A small money-saving tip for Audible.com
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Recently, I posted that I was doing a one-month free trial of Audible so that I could get an audio book for Lisey (who, I am discovering, is something of an auditory learner).
I signed up for a trial of the one credit (which equals one book) per month membership at $14.95 a month and got her To Kill A Mockingbird, which is required reading for her English class.
I bought a used paper copy too, of course, because an audiobook is good for a listen, but not for citing page numbers and such!
While looking for more audio options for her schooling, we found that her science book comes in an audio format. The cheapest option was to keep the Audible membership and get the science book with a credit, as buying the audio book outright was more than $14.95.
(I know the library has audiobooks for free, but not this one!)
So, I let my membership go past the free trial period so I could get the science audio book.
Then a reader reminded me that if you start the online cancellation process and choose the option that says that you're cancelling due to expense, Audible will often give you a discounted offer to get you to stay.
I did that and lo and behold, they offered me three more months at half price ($7.50). Sweet!
So, now I can pick three more audiobooks for Lisey at a much more affordable price, and that makes me happy. Thank you for the tip, dear reader!
Start an Amazon trial thru this link and get two free audiobooks (Better than my trial!)
(Email subscribers, click here to visit the blog to get the free trial; Amazon links don't come thru to email subscribers.)
And once the trial is over, you can always give the cancelling trick a try and see if you get a discounted offer. The two free books are permanently yours, even after you cancel.
(By the way, this strategy works for a lot of services, and if you really were going to cancel anyway, it's worth a try! If they offer you nothing, you're no worse off than before, and if they offer you a great incentive to stay, then so much the better.)
P.S. My friend Anne Bogel from Modern Mrs. Darcy recently reminded readers to check and see if an audio version of a book is super cheap with a Kindle version. Sometimes that's a better deal than using an Audible credit, and you can save your Audible credits for a more expensive audio book.
My library has audiobooks available to download - many more than are on the shelves.
Good to know. I was thinking of taking advantage of the free Audible trial to get Scali's "Lock In." With two, I can get both versions. By all accounts, the different narrators create distinctly different interpretations.
I'm not an audible book type person, but ooh, To Kill a Mockingbird narrated by Sissy Spacek! That, I might have to hear. My sister likes audiobooks -- I'll give her this information.
As far as To Kill a Mockingbird, I have that in hardback. I read that book over and over again, and I'm the kind who likes to hold a book in my hands, so buying a hardback was worth it to me.
Sometimes Audible runs a special on discounted credits when you buy 3 or 4. I can't remember the details (it was a while ago). It's nice when you need more than one book a month.
None of the audible links work for me
I'm so sorry! I just tried redoing them...could you let me know if they are working now?
That's neat! I never considered audio books for schoolwork. While I'm more of a visual person, I could really see that benefitting people who have better auditory memory.
I had a TERRIBLE time with Audible several years back. They made it extremely difficult to cancel, and as a result I paid for many more months than I really wanted. The initial offers were good, but the practicalities of using the book credits as the subscription went on were difficult. I will never "join" again. Plus I "lost" the content I paid for because of many new generations of devices (this was long before such things were stored in the "cloud").
However, if you purchase kindle (and maybe paper?) versions of the books on Amazon, you can buy the Audible version of the same book for just a few dollars in most cases. (I think when that's available it will mention "Whisper Sync" on the Amazon page for the book). Not every book has this available, but it's far less expensive than a monthly membership when it is available, and since Amazon stores your electronic purchases you don't lose them when you change devices.
This is totally off topic, but do you have purple highlights in your hair? It looks really lovely in the photo.
Yup! They're a little faded, but they are purple. I had blonde, and then when they started to grow out, I used Viral Colorwash, a shampoo that deposits color. It only shows on the lightened parts of the hair, so if you already have blonde highlights, it's easy to get colored highlights.
Very nice!
Along very vague similar lines, I was in the processing of canceling another service that I had and the service representative asked why. Plain and simple, it was just too much money for what I was going to get. Actually just a lot of money. She then halved the price. When I figured it out per month, it was something I was willing to spend.
I was interested in the comment of someone who said it was tough to cancel. That is ALWAYS my fear.
Fun fact: my brother-in-law is a narrator for some of the Audible.com books! Thanks for passing on your frugal tip!
Oh, that's so cool!
If you have Prime, hey have free audible books that you can listen to. Similar to Netflix/Prime streaming tv, the selection will vary by month.
Oh my, I had no idea about that! I'll have to have Lisey check it out, as we do have Prime.
Thank you! Your link still works and I got the two free books instead of the one that was advertised elsewhere.
Excellent!
No way!
Having just read The Iliad aloud to my sons for their ancient literature home school class, I vowed I would break down and buy the audio version when we it was time to read The Odyssey. Well, I really didn't want to pay the $35 for it because I most likely am NOT going to read it again. Then I remembered you had posted an offer for a free trial. Since it was nearly a year and a half ago, I did not think the link would work, but I tried it and it work! So, I was able to get a free trial, PLUS two free audio books through your link.
Thank you, thank you for posting this deal! I was able to get one book we needed for school and I'll be able to get another book for fun - I'm looking at you, "The Boys in the Boat" 🙂
Woohoo! I'm so glad you were able to get some free books. Enjoy not having to read The Odyssey yourself!
The link is an evergreen link, so it should work forever. 🙂