Audible | Amazon | Apple Books
Yay!
We are really pleased with how it turned out. Suzanne Freeman gave us a great performance. We hope you will enjoy it.
The names are pronounced the way they are supposed to have been pronounced all along. If you are going to complain about the names, your comment will be removed. š
Q&A
We’ve received some questions regarding business of audio and after writing the answers, I realize that it’s kind of ranty, so I have inserted cute random kitties to make things a little lighter.
Audio Self-publishing
Thanks for sharing the business aspect of publishing. How do audio versions fit into the self publishing versus traditional publisher? Also, will you consider including identifying the English narrators of each book on your site?
Cate
You are welcome. Self-publishing audio requires a significant investment but the author also earns significantly more money, just like with publishing ebooks. Typically, there are a couple of options. You can do a profit share where Audible and sometimes the narrator takes a slice of your royalties but shares in some of the upfront costs and the one where you pay everything out of pocket but keep all of your royalties. The greater are your sales, the more sense it makes to go with option 2 and shoulder those costs.
The narrators are identified in the posts announcing the audio and they are clearly marked in the description of the audio book by retailers. š
More Audio Self-Publishing
I’m a self-published author and while I don’t have your following, the numbers are much the same. I am looking into audio–if you have any advice on that, I’d love to see a post. I’ve looked into Amazon’s “partnership” and the numbers don’t add up to being a great deal for me. They get too much control and too much of the money. SCRIBD is doing a similar deal (but you go through a submission process). The problem with SCRIBD is exactly what you talked about for print/trad: There’s an advance (a very small one) and the author cut is very small.
Finding a narrator and a production team or expert who can do the production can be done via various companies. That’s looking like my best bet. At this point, with my sales, it’s more of a vanity project because I’ve read that unless you have a certain amount of ebook (or print) sales, there’s not going to be a lot of audio sales. Thanks for the great books and all the information you share.
Maria
This is such a can of worms.
Numbers are the crux of this matter. I don’t mind investing $7,000 into audio production because I know I will make it back. Unfortunately, I have no idea what your sales are, so I don’t know what to recommend. Do you sell thousands of copies every month or dozens? Do you have a small but strong following that will buy your fiction no matter what? To put it bluntly, I can’t offer any meaningful information, because I have no idea where you career is. And even then, I am probably not qualified to advise you.
This is why agents are essential. š I can outline the process in general terms. It’s up to you to apply it.
Speaking in very general terms, self-publishing audio is a large investment. You invest time. You have to find the right narrator, and it isn’t as easy as listening to samples. You have to listen to the books they’ve recorded. Does it sound like they are talking into an empty barrel because their sound quality isn’t great? Can they deliver on time? The best narrators have a sound studio. Some also have their own sound engineer.
You also invest money. You can expect to pay between $3,000 to $4,000 for a quality narration of an average length novel. Then the file must be processed and edited and a master must be created with very specific parameters such as 192kbps or higher MP3 and so on at additional cost.
Then comes distribution. Here again you will be investing a lot of time to figure out the best path for you. ACX is an obvious choice but you could also pay someone like Findaway Voices to distribute your audiobooks. I have no experience with this company, so this is not a recommendation.
Price all of your costs, settle on a price point, calculate your royalties, and see if you can realistically make your investment back in the first year. Read the fine print. Findaway Voices, for example, allows you to set wholesaler price, but not the retailer price, so you could price it $5 but Apple might put it up at $9. Who pockets that difference? Does their contract lock you in for a specific number of years? What happens if you terminate their contract? All good questions.
Unfortunately, without an agent, only you can do this research. Most larger agencies actually have a specific agent dedicated just to audio and foreign rights – hi, Cheryl! – who keeps track of the marketplace. It is a such a quagmire that it requires a full time commitment.
If you have done all of your calculations and determined that the investment of time and money is worth it, self-publishing an audiobook might be a good idea. Theoretically, the audiobook will just sit there and make money year after year. It becomes a passive income stream. In theory. More on that below.
Audible Controversy
Can you explain the Audible controversy?
Sam
Oy. I didn’t address this before because I try to be mindful of people’s enjoyment of our books. This is a conflict between authors and retailers, and readers shouldn’t be affected by it. We don’t want anyone to feel guilty. But now there is some resolution to it, so it’s probably safe to discuss it.
Until very recently Audible had a type of return policy that allowed you to read the whole book and return it literally a year after you bought it. Normally such refunds would be handled by the retailer. Instead, Audible passed the return costs onto the authors. That meant that some authors would see negative sales. They would owe Audible money.
How can that happen? Let’s say you sell 20 books over the course of 3 months. You earn $5 per book, or $100 total. Then these people simultaneously decide to return all of their books to make room on their device or whatever, and in the third month you are hit with a bill for $100. You are welcome.
This is fucking bullshit.
I don’t get to buy a pair of jeans, wear it for six months, and and then decide to get a full refund. If Audible wants to function like a library, than it should pay the authors per listen.
Worse, Audible refused to provide a clear accounting of the returns. It doesn’t state anywhere how many returns occurred. It just tells you the total money you earn. Or the total money you owe.
Even worse, Audible actively encouraged its users to get refunds. They make their money on the monthly membership, not on book royalties. Here you are, paying all of the costs to produce an audiobook and uploading it in good faith, and Audible is telling its members, “You can read this for free. The content creators don’t need to get paid. As long as you pay your membership dues, we don’t care.” This is a dishonest and predatory practice.
What is the incentive to produce an audiobook under this circumstances? You are right, there isn’t any.
Predictably, this eventually resulted in an industry-wide outrage. Author Guild and other organizations got involved, 12,000 authors protested, and Audible changed its policy.
I will tell you right now that after 12 emails, our agency is still unable to obtain the statement of our returns. We are with a robust, aggressive agency. They would’ve kept demanding accounting on our behalf, except that Gordon and I pulled the plug after 12 emails, because Audible promised to provide these numbers to everyone.
This is dumbfounding. I simply want to know how many returns we had in any given month and that information is denied to me. This is simple business accounting. One would imagine Audible is running its business out of a rickety barn on their grandparents farm using index cards and hamsters. Except we all know that it doesn’t. You can draw your own conclusions as to why they wouldn’t provide an accounting of returns.
Audible has made promises to be more transparent and we will see how it plays out.
Audible Alternatives
For those of us who do not want to commit to Audible, is there an alternative place to purchase your Audiobooks?
AMT
Do you want a honest answer? Nope. And here is why: Audible has been in business since 1995. It is older than Kid 1. It has a huge slice of the market. There are other retailers, but right now none of them rival Audible + Amazon combo. Apple Books/iTunes is definitely a contender and there are boutique audiobook retailers, which someone will likely list in the comments, but the majority of distribution happens through Amazon/Audible.
Yay!
“Index cards and hamsters” Bahahaha!!! Cute kitty pictures very much appreciated. Ranting about Audible’s sketchy business practices also okay. Cause sketchy company is sketchy.
+1 I don’t listen to books except on long drives, which aren’t happening currently. In any case I always bought those books on tape or CD at the bookstore. So this isn’t an issue for me, but I’m glad to know about it because I had no idea. Now I’m glad I never went that route.
I used to do the same ! (Also not driving anywhere at the moment)
A lot of the driving was done in rental cars though, and the ones I was in haven’t had CD players for awhile. So now I’m into podcasts.
^^^ Sketchy places being sketchy are worth calling out. Similar sketchy to how Kindle deals with ebooks and libraries.
I purchase most of my ebooks through libro.fm now. Its a great website and each purchase helps support a local bookstore. Downside is there are no Amazon-style discounts, it’s basically full price.
Same here. It’s great to be able to support my local bookstore.
Wait, I meant all my audiobooks. Alternatively, I purchase the MP3 CDs when they’re available for purchase. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been an option for Blood Ryder nor Sweep of the Blade. Maybe when the currently contract with Audible runs out? One can only hope.
Still, thanks for taking the time to answer my question. ????
I love Libro.fm And, same reason, because it supports my local bookseller. They also have a pretty decent size catalog, which means Iām never hurting for choices.
I also like them because they allow you to download the audiobooks in a drm free format. Meaning I can listen on any app or device I want – Iām not tied to their audiobook app. I like to retain copies of all the media I own, in case a company goes under (it has happened to me before) or I find a media app I like better. (Currently all in on Plex)
I never knew Audible passed the cost of returns down to the author, that just sounds shady. I have only ever returned 2 or 3 books months after purchasing before, because I thought I would read them and never actually did… but I always assumed that the cost was taken on Amazon, who surely can afford it.
I hope this gets changed soon..
Iām just very thankful you go to the trouble you do to provide us the option of buying your books in audio. Because I love audiobooks! Hope the situation with Audible will continue to improve and they follow through on their promise to be more transparent. ????
Off to Audible to get my copy of Blood Heir.
I love how the cats got progressively more aggressive, in tune with your rant.
Until the last one. š
Your writing is always so fun to read no matter what it’s about (I don’t listen to audiobooks, but found myself totally engrossed in this blog post).
I don’t know, the last cat looks a bit on the aggressive side to me! Tempered with I’m-about-to-slip-off adorableness.
Honestly, I had been unaware of the Audible controversy (although I suspected something existed), so I’m very glad to hear about it. I haven’t bought audiobooks before but I’m tempted to hear how Casa Andrews wants all the names pronounced and whatnot. I hope someone will post a nice, independent little audio retailer we can all support!
I’ve only listened to a few audio books. Either the book I wanted wasn’t available to read or I had a long car trip and thought it would be handy. I borrowed them from my library because I knew it was a listen once kind of thing. My library is very small, but it’s part of Bridges (online lending for e-books, audio books, and other digital media). You might try your local library. They also usually have cd’s of some books to listen to. ????
However do you explain Audible’s secretive accounting practices to the IRS? The whole issue makes me glad I would rather read than be read to!
I cancelled my audible account and now buy through kobo. I found their return policy outrageous and also wanted to move away from the integration with Amazon. Itās working pretty well so far. Most titles on audible are also on kobo.
Cool! Thanks for the info. I’ve started buying my books on Kobo, as in my opinion it’s possibly slightly better than Amazon.
If you’re looking to move away from Amazon, you could also look into Story Graph – an alternative to GoodReads (owned by Amazon). I’ve recently joined, and it’s quite nice (still in Beta, keep in mind).
It has a free version and a paid version, but no adds.
There are a couple of things that it does that GoodReads didn’t do which I enjoy. Not as many people as GoodReads, though that is changing.
https://www.thestorygraph.com/
*Ads!
Reading the information makes me so glad that I do not write. It isn’t the writing it is the publishing/getting it to readers that is a killer. So glad that you make the effort for us, your readers.
I don’t do ebooks so I was totally unaware. Shocking. Absolutely disgusting behaviour from a company and makes me glad I’m not an audible user.
I love the Kitten inserts!! LOL
Thank you for sharing this information! The rant is well deserved, because they just seem shady.
I recently listened to Emerald Blaze during a trip and just wanted to say that the narrator did a wonderful job! I really appreciate that you take the time to find a person that is right for the main character’s voice in the series. While I might not listen the Blood Heir (I usually prefer to read), I’m excited to hear a sample of your narrator and I’ll be recommending it for purchase to my library. ????
Ok, not an audio books person, but my best friend is…. did not know that audibles ran that way…..that completely and utterly sucks! I’m sorry they’ve been ripping you authors off like that.
Is there any chance of Magic Triumphs coming to Audible.co.uk? My partner is dyslexic, and though I’ve bought him Blood Heir today, he doesn’t really want to read it until he’s managed to finish Late Daniels story first.
Hey Victoria,
Progress is underway to get all the KD audiobooks available outside the US, hopefully we’ll have Magic Triumphs in the UK in 3-4 weeks time. I hope this helps š
Sorry to jump on the comment, but I live in Australia and have noticed that the audiobook for Magic Slays will finally be available here next week. Was just wondering if you had an ETA on when the other KD audiobooks will be available here? No worries at all if you’re not sure, I was just excited to see that there was some progress š
Hello A,
If all goes well, the same rough ETA of 3-4 weeks. ????
Brilliant, thank you!
This helps massively! Thank you so much. It’s been so hard not spoiling it for him!
I’m not usually one for Audiobooks, but knowing the definitive pronunciations of some of the names is a tempting lure. I may just have to buy one… (And keep it, my precious. Returning a book, that I didn’t get from the Library? And expecting a refund? Does not compute.)
I loved the cat pictures in this article. I had to put my lil one down yesterday. Feel free to use the photo, if you wish.
((Hugs)) I’m sorry for your loss.
So very sorry for your loss. Sending hugs ????
I’m so sorry for your loss. It’s absolutely heartbreaking when we have to say goodbye to our furry family members.
oooo, sending warm hugs your way!
What a sweet picture
Losing pets is always hard. Sorry for your loss.
The cats are adorable š
“This is dumbfounding. I simply want to know how many returns we had in any given month and that information is denied to me. This is simple business accounting. One would imagine Audible is running its business out of a rickety barn on their grandparents farm using index cards and hamsters. Except we all know that it doesnāt. You can draw your own conclusions as to why they wouldnāt provide an accounting of returns.”
Here’s hoping it means you’ve had few to no returns of the audible books?
And thank you for the index cards and hamsters statement. Made my afternoon!
Yes, Iāve long known that both kindle and audible were monopolistic. I looked at that return policy and couldnāt believe they werenāt being sued. There are times when Iāve not particularly enjoyed a book, but thatās too darn bad. You buy it, itās yours.
I still deal with audible, but only if I canāt find the audiobook at another retailer. Iāve got a list I check first.
Iām very glad to hear amazon has ended that fundamentally unfair policy. Talk about bald faced theft!
Thank you for the very interesting conversations about the publishing industry! Enlightening.
Although I’m not a writer, I love these publishing posts.
Ugh @ Audible. I’m glad I’m not into audio books because I wouldn’t want to support them, even if they actually do change their shady ways. Ugh.
Also, I love the kittens, lol!
Would it be a huge bother for you to post the audio of each character’s name as it should be pronounced? I don’t buy audio books but I’m curious about how the names are supposed to be pronounced.
Hey Tink,
A great source for that are the Q&A sessions or interviews House Andrews appear in- they talk about most main characters!
Some YouTube links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_dCom-ac3A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbeVrR_6V_U&t=1081s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLnZbUET3eM&t=1s
Ultimately, pronunciation and physical aspect are in the mind of each reader :).
+ 1
I had no idea about Audible. That is just wrong.
I always wanted to know the proper pronunciation of Saiman and Ghastek. Thatās the only reason I would use Audible.
But I like to read books . In my hands.
Love the cat photos. Even random cat photos. I have cats , is that why?
Or does everyone like cat photos? Why?
Thank you for educating everyone on the different aspects of publishing.
It sounds very complicated and would discourage most people .
Me, too! I always assumed Ghastek was Gas tech, because of the story he tells Kate about his dad. Saiman, I have no idea. In my head, itās similar to Simon.
I’ve heard Gordon pronounce it “Sigh – MAHN.”
I think it’s an evolutionary thing. We bread them to be cuter (pushed in nose, fluffier fur, etc.) and some of it was natural selection. Google the “domestication syndrome”, very interesting. Especially the research done on domesticated foxes. They started exhibiting floppy ears and such.
I just got the Audio version of Blood Heir. I am currently reading the ebook version.
I must admit I did not know audible return policy, I have returned 2 book, but both within 1 week of purchase, and only listening to the first 2 chapters. Once, I could not handle the narrator, once it was same narrator as a favourite series, and I kept expecting to hear… damn it Skippy…. in a totally different series
You didn’t do anything wrong. š If the retailer provides an option to return something and you are unhappy with the purchase, you should return it. Like I said, this fight is between authors and retailers.
Oooooh! I’m not good with audio books but now I’m so curious to know how the names sound!
The Audible affair is (unfortunately not) out of this world…
Wow did not know I could return some books. I have always just sucked it up. I would not have returned any Ilona Andrews books! Love kitten pictures!
i listen to audio books from the library, either from their libby app or actual cd’s. unfortunately my library doesn’t have many Kate Daniels books on cd, but i did get to listen to the Hidden Legacy and Innkeeper books that were available. i’m an avid reader but also a crafter so i love to be able to listen to a book while keeping my hands busy. or in the spring, weeding just to get outside… š
Yes! I am way too cheap to buy audiobooks when I love to read so much, but I do adore audiobooks on a car trip, especially of books that I have already read and enjoyed. Ditto for the Libby app and CDs from our library! Also, maybe we share a library LOL because those are the same casa Andrews audiobooks that ours has. Presumably, the library is not returning the books, even if they purchase them from Audible.
Donāt panic everyone, I own the print or e-book (or both) version of all Ilona Andrews books! š And now, I will certainly never patronize audible. I will be curious to see how their policy change actually shakes out for authors in the years to come.
This reader is really good. Thank you
Fell in love with the first audio book I got from you (Iron Magic) and have now all audio Books from you available. Still my favorite speaker. Thank you for the option. And thanks for the kittens.
Thank you for your explanation of Audible’s business practices. I have long resisted joining Audible, and now I know to keep on resisting. Audible, and other businesses in the publishing world, exist only because of the hard work, talent, and skill of writers like House Andrews.
knew about amazon and their IMHO criminal methods to get their hands on small publisher some (10y?) back, a major reason why I refuse all related to kindle nor have even an account direct at audible, even if they can be cheaper. In the long run they are more expensive with their greed, like authors, niche publishers,… give up or have to give up, lessens the creative sum.
Thank you for the heads up, I bought it today at itunes, use it as it seems to be one of the few places in my non-English speaking country that do list your titles mostly time near to your release date(I only read / hear in the original languages).
If you get better conditions eg at Kobo or, … I can start to look out for those here too, let us please know if possible
This is why I always buy a cd of I can. Plus 1) 1 don’t like being told that I am only renting a book. 2) I want to use one of my small, lightweight mp3 players, that go forever on a battery charge. I don’t want to have to carry around my large phone, and keep using up its battery.
Do I have audible – yes. As you said, sometimes there isn’t any other choice.
Precisely! Iāve even bought used multi cd books (generally old library copies) and converted them to MP3 just so I could put them on my tiny MP3 player to listen to something as I walk out the door for exercise. And in the car everywhere I go!
I need to finish my Kate Daniels reread so I can listen to Blood Heir. I’m not sure I’ve ever read them back to back like this but I’m loving it.
Iām really surprised to see you say that about Audible returns. From the customer side, I have had a terrible experience with that.
I donāt use audible (small a) books. No books on tape (dating myself), not on Kindle, never. I have a couple of CDs of poetry.
For a while, Audible set up their āadd audio for only $17.99ā so that it was incredibly easy to hit that and the ābuy nowā for the Kindle at the same time. They also, if you were buying via a Kindle or Kindle Paperwhite, had the page loading so that you thought you were hitting the āFollow This Authorā button, only to have it insert ābuy Audible versionā at the last second. So twice I mistakenly purchased audio books (each time learning an important lesson).
Nowhere could I find a way to return them. Each time, I had to call and sit for almost half an hour on hold to return them (I had no idea how they treated their authors. If itās any consolation, each return was initiated within a couple of hours).
Both times I was told by a very polite operator who had clearly heard this story too many times, that calling and sitting on hold was the only way to return an Audible book.
I know people exist who demand stores honor their 10-years-expired 15Ā¢ off coupon, so I can extrapolate that people will sit on hold to return every book they hear, but it didnāt SEEM like encouragement to return. But again, as I am not a book-listener, I canāt speak to that end.
Must have been very newly hired operators you spoke with both times, as the return/exchange process is as simple as a couple of clicks.
Maybe it’s only simple if you have an account with them? I can see where it might be difficult to return without an account. ????āāļø
I do not have an Audible account. Just my Amazon account. And have learned to click very carefully and wait for the page to load all the way.
Best of all, Iāve learned to unclickā the first time, the operator warned me that sometimes that āadd Audible for $Xā box is already checked. But I havenāt had to do that in years.
I had no idea about the Audible practice. That’s just absurd that people do that! It reminds me of my sister’s former employer, a well-known bath works store. Apparently, they have to honor all returns…..including used bath poufs. Blech…..
I for one have great respect for the service that Audible provides me personally. But when I think of how much I love my audiobooks and listen to them over and over, I find the idea of people being so bitchy and cheap as to use it as a rental service completely baffling. I get more than good value for my money every month without returning books and I’m not sure I could give it up, but I hope the authors will keep up the pressure. I couldn’t stand the idea of a service that has given me so much joy not paying proper dues to the artists that make it all possible.
The insight of the production Prozess is very interesting. While I read most of your books in english for various reasons I realy like listening to audiobooks especialy while driving. Now i’m from Germany and while reading is not a problem because rereading a sentence until you got the picture or using a dictonary is usually enough doing any of that while steering a car is out of the question. So on audiobooks i need them in german. When i first stumbled upon your books audible offers the first KD books. Later i got too much bothered of waiting for the translation and the making of an audiobook and switched to read your books in english.
Now i’m wondering what you as authors earn from books in foreign languages and what the process might be?Or is translating something that audible/amazone does on it’s own?
I’m just here for the kitties. The death glare kitty is the best. Nothing does judgmental antipathy like a kitty.
OK, Iām torn. I hate monopolies of any kind, but you canāt argue that audible has the game on lock. I wish there were other alternatives that could hold a candle, but there simply arenāt. It sucks that itās so convenient, too. As a blind person, I can honestly say I read about 99% of my books on audible. It wasnāt until I saw a Facebook post about the whole return policy BS that I really started questioning their business practices. I mean, Iāve returned some books, donāt get me wrong, but it was always because the book wasnāt for me. I couldnāt imagine just returning a book so I could get a credit back. I mean, how would you re-read it? Iāve re-read books easily 20 times or more. I guess thatās not what everyone does, but Iām thoroughly confused as to why they donāt.
On a related note, I was about to fight all of audible because Blood Heir wasnāt coming up in the search. I Felt personally attacked, like, uh uh!!! Yāall are not about to do my people like that! Whereās my d*** book!
The search feature got itself together and it finally came up, so everyone can live. Allās well that ends well.
Interesting post, thank you. Ilona andrews.
Dad was an avid science fiction reader. During chemotherapy he could no longer read regular print nor could he turn physical pages. I subscribed to Baen books website so He could blow up page on monitor until he could read it. His last months were Harlequin romance audiobooks because he could no longer read printed letters and I couldnāt find quality science fiction audiobooks.
Thank you for the behind scenes look.
I for one am glad you overcame your inital reluctance to tell us about Audiobooks’ rapacious behaviour. I try to be an ethical consumer and prefer not to reward bad corporate business behaviour. Clear factual explanation much appreciated; helps me make informed choices I’m comfortable with.
I am primarily a print consumer, but have started of recent years listening in addition to text as having it well performed is like seeing/hearing a different artist do the same role; different emphasis brings text/characters alive in differing interpretations.
Thank you for the care you bring to all aspects of your craft, the writing as well as the business; it’s a huge joy to immerse myself in the worlds you create.
My youngest son has a reading disability. He taught himself to read in 7th grade because he fell in love with the Warrior Cat series by Erin Hunter.
Then he stopped reading.
We were coming back from visiting his aunt in another state and I put in the audiobook of Magic Bleeds. He got sucked into the story and read all the Kate Daniels books and stopped reading. So I “made him” listen to a Mercy Thompson story. He started that series and eventually realized that there was a whole bunch of stories out there that he liked. He plowed thru Harry Dresden, then all of Seanan Macguire and then and then and then.
He still has about an 80% comprehension of books he reads, which works fine for fiction… But in a science textbook that’s an issue. Fortunately he’s a chef and he never has issues with a recipe.
Ever since Apple DELETED MY PURCHASED AUDIOBOOK (with an excellent narrator) and replaced it with a different version (with the worst, most wooden narrator ever), I’ve refused to buy from them. Sad to say it, but I agree that Audible seems to be the best option out there (for me). I absolutely love your books in print and audio so I hope they straighten up!
It is always so interesting to hear about your industry. Thank you for sharing your knowledge as well as your wonderful stories.
I love the kitty snips, and thought I’d share a favorite shot of my George.
And of course, the picture didn’t post – trying again
Your George is beautiful. He also has a glare on him. It’s adorable ????
I am so excited. I have purchased all your books both physical and audio. At least once a month I am re-listening to one of your books. The audiobooks allow me to get other things done while still enjoying the comfort and excitement of your stories.
And here I come to advocate for Graphic Audio again. Though I imagine the author returns are much lower than self-published works on audible. The production is cool and it looks like a model Audible (in typical Amazon fashion) is starting to rip off, ie: Neil Gaimanās The Sandman audible production.
I wish GraphicAudio had a bigger library. But they do have some heavy hitters in genre, Brandon Sanderson, Peter V Brett, Brent Weeks.
> Apple Books/iTunes is definitely a contender and there are boutique audiobook retailers
We stopped buying audiobooks through iTunes because their vendor is… Audible
We cannot use Audible customer service but have to use Apple’s tier 1 which contacts Audible’s tier 1. Argh.
We have lost several audiobook purchases over the years. This was before Amazon bought Audible. So the situation may have improved.
I have never purchased an audio book but I canāt imagine requesting a refund long after the fact. It would be like going to see a movie and 3 months later wanting a refund. There have been a few books that were Did Not Finish for me but you roll the dice and take your chances ???? ????????
I use a combination of the public library, and use OverDrive, and Hoopla, and I also have an Audible account. This covers a lot of ground. I only returned one book and didn’t even realize I could as I take a lot of time picking out what I want to listen to because I want to be careful with my money and not waste it.
What I really do not like are readers who brag about doing returns and not spending money on books, those are the same folks who brag how they get books for free on pirate sites. There are a lot of writers out there who write regularly and publish but still have to work a regular job to pay the bills. It is not an easy business.
Audible must be doing something very shady. It is all on computer and you just need to get to the logs to see what is happening. I am not saying the entire company is shady but the accounting department needs to have a full forensic audit done.
Just purchased Blood Heir something wonderful while I do my taxes and roadmaps for work.