allowing it any more. "

That's a shame. It's also not a good marketing decision. Surely, more people would by the book at a reduced price...."

Yes, more people will buy - the question is whether or not enough more people buy at the lower price to make up for the reduced profit per unit. As an example, a book I was looking at earlier, Duck Duck Ghost, has a WS price of $1.99, is on sale right now at Audible for $9.97 (or a credit), and the Amazon ebook price is $6.99. So they'd have to sell 5 copies at the WS price with a library ebook to have the same gross income as 1 audiobook only OR 1 audiobook + 1 ebook from Amazon. Figure in the costs per sale and that number goes even higher.

As much as I really hope I'm wrong, because I've bought a LOT of audiobooks paired with library ebooks since Whispersync for Voice started, I'm just afraid that Amazon/Audible has decided they've let it go on long enough to get people truly sucked in, and now they're taking away our cheap toys. It worked for me - I know myself well enough to know I'll switch over to buying the ebook to get the lower price on the audiobook...maybe not at quite the same rate as before, but still enough to make them happy...

That sucks so bad. I hope they'll bring it back at some point (I know they disabled it a while back but turned it back on.)

I buy a LOT of audiobooks (so far this year I've bought 74) between using credits, sales, reduced price with either kindle books or library books. There are many books I buy just because I can get them cheap with the library hack. If I don't have that choice, I'll just read the print version.

Yeah, my buying audiobooks has drastically increased this year partly due to that hack as well. I hope they bring it back. If not, I'll just read those books and not get the audio.

ETA: I added 133 audio books to my audible collection this year!

Sassafrass wrote: "Yeah, my buying audiobooks has drastically increased this year partly due to that hack as well. I hope they bring it back. If not, I'll just read those books and not get the audio.

ETA: I added 13..."

Wow that's a lot. That would be a big loss if they don't bring it back.

My audible collection is well over 600 books, at least 2/3rd were using Library connected discounts. Thank god I finished buying all the JD Robb connected books. I'd never have purchased them otherwise. And often the library doesn't have the audio version of those books. Well I always thought it was a loop hole that we some how were able to take advantage of. Honestly I'm surprised it lasted as long. They may revisit that when the #'s drop drastically. Sometimes it's all about the #. Here's hoping.

Awww, JD Robb. That hurts. I'm just at #14! Gah!

Audible always has books on sale when I have no $. And some of the sales they have are books I have never heard of or even want to when I able to them.

I just looked at my audible account and there are some titles in my wishlist that still say I can get the audiobook for the reduced price when I purchase the kindle edition. For me it has always been just select books that have this option.. thought perhaps it was the only the ones that were "Whispersync for voice ready" but I see that some of those do not have the reduced price with kindle book option.. I have not ever been able to use the library copies as I am in Canada and our libraries do not support the kindle format. :(

All of my kindle books that are loaned through the library that have whispersync available to them show the w/s price to be 50% off the regular price for the accompanying audiobook. All of the kinde books that I own, show an available whispersync reduced price of $3.99 or less.

I am really hoping this is just because of the Audible 50% off sale!

How are you guys finding these books? I have been an audible subscriber since 2003.

You can look up a book individually on Amazon or Audible and it will show you what the whispersyn price would be for narration if you own the ebook.

The easiest way for me to find out which of my kindle books have narration and how much it is, is to:

1. Go to Amazon.com and log into your account.

2. Go to Manage My Content & Devices (under your Account & Lists at the top right of the page under your name) or click My Account and it's under Digital Content).

3. In front of the title of each book listed that you own (or have borrowed) is a square Actions button-click on it. It will give you details about the book.

4. Below the image of the book itself will be a little microphone and the words Add Narration. Click on that and it will give you the price of the audiobook (If you don't see the Add Narration option then there is none available for that book).

5. You can then purchase that audiobook paying with your Amazon account (I like to do this so I can use my gift card money!)

6. If you want to use an Audible credit to purchase the audiobook, go back to the Actions page and click on the title of the book. It will bring you to the Amazon. com page for that book and to the right with all the editions and formats (Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover etc.) you can click on the square for Audible. It will give you the option to purchase it with either an Audible credit or the dollar amount shown.

Hope this helps!

Or this may be the easiest!
https://www.amazon.com/b?node=1252715...
Scroll down and hit "Find your Match-add narration" It will find all of your kindle books that have narration and show you the price for the audiobook.

Unfortunately- it did not show any of my kindle books borrowed from the library, only the ones I owned )-: This leads me to believe that Amazon is only acknowledging kindle books that are owned for reduced prices for audiobooks and not books borrowed from the library )-: )-:

I was scrolling through my Audible wish list today looking to see if there were any on the list I just absolutely had to have and the sale price was less than a single credit costs, 11.95. (Since the Audible 50% sale price on most books is still more than the cost of a credit.)

I noticed two books I wanted that were Whispersynced, and going that route was less than the sale price. I was able to go to the Amazon Kindle listing on each and purchased both the Kindle and audiobook at the Whispersync price. So, it is still working, at least for me.

If I recall, when they announced Whispersync, it was to promote Amazon's acquisition of Audible and to promote specific books. And the books either had to be published by Amazon or Amazon had to acquire specific rights from the publisher to offer the Whispersync deal, although I assume some publishers might grant the rights for free. But those rights would be for a specific period of time.

So I am not surprised if a book is suddenly not available on Whispersync. And am surprised they've kept the promotion going for so long . Happy, but surprised.

Meant to say that they may have discontinued for libraries, but not through the stores themselves. And lots of times I can buy the Kindle book for .99 and Audible book for 1.99. Not free but cheap. I used to have Kindle Unlimited and can still see that Whispersync works on Kindle Unlimited accounts so that is another less expensive option.

Reduced audio prices are still available in selected books if you OWN the Kindle book. That's still ongoing and not what we're discussing in this thread.

This thread was referring to the library hack ONLY. (This is the hack where we were able to get the reduced audio price by getting the Kindle book as a loan from the library.) Amazon/Audible discovered the loophole many years ago, closed it for a while and enabled it again so they were aware that some people were doing it but were willing to live with it.

I'm hoping now they just disabled it for the sale.

I spoke to audible and amazon yrdterday about his and they said to dpeak to the library
Maybe someone should send s note to overdrive support snd see what they know
It seems to have changed with the last overdrive upgrade

I doubt anybody at customer support would know (I work with customer service and you cannot imagine the many things that affect customers that happen in companies that never make it to the reps.) If they are telling you to call somebody else, they have no clue. ;)

Given that we can still get Kindle loans from the library and those show in my Amazon account, I think it's an Amazon/Audible thing.

They implemented this before the sale, so I don't think it has anything to do with that. I'm afraid the library loan with accompanying w/s deal is gone. This is really sad news, I've bought many, many books using this feature. :(

Oh well, it was good while it lasted. Who knows maybe they will bring it back. But, I am really sad that it's gone.

Amazon won't let you get the whispersync price IF you borrowed the kindle book from someone else.
If the kindle book is your own purchased ebook, then if there is a whispersync price, you are eligible.

Audible has been running sales that many times contain their Kindle unlimited books, so while you think you are getting a sale, you may get the book cheaper, like $1.99 if you have Kindle unlimited.

Last, if you borrow a book on Kindle Unlimited, I recommend you scroll all the way to the back before you start.
KU authors get paid by the page, so when I borrow a KU book just to get the audio, the author doesn't get paid if I don't turn a page.

I will start looking into other options like Tantor Audio. I don't like Amazon's business practices.

Ezinwanyi~ThatEzi wrote: "Amazon won't let you get the whispersync price IF you borrowed the kindle book from someone else.
If the kindle book is your own purchased ebook, then if there is a whispersync price, you are eligi..."

Thats interesting about the kindle unlimited. I have to make sure that I turn to last page, etc.

Ezinwanyi~ThatEzi wrote: "Amazon won't let you get the whispersync price IF you borrowed the kindle book from someone else.
If the kindle book is your own purchased ebook, then if there is a whispersync price, you are eligi..."

Just today I got a whispersynced audiobook after someone lent me the e-book, so this is still working.

It didn't work for me twice last week but I'll try today for a third and final time

Ah, well- I had to try just to see and yep- borrowed a library book but no whispersync. Guess we all knew it would end eventually. sigh

I borrowed an ebook and it didn't let me get the whispersync price.
This is my 3rd attempt in the past 1 1/2 weeks and all 3 times to get the audiobook at the w/s price after borrowing from a GR friend or overdrive (my library) Was unsuccessful

Elizabeth wrote: "Just today I got a whispersynced audiobook after someone lent me the e-book, so this is still working."

Interesting! I wonder if something different happens when a person loans you the book instead of the library? Anyone want to give it a shot? I can either lend you a book I own or you can lend it to me. Just PM me if anybody wants to give it a shot.

Ezinwanyi~ThatEzi wrote: "Amazon won't let you get the whispersync price IF you borrowed the kindle book from someone else.
If the kindle book is your own purchased ebook, then if there is a whispersync price, you are eligi..."

I didn't realize that, will definitely flip to the last page. I just prefer audio for the most part.

FYI - I received 2 ebook loans through Lendle yesterday and was able to get the discounted audio version for $2.99.

I also borrowed a book through my local overdrive library (kindle edition), and wasn't able to get the reduced price.

I think the loophole may be with the "lending enabled" portion of an ebook. If you buy an ebook and are able to loan it, the person receiving the book should be able to get discounted audio.