Audible.com Review & Free Audio Book!

If you hand me a book, the first thing I’ll do is crack it open, stick my nose right in the center of the pages and give it a giant inhale, eyes closed as I soak up one of my favorite smells in the world.

I may look like a crazy person, but I don’t care. I love books THAT much. (As a biased aside, my own has a GREAT new book smell – give ‘er a whiff if you haven’t already!)

So you can imagine my own surprise at writing a review on ::gasp!:: AUDIO books today! But hear me out (no pun intended).

What is Audible.com?

Many of you may have already bucked the paper book trend (what are those again?) in favor of reading e-books on Kindle or your iPad. Audible.com is a subscription-based service (much like Netflix with a similar price-point) that allows you to listen to books while running, driving, or dancing in your room. Okay wait – maybe the new Britney album is a better choice for that last one. Big thanks to Nick Reese for telling me all about it! (It being Audible, not Britney).

I’m currently in NYC for one glorious month as part of my self-funded 14-city book tour, and I hyperventilated at the thought of narrowing down my book companions to fewer than 5, seeing as I have no less than 20 unread books on my shelves that I am dying to read (check out my full list on GoodReads).

Given that I will be traveling so much, now seems like a great time to (slightly begrudgingly) make the switch to audio – at least for a little while. So I signed-up for a free trial at Audible.com and wanted to share the experiment with all of you! I used my free download to get the book Talent Code – a must-read recommendation from my brother.

How the Free Trial Works (which includes one free book download)

You can sign-up by clicking here (note: these are affiliate links — all proceeds will go to cupcake consumption while in NYC). If you cancel before your trial period is up, no harm done! You still walk away with a free audio book. If you continue your membership, you will be charged a small monthly fee (starting at $7.95 depending on what plan you choose), which gives you one credit to use each month. There are also incentives if you refer a friend.

About the Tell-a-Friend program from Audible’s help forum (though I’m having trouble finding this on their site — shout if you know how to do this!):

Current Audible(R) customers will now have the ability to send an email to anyone who is not already a listener with an offer to buy any audio title at 50% off Audible’s already low prices. Upon purchase of that or any other title by the email recipient, the original Audible customer receives a $5.00 credit in his or her Audible account. There is no limit to the amount of credit coupons a customer can collect.

My initial review of Audible.com

Pros:

• I *love* the preview feature that allows you to listen to snippets of the book before purchasing
• I like the price consistency – one credit is applicable to almost all of the books on the site
• Books are super easy to download and play in iTunes (iTunes will ask you to re-enter your Audible.com account information)
• There is no need to create a new account — it’s conveniently linked up with Amazon.com
• If you cancel your membership after the free trial period, Audible pitches a “please don’t leave!” offer to pay $9.95 for a year-long membership. Sold!

Cons:

• My own ADD! I still have a hard time listening to audio books without getting easily distracted or wishing there was music on instead.
• The site navigation is a little bit clunky; for example: my previously stated difficulty on finding the Tell-a-Friend link.
• The search feature leaves MUCH to be desired (:::cough, cough they should use Google enterprise!:::)

Ready to give it a shot? About the AudibleListener Membership Free Trial

From Audible.com (who will do a much better job describing the details of the free trial than me):

Customers can enjoy a 14-day free trial of either of our popular monthly plans: AudibleListener Gold & AudibleListener Platinum. The Gold plan includes one free monthly credit and the Platinum plan includes two free credits. These credits can be applied to almost any title in our store. Participants in either free trial receive all member benefits for 14 days, and may cancel at any time during the trial period. When the trial period ends, memberships will renew each month at our regular Gold and Platinum rates.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Are you an audio book convert and/or already an Audible.com member? Does this seem like something that you could get into, or are  you still stuck on books like me? I’m going to give it a shot for a little while – at least during the book tour…looking forward to testing it with some of you!

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Book Tour Update:

I’ve been a little quiet lately…landed in NYC last Wednesday and decided to take a complete break from everything — from work, commitments, social media, and from buzzing around to see everyone and anyone I can fit into my schedule. I’ve gotta say — it feels amazing.

At first I caught a case of the Slow-Down Sads (my new term for feeling low when you suddenly slow down and stop DOING) but it’s nothing that daily yoga isn’t helping to cure. I’m in a place of transition and reflection — and though a little uncomfortable at times, it’s a welcome opportunity to re-evaluate everything I’m doing. More on all of this soon…for now, I’m continuing with my semi-hermit-just-enjoy-the-big-apple plan!

The picture below is the first time I saw my book in a major chain — facing out at Barnes & Noble Union Square!