Audiobooks discussion

Since there has been extensive talk of this new program in the Audible Offers thread, I've begun this a dedicated one here to be used for future discussion.

I'm glad to see this, John. It will be great to have one place for news about great listens on Audible Plus or a heads up that a book is about to be removed... not to mention the tech headaches our members are always quick to solve for us!

Good idea, John. This may help us find the good plus books.

Is it OK to recommend books we found in Audible Plus that we listened to and enjoyed?

Susan wrote: "Is it OK to recommend books we found in Audible Plus that we listened to and enjoyed?"

Yes, Susan! We may switch to a folder with threads for it later if a lot of related content, but for now recommendations in this thread is fine.

Hooray! Since recommendations are allowed, my first Audible Plus choice was a winner for me - grim dark epic fantasy - The Demon in Silver by RS Ford: https://www.audible.com/pd/A-Demon-in...

I'd also like to recommend the Glacier Mysteries by Christine Carbo. All 4 on in the Audible Plus program. I have listened to the first 3 and really enjoyed them. Suspense murder mysteries set in Glacier National Park in Montana: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Wild-I...

Susan, I want to thank you for the recs... very fascinating. I don't think they are for me because, well, I'm just a wimp. But I actually enjoy reading about the books I can't get up the courage to read. Hats off to you for having the gumption to face up to my fears. ;P Seriously though, I do really like knowing about what others find interesting and, who knows, maybe someday I'll even give one a try since it would be free through Audible Plus.

For any of you who listen to classics, I'm re-reading Balzac's Cousin Bette, read by Joanna Ward (Kate Reading) via AP.

John wrote: "For any of you who listen to classics, I'm re-reading Balzac's Cousin Bette, read by Joanna Ward (Kate Reading) via AP."

I suppose the very fact that it is a re-read means you found it worthwhile the first time... this is one I've never read. I am a fan of Kate Reading and of classics so I'll have to work this one into the schedule.

Jeanie wrote: "John wrote: "For any of you who listen to classics, I'm re-reading Balzac's Cousin Bette, read by Joanna Ward (Kate Reading) via AP."

I suppose the very fact that it is a re-read me..."


Kate Reading's narration of Maugham's The Painted Veil is a definite must-listen, also available via Audible Plus.

Yep, I've read The Painted Veil!

I just finished listening to 'The Truth About Grace - A Sequel to The Pecan Man' by Cassie Dandridge Selleck - which was a really good listen especially since I already owned and had listened to The Pecan Man (both are available on AP right now)
https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Truth-...

Has anyone decided to change their audible membership since the arrival of Audible Plus ?

I have the Audible Premium Plus Membership 2 credits - $22.95 per month and have 17 unused credits, but now that I am able to listen to free books too I am considering changing to Audible Premium Plus Membership - $14.95 per month

Has anyone made a change in membership ? (or know if I would loose my 17 credits by changing plans)

i changed mine - i was on the silver plan (1 credit every 2 months) but went back to the 1 credit every month plan

Yay, thanks for starting a new thread :)

Question about Plus books: If the Plus book is downloaded to my phone and then the book is removed from the catalog, I will still have it on my phone until deleted, correct?

redandwhite wrote: "I have the Audible Premium Plus Membership 2 credits - $22.95 per month and have 17 unused credits, but now that I am able to listen to free books too I am considering changing to Audible Premium Plus Membership - $14.95 per month"

My membership doesn't renew til December, but I don't think I'll be changing it. I usually buy a lot of extra credits and a lot of sale books during the year -- that's the part that's likely to change for me, rather than changing the plan itself.

Darlene wrote: "Question about Plus books: If the Plus book is downloaded to my phone and then the book is removed from the catalog, I will still have it on my phone until deleted, correct? ."

I think you will lose them, unless you turn off the Audible app's access to your cell data so that the app can't talk to the company. But we won't really know til it starts happening!

Contrarius wrote: "Darlene wrote: "Question about Plus books: If the Plus book is downloaded to my phone and then the book is removed from the catalog, I will still have it on my phone until deleted, correct? ."

I t..."

Audible publicized that you would lose any books you have not yet downloaded... implying they won't go into your device and delete a book. Of course, it won't be until we've gone through a removal of a book from the Plus catalogue that we'll know for sure.

Contrarius wrote: "Darlene wrote: "Question about Plus books: If the Plus book is downloaded to my phone and then the book is removed from the catalog, I will still have it on my phone until deleted, correct? ."

I t..."

I was under the assumption that once a title is removed from AP, it would be removed from devices.

redandwhite wrote: "Has anyone made a change in membership ? (or know if I would loose my 17 credits by changing plans)"

I don't think you would lose your credits if you switch to the streaming $7.95/mo Audible Plus membership. Under the Q&A: Do I keep my credits if I cancel my Audible Premium Plus membership? it states:

"Note: If you switch to the Audible Plus plan, you will retain all credits you have accrued. These credits will keep their same expiration date."


Currently my account is on hold to catch up just a little with what I already own, but I may switch to this plan for a few months afterwards. I haven't decided yet. I still have 3 credits to spend.

I am wondering how many books audible is getting sold from the daily deals and now the Fall Harvest Sale
https://www.audible.com/ep/fall-harve... ( which has the following small print:- "*Sale ends September 17, 2020, at 11:59 P.M. PT (US). Offer available only to Audible Premium Plus members, is not transferable, and cannot be combined with any other offer. Audible reserves the right to modify or cancel the offer at any time. If you violate any of these terms, the offer will be invalid. ")
now that we can get so many free reads from the audible plus catalog

redandwhite wrote: "I am wondering how many books audible is getting sold from the daily deals and now the Fall Harvest Sale
https://www.audible.com/ep/fall-harve... ( which has the following small print:- "*Sale..."

The blurb about the fall Harvest sale on that page mentions that the books on sale are not in the Audible Plus catalogue... although I did come across one book in the Fantasy section that was a Plus book.

I know I'll still use credits to buy new releases in series or authors I like or if it's a book I would want to re-read whenever I want. But I do imagine having the Plus option will alter many people's buying habits... I already resist buying a Daily Deal if the price isn't really low, say around $3.95 or lower.

Personally I'm really in a quandary. Right before Audible Plus came out I switched to a Silver Plan so that I might be forced to work on my backlog of books. Audible assured me I would still be eligible for sales. Then Audible Plus came out and I haven't found much to tempt me there. I haven't purchased Daily Deals in a long time either. But this $5 sale has a few titles I am interested in and I find that I'm not eligible to buy them. I could go back to a gold plan but I'm sort of miffed at being lied to.

Janet wrote: "Personally I'm really in a quandary. Right before Audible Plus came out I switched to a Silver Plan so that I might be forced to work on my backlog of books. Audible assured me I would still be eli..."

That's odd Janet. My account is on hold right now, called "Audible Premium Plus (Paused)" and I would have guessed that would mean I'm not eligible for this sale, but I'm able to buy books with the sale price. You may want to contact customer service.

Janet wrote: "Personally I'm really in a quandary. Right before Audible Plus came out I switched to a Silver Plan so that I might be forced to work on my backlog of books. Audible assured me I would still be eli..."

Unfortunately, this isn't an uncommon complaint. Lots of people have noted that they can't buy the sale books while on the Silver plan, which makes no sense, but there you are.

I've marked out a lot of books on the sale to check further (ratings, availability at library/Scribd, and so on), but I'm not likely to actually spend money on them. We Shall See.

I've benn on a silver plan for a year and I always can buy anything on sale..that's strange!!

I think they are messed up at Audible. The changes seem to be difficult for their computer systems.

I have had lots of trouble rating books. When I email them their reply instructions do not work. When I rate a book using the Audible app on my phone the rating is not registered in My Library at the Audible website. I tried to rate it again on my phone but got the message it was already rated!

Not being able to rate a book has happened several times in the last few weeks.

Is anyone else having this trouble?

I had an issue where it said I couldn't rate a book because I hadn't finished it. None of my books automatically show Finished on the site because I never listen from there or from phone, Alexa, etc. I download to my computer & put it on an iPod. But there is a button to click "Finished". I thought I would never be able to rate/review again but when I tried the next day it worked fine on those that I had marked Finished.

That was for purchased books. Audible Plus is probably like the Escape package where you can only rate a book while it is in your library.

Chrissie wrote: "I have had lots of trouble rating books. "

I stopped reviewing or even rating books on Audible years ago. I kept writing lovely reviews, and Audible kept deleting them. Ptooey.

Contrarius wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "I have had lots of trouble rating books. "

I stopped reviewing or even rating books on Audible years ago. I kept writing lovely reviews, and Audible kept deleting them. Ptooey."

I almost always paste my Goodreads review rather than writing a separate one.

John wrote: "I almost always paste my Goodreads review rather than writing a separate one."

This was before there even was a Goodreads. By the time I joined GR (2012), I had already become angry enough with Audible's multiple review deletions that I refuse to have anything to do with their reviews anymore.

I've never gone back to see if they've deleted anything.

John wrote: "I've never gone back to see if they've deleted anything."

I bet they don't anymore. But I hold grudges. ;-)

Robin P wrote: "I had an issue where it said I couldn't rate a book because I hadn't finished it. None of my books automatically show Finished on the site because I never listen from there or from phone, Alexa, et..."

They now have told me that on the web site you can ONLY rate the whole book, not story, performance and overall separately. BTW this is still possible at Audible.uk. At the moment, the UK and US sites do not function in the same way!

Are the issues with rating books to do with the Audible Plus items, or is this issue systemic? I stopped rating books on Audible and only rate here on Goodreads.

Back to Audible Plus. I noticed that the new books added were rather lackluster and I'm wondering what this catalogue will offer over time. I sorted my wishlist by price, thinking that any that are in the Plus catalogue would show with no price. Not one came up. So now I'm wondering if the Plus items are going to be much use to me.

When I rated a book a couple of days ago I was able to choose all three categories.

Chrissie wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I had an issue where it said I couldn't rate a book because I hadn't finished it. None of my books automatically show Finished on the site because I never listen from there or from ..."

Once you put in an overall rating, you can go to the page where you rate all 3, story, narration and overall and where you write the review.

Robin P wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I had an issue where it said I couldn't rate a book because I hadn't finished it. None of my books automatically show Finished on the site because I never listen fr..."

But you MUST then write a review and this I do not want to do. I have noted that Audible/Amazon often takes just parts of the review. The complimentary parts are kept, while the critical points are removed.

John wrote: "When I rated a book a couple of days ago I was able to choose all three categories."

This you can do only on your phone and you must have your phone connected to the "US marketplace". I have to switch between the UK and US marketplace since I am a member at both sites. This is much more complicated. For this reason I want to rate on the website. I can still rate overall, performance and story on the UK website without writing a review. On the US website, to rate overall, performance and story you must also write a review! This is what Audible.com yesterday confirmed via email.

Chrissie wrote: "Robin P wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I had an issue where it said I couldn't rate a book because I hadn't finished it. None of my books automatically show Finished on the site because I..."

I went back to look at a couple of reviews of mine that were critical. All of the not so flattering comments were still there.

I've never had anything changed. If I really hate a book from Audible, I return it even if I listened to the whole thing. But you can't write a review for a returned book. So pretty much everything I review is 3 stars or more.

If I don't feel like writing a review but it's required, I would just put in a few words. I noticed that now there is an option to Edit your Review. It used to be that once you submitted the review, it couldn't be changed/corrected, so that's an improvement. But I see what you mean. On Goodreads, I never review, I just put in stars. I figure GR doesn't need my review, there are so many. On Audible, I use the reviews a LOT. Even the negative reviews are helpful. I used to "follow" people on Audible and had followers. I don't know why they took that away a couple years ago. It led me to try new books if a reviewer with similar tastes to mine recommended it.

John wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Robin P wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I had an issue where it said I couldn't rate a book because I hadn't finished it. None of my books automatically show Finished on t..."

I saw this happen, but it was years ago. Since then I never review there.

Robin, Audible.com told me that if you write a review and THEN return the book, the review remains. It was years ago, when I did reviews there, that I asked them.

Robin I agree the reviews are helpful and I’m not sure why they have been de-emphasized.

I listen mostly to non fiction and have been enjoying sampling the offerings. My insomnia has flared up with Covid and now wildfires and I’ve been listening to some cozy mysteries which I might not purchase but are a nice distraction.

John wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Robin P wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I had an issue where it said I couldn't rate a book because I hadn't finished it. None of my books automatically show Finished on t..."

I want to clarify what I know about Audible reviews. It is not that they go in and alter our reviews but that they quote portions of our reviews in other places. They take those lines of our reviews where we praise the book and do not mention our criticism.

I have seen that Amazon / Audible also used to do this with Kirkus reviews. I don't find this strange--they are out to sell books.

So...haven't logged onto Audible in a while..can someone please give me the skinny on Audible Plus v Audible? Can we see what is in the Plus catalog before joining?

if you are on a gold/platinum plan you are automatically joined into plus; you can narrow searched down by included in the plus catalogue

Trish wrote: "So...haven't logged onto Audible in a while..can someone please give me the skinny on Audible Plus v Audible? Can we see what is in the Plus catalog before joining?"

Try clicking the following link to see the books available in the Plus selection (may only work if one is logged on to Audible)
https://www.audible.com/search?&a...

ETA
Link to general info about Audible Plus
https://www.audible.com/ep/audible-pl...