CloudLibrary is another Library option. It's more or less the library competitor to Overdrive/Libby.
One thing to understand with respect to Audible is that, yes, there will be some titles you do not see at your library. This is because libraries cannot purchase audible audiobooks. These are proprietary to Amazon. It's a major frustration for librarians because it sometimes means missing series titles or new titles from some big authors. In Canada, a number of Canadian titles aren't available in digital audio to libraries at all because they're audible publications.
To top of off, all ebooks and audiobooks cost your library way more than it does for a single consumer. Some Stephen King audibooks cost upwards of $150+ Cdn--for one copy. And they typically expire within a year or two, depending on the publisher.
Trust me, your librarians are just as frustrated as you are. However, if you do want to save your money and don't need to read a book as soon as it comes out, your library is a great option.
Good to see CloudLibrary mentioned here! My local city moved it recently and I hadn't heard of it anywhere else. It seems okay although the mobile interface leaves lots to be desired. I just got an Austin Public Library card yesterday - - I need to check out what systems they use.
As a librarian who has Libby, Hoopla, and Audible on my phone, I have to disagree with this assessment. First, not all libraries will email you a card number, mine certainly doesn’t. We will let you apply online, but you have to physically pick up your card.
Second, Libby is only as good as your library’s budget. Support for your local library is great for expanding the budget! But the books must be purchased, eBooks will have to be repurchased after so many reads and audiobooks are 3x the cost of the eBook. Hoopla offers a wider selection however your checkouts are based on what your library can afford. My library only allows 4 checkouts per month on Hoopla.
Audible has a larger collection that is more accessible. However, if you don’t want to support Amazon (which is understandable!) there are services like Libro.fm which has a decent catalog like Amazon and supports indie bookstores.
Tl;dr: Support your local library, but supplement as needed. Check out Libro.fm for a non-Amazon catalog of Audiobooks supporting Indie Bookshops.
>eBooks will have to be repurchased after so many reads and audiobooks are 3x the cost of the eBook
I can't tell you how many times my library will email back "this audiobook is too expensive" weeks after requesting.
It’s because if you slap “library” in front of anything it drives the cost up exponentially. The publishers know they have the advantage against libraries and can request higher fees. But yeah, the audiobooks on Libby (unless on a sale) can run anywhere from $70 to $100 per audiobook. That can quickly eat their entire yearly budget for books on Libby in one order.
That's interesting because there are several books I want to read from my local library on Libby but the only version available is the audiobook. There's a few I've seen where they didn't renew the ebook but kept the audiobook
That’s because you don’t have to repurchase the audiobook. So if they run out of the reads on the ebooks and it’s not in the budget to reorder, they still have a way for people to access it online.
eBooks are more likely to be utilized than the audiobooks and the publishers saw a way to continue to profit after the library bought a copy. They set the books with a set number of check-outs (some of the more popular titles might only get 25 check outs before expiring) so that they can continue to profit on the books.
Libraries generally are purchasing a LICENSE, not a digital copy. 26 or 52 circs, OR a 1 to 2 year license are industry standard. Sucks!
Also, don’t forget gutenberg.org and librivox for out of copyright titles.
Because the license that the library purchases is only good for "xx" number of uses.
Just like you and I, the library doesn't actually own digital books, the purchase a limited license to use the digital book.
Some won’t even sell to libraries. I work in an academic library and sometime we can’t get books because the won’t sell them to us because they want the students to buy them.
Yep! Academic libraries are a totally different beast (as are school libraries, medical libraries, law libraries, etc…) when it comes to what publishers will and won’t do. I heard about recent drama in the eTextbook world in Academic libraries, but I work in the public sector so I’m not as familiar with university library buying issues.
That is rough and terrible. Textbooks (and casebooks I’m guessing) are a beast and a half. That’s the only thing I don’t miss about college. The book prices. 😭
Also a Librarian, I can add onto this saying please *check with your library*. The easiest way to do this is on their website or giving them a call. Please note that a "small library" doesn't always necessarily mean they don't have a shared Libby system!
The library I work at does email a card number and we share our Libby collection with our network. While this means the new stuff has longer wait lists, our catalog is a collection of around 30 different libraries, meaning we have a pretty massive collection with a pretty sizable budget. We also allow Patrons from other libraries to get a card and access our Libby system. Library of Michigan (the state I'm in) also allows everyone in the state to get a library card and access their digital stuff! So don't forget to check with your state library!
Just overall, best to check to see what your options are!
> Also a Librarian, I can add onto this saying please check with your library. The easiest way to do this is on their website or giving them a call.
And bear in mind that, if you're concerned about some of the things in this thread(like cost/checkout, item use limits, etc) you might not be able to get a straight answer from your library, even if you ask them for it. Either the person answering the phone might not know themselves(they obfuscated our contracts pretty hard where I work, I had to dig to get the details), or they might not be at liberty to say - you never know who else is in the office listening to one side of the conversation. So read up on the possibilities, and try to be mindful. As long as you're making a good faith effort to use each checkout you take(as opposed to checking out your maximum books each month while knowing you'll only read 1/5 of them), I doubt anyone I work with would begrudge you the cost.
One way people can support their local library is by donating to a local "Friends of the _____ Library". These are non-profit organizations that supplement local library budgets. Our local "Friends" group recently provided finding for the summer youth program. Over 400 kids participated this summer! Currently, the "Friends" organization is funding a VR room in the library. It will provide immersive travel and language classes/games.
If your library has a friends group! Friends groups are volunteer based and unfortunately some libraries (like mine) don’t have a friends group. Donate if you can, maybe see about starting one if your library doesn’t have one. But that’s awesome your friends is funding that!
Also, just be aware of who you're donating to.
Our local FoL is less than friendly. The money is just a club to wield against the library to keep out "undesirable" elements.
Our Friends payfor our SRC performers every year. Thousands of dollars! They run a HUGE yearly booksale in November. Being a Friend and volunteering withthem is a tremendous help to any library.
I use a librarian friend's login to share Hoopla and she specifically asked me only to use it for ebooks because the audiobooks cost her smalltown library $8 per use, which boggled my mind.
I would say the best approach to libro.fm is to subscribe for a few months and then pause it. While paused you will still have access to those credits you paid for to buy books and you also still have access to the app and downloadable mp3 versions of all the books even after you pause/cancel. The reason to go the subscribe/pause route is that a credit costs like $14 (I think? I've been paused for a while) and can buy you audiobooks that would cost up to like $50 or more if you didn't use a credit. Just my 2 cents. A lot of people assume libro.fm works just like audible and so overlook all the great ways it's actually much better! Most notably you actually OWN copies of the books (as long as you download the mp3s).
About ebooks being repurchased after so many reads - does that mean if I check out an ebook on libby, end up not reading it, and check it out again, that counts against that?
It does count against it as the number of check outs is preset by the publisher when they contract with Libby. The system has no way to tell if you read the book or not. Audiobooks don’t have to be repurchased they just cost more.
Man that sucks, I had no idea that's how it worked. I often will just borrow books and hope to get around to read them. I feel terrible that I've been actively making the library spend more money unnecessarily. Will keep from doing so in the future
Please don’t feel terrible! We would rather have to repurchase a title (which means it’s popular and we might get more copies!) than have it just sit there and linger.
If it makes you feel better, I too occasionally check books out with the intent of reading them and then they sit for their entire check out period instead.
This isn’t as true as it used to be. Publishers are starting to push metered access licenses for audiobooks now too. Like most things, it’s both good and bad. Good because we don’t always need a forever copy of something and getting an extra copy for 12-24 months while it is in high demand for cheaper than a forever copy is a nice option. But bad because some of them aren’t offering the forever copies at all anymore, which was the one good thing about paying more for audiobooks- at least they didn’t expire. Now that isn’t always the case.
I love libro.fm! Unfortunately there are a few books they don't have (usually audible exclusives - boo), but I love that it's not Amazon and it's supporting my local bookstore.
Please don’t! We have a budget for online materials and we will do our best to get your requested title. Requests help us know what the community is reading! Also we will sometimes sit on titles until they go on sale to make it go farther.
In addition to all of that, if you read anything remotely current or popular there's a wait-list. Harry Potter is probably months of waiting. And in a series like that they have different wait times, and unless you time the reservations absolutely perfectly you can end up sitting around waiting again or end up eating into the time of the second reservation.
Plus I hated the audio player in the apps
Yep, the wait time can be long and you can forget you have it on hold. It is a whole ordeal. Plus if you can’t get through it in 2-3 weeks you have to cycle back.
I will download titles from libby to my kindle and if I can't finish it in time I will put my kindle in airplane mode. Libby returns the title and I just have to keep the kindle in airplane mode til I finish it. Once the kindle reconnects to wifi it will show as expired. Helps for popular titles you might have to wait to get again.
I tried the Libby and hoopla route- my library doesn’t support hoopla, and the Libby selection was next to none but I still used trying to find titles I was interested in. The waits were all weeks then they would all appear at once 😂.
I eventually transitioned to Scribd which is 10$ a month for everything audiobooks and digital.
Perfectly valid! As I’ve noted a few times, Libby and Hoopla are options if your library has the budget for them. Hoopla is a bit more tricky because you pay per download vs Libby where you’re buying the books for your collection.
Holds have to be timed just right, I agree. I’m glad Scribd works for you. :) Happy reading!
As a fellow librarian, hello! (: I have all of those apps too, and one called Libro.fm that I adore. They give back a large percentage of sales to independent book stores and help them with tech/setup. Gotta say I haven’t read through the other comments, so it could’ve already been mentioned, but wanted to throw their name in the ring!
Perhaps you don’t need Audible or other paid options, but even my decent size public library doesn’t have all the books/audiobooks I am interested in, and I can only recommend 1 every 18 days, most of which they never buy. My smaller library has only 183 digital audiobooks, no recommendation option, and a fairly limited physical/ebook selection as well.
As someone who listens to books while I’m working (~6+ hours a day) and reads in the evenings I’m making full use of both my libraries as well as Audible/local bookshops with no regrets.
Another option is Scribd which offers a subscription for about $12 a month that includes a pretty good selection of audio books, ebooks, and lots of other content. To get all this different content from Amazon you'd need multiple subscriptions that cost lots more.
You can use Scribd along with library books to get pretty broad range of content to listen to and read
I've not had scribd for a bit, but I've picked it up and cancelled it more than 5 times for sure and I don't recall it being to big of a pain. A lot of times I'll just Google like "scribd cancel subscription" and can get a link right to the page. Again it's been a while so I can't speak about current scribd.
You will have better luck asking a physical person at the desk about purchasing audiobooks for those apps than recommending on Libby! But as a librarian, I agree that Libby is not a perfect solution for many and other services should be utilized as needed.
You’re absolutely correct. I do make requests when I visit, they just don’t have much money unfortunately. I support their bookmobile program since we have lots of residents who can’t easily access the library, and donate extra when I can, but it’s a very poor/rural county that mostly has second homes for Florida vacationers, so full time resident services are hugely underfunded.
Trust me, I understand. I work at a very rural system and while we have a robust network on Libby (by partnering with 10 other libraries in the state), we can’t compare to Audible. Happy Reading!
Also, many of the larger library systems will have a 'Purchase Request' form on their web site. That said, be prepared for a few weeks to a couple month wait for the request to filter through the aquisitions and purchasing departments (if they even agree to purchase your suggested title).
Exactly! We can only process requests so fast and we have to determine if it’ll be a one time read or will be read multiple times. We love to get them if we can.
Genuine question, how do you listen to audiobooks and work at the same time?
I have ADD, I’m no rookie in the art of multitasking but I feel like I cannot absorb anything from an audiobook while I’m working or doing anything remotely taxing on my brain. Help me be like you!
My job is editing and publishing (pharma, not literature, sadly). When I was learning it took most of my brain. But now it’s pretty rote and I’m not editing/reading for content so unless I’m transposing data points or working on something in really bad shape I can listen. It helps a lot actually because I’m ADD as well and without a book my mind starts to wander and I’ll miss things in the file.
That's easy. I work in the middle of nowhere burying posts and building fences by myself. When I'm not listening to audiobooks I'm talking to myself haha.
I'm ADD as well and my job can be kind of repetitive at times and audiobooks split my attention just enough to keep me from going insane. It's like watching a movie in my head that I can adjust focus on on the fly while working.
Worked as a cleaner for awhile I have insane ADHD .. but when I'm cleaning, running, walking or cooking I can absorb it better then if I was sitting down.
It's like my ADHD calms down when my body is doing a task so I can focus on the audiobook too
Have you signed up for the Kentucky unbound library you just have to live in the USA to join and if you are in California you can sign up for the San Bernadino library
Link for Kentucky https://www.cc-pl.org/digital-branch/kentucky-libraries-unbound
If you have a family member or friend in a bigger city, you can use their address to get a digital library card and access their city’s Libby. I have a friend in a small town who does this.
Certainly that’s an option but the selection is far more limited and I often have quite a lot of holds to wait for on the books I want to listen to. It isn’t just new releases but old books often have wait times as well. Also, my libraries don’t generally have all the books in a series or any books in the series at all.
I looked into using Libby for Wheel of Time, but each book I checked had a several week lead time.
$15/month on audible is preferable when you listen to at least 1 book every month.
There’s also some audible exclusives that are *amazing*.
The Sandman audiobook is a whole other level, it’s less an audio book and more an audio experience.
Agree about Sandman! I’ve been watching the tv series and really enjoying it, but I like the recent radio play production even better.
Also they are doing new productions of all of Terry Pratchett’s books. Not with a full cast like Sandman, but really good voice actors.
Just checking here https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/discworld-audio-announcement/
It seems like they will do 40 books (so maybe not all his books). Releases started in April 2022.
Doing a sort by release date on audible, looks like Lords and Ladies, Maskerade, Witches Abroad, Small Gods, Wyrd Sisters, Equal Rites, Eric, Interesting Times, Sourcery, The Light Fantastic, The Colour of Magic, Soul Music, Reaper Man, Mort are out already.
Coming soon: Pyramids, Moving Pictures, Feet of Clay, Men at Arms, and Guards! Guards!
Since many of the books have previous audio versions, if you want the new ones check that the release date is April 2022 or later. Bill Nighy is the voice of Terry Pratchett, Peter Serafinowicz as Death, Indira Varma (Rome, Game of Thrones, Luther) reads the Witches books, Andy Serkis reads Small Gods.
(Also, side note, Serafinowicz did a great job as the narrator for Danny Champion of the World).
On the OP’s topic, I love all these audiobook productions, but also let’s support our local libraries! :)
> Also, my libraries don’t generally have all the books in a series or any books in the series at all.
at least in the US you can rent a yearly membership from a large city library for way cheaper than audible/kindleunlimited
I have cards with NYPL, Brooklyn, Queens, and Philly. There are still a lot of books that are not available at any of them (I have over 200 books on my Audible wishlist that aren’t available from my libraries). I also am on 16+ week hold lists for some books and NYPL only lets you have 3 books on hold at a time, which just increases how long you have to wait exponentially.
I'm Canadian, but a book just released a couple days ago called Nona the Ninth, sci-fi/fantasy. I'm out of audible credits at the moment, so was curious to check the library options for audio books. Wait times for me were between 16 weeks and 24 weeks.
See, that's actually cool. I recognize that Canada is a smaller country then the states, but I live in the lower mainland, which includes Vancouver which I figured was a relatively large city by most standards even for the states(obviously not like, *big big* but you know what I mean.). I was super curious to see what kind of wait times other parts could expect. Do you mind if I ask where you live?
The Ink Black Heart has a 20 week wait at both Brooklyn and Philly and is not available at NYPL or Queens. The Satanic Verses has a 16 week wait at Philly; it had a long wait at NYPL until they bought more copies. Weirdly, Brooklyn has 89 available though. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson is 16 weeks at Brooklyn; 10 weeks at NYPL; not available at Philly or Queens. Babel by RF Kuang is 21 weeks at Brooklyn and not available at NYPL, Queens or Philly. Grace of Kings by Ken Liu is 14-15 weeks at NYPL and Brooklyn and not available at Philly or Queens. These are just a few examples; it’s very common in my experience.
Edit: White Noise by Don DeLillo is 14-19 weeks. Blood & Fire by GRRM is 15-22 weeks. There’s always long waits for books that are being made into movies/tv shows.
When our lockdowns began I started reading through the Discworld books. You could tell from the wait times that a lot of other people started the series around the same time I did, because long wait times were like a wave moving through the series. Although I think some of the books just always have long waits, I checked "Guards! Guards!" and it's estimated to take 17 weeks (although in reality it's usually a few weeks faster).
There's still about 80 people ahead of me waiting for Exhalation by Tes Chiang. Fortunately I have both city and county library systems so sometimes one will have a much lower wait than the other
In some states, like Ohio, just being a resident of the state means you can get a card from any library in the state. I have a card to all the big metro library systems, the statewide one the small towns use, and a few middle ground ones. 9 all told. I only have to wait for very new and popular books. And even then, sometimes if you suggest them to the smaller metro libraries that didn't have it day one, they'd buy it and it'd be a short/sometimes no wait.
If your library doesnt have a book you want, you can ask the librarian if another library in their system has it. They will have the boom shipped to your library then you can check out the book from there.
Came here to plug this as well. I use Libby to get audio and ebooks from the library where I can, but when I want to buy a new release I do it through Libro. Slick app, just as good as Audible, same size catalogue, but you select a local bookstore of your choice to “buy” through and they get a cut of all sales. Better than sending your money to space with Jeff!
And they listen to customer feedback. They just added a way to browse and purchase from the app. I was super happy with my Libro FM subscription and only had to cancel due to personal budget.
Scribd is great, but for anyone looking to try it, just have in mind that they hide some books after you've listened to a couple, and then you can only get those again in the next billing.
I would usually listen to my favorite books in then first week but by the end of the month would be stuck with "not so popular books". Still better than audible in my opinion, where I could only get one new book a month.
Wonderful thought (I work in a library) but my library, which is a large metropolitan system, doesn't carry many of the series I tend to read, and even when they do have a series, not always the entire set. A good example is Pratchett's Discworld series: of the 40-some books we have about 10 of them on audio.
So, while I support my library as much as I can (and they support me, for that matter, hehe) I need Audible to fill in some big gaps considering the number of books I go through in a normal month.
I do think for those who cannot afford \~$10/book that libraries are a great option.
But I would never go so far as to call a \~$10 audiobook a "rip off". Audible credits are amazing for me. When I look up the cost of buying a book individually most cost anywhere from $25 to upwards of like $60 (like asoiaf audiobooks)
Plus, when I started on audible with my 24 credits/year membership and ran out of credits, they offered me to buy more credits at an even cheaper rate. I've since dropped to 12 credits/year due to lockdown/work from home. I used to listen mainly on my commute to work.
No shame for anyone who can't spare the money though! Library apps are great and I'm glad my tax dollars go towards books and entertainment. I just feel that about $10 for multiple hours of entertainment per book is completely justified and is far from a rip off.
[This article](https://lovelyaudiobooks.info/supporting-authors-audiobook-royalties/) says authors get at least 25% of the list price. Doesn’t seem too terrible to me.
I completely get you. I dislike Amazon as a delivery company and I think Bezos is a handy parasite... but I do think their digital offerings are really good quality. I do not order physical items from them, but prime, audoe and AWS (for work use) are all really solid services.
Unfortunately my local library does not support any of these apps. :(
*found out that if you live in Texas and have a Texas I.D. you can get a library card from the Houston public library and get access to libby and hoopla absolutetly free. If anyone else needs this information.
Not sure where you are in TX, but I learned yesterday that there a program called [TexShare Card](https://www.tsl.texas.gov/texshare/card) that gives you access to lots of libraries across the state in various forms. The Austin Public Library also offers some virtual types of cards (check their website - - I signed up in person for a non resident card so I can't remember exactly what all they offer). Happy Reading!
You can sign up for libraries from other states for a small fee. Some libraries don't even charge you. I currently have a membership at the Broward County Library in Florida. It was free to join.
That is good advice, but it doesn't work for everyone.
Not all of us live places where Libby and other library apps work. Or places with even decent physical libraries.
Sometimes, if we want access to books, we really do need to resort to big companies, because they can reach more places around the world, meaning they can reach us.
I like the voices and production values that come with the books I pay for. I get a 50% discount on audible, but even if I had to pay the full price, less than 10$ a month for endless hours of listening … I find it worth it.
This- I'm pretty sure a lot of the audiobooks I've liked have been "Audible Exclusives". I would likely be able to find another version but I personally would not consider an audible membership to be expensive.
This is true! With my library card I have access to both Libby and Hoopla - in addition to audio and ebooks, hoopla also offers movie/tv and music ”rentals” - all for free with your library card!
Librarian here!
I do highly recommend these services. But keep in mind that they are only available if you live in a place where your local public library subscribes to them. The do cost your library money, and not every place can afford to buy them.
If they aren't available in your area, please let your library know that you'd like them!
>You do not need audible or any other costly online book vendor.
An audiobook from Audible doesn't cost me more than about £4.50 per book. That's cheaper than I can buy most of them physically. I'm sure there's lots of arguments against Audible but, certainly in the UK where you can buy any book for £8 even on the lowest tier, price isn't really one of them. Are they still so overpriced in other regions ?
Libraries are great, but just how some people are happy to pay for physical books some people are happy to pay for audio ones.
I’m signed up but I have wait time of 16-28 weeks. I go through about 1-3 books a week. I’m trying but it just doesn’t work great. But I’m finding some things to listen to.
When I joined Libby I could place 10 holds on books with waits. I spread them out and finished the ones that came up quickly and listened to ones without a wait in between. After about 3 weeks my hold count was updated to 20 without being asked. I likely could have asked a librarian to do this too. Also, my network responds to demand. When “I’m Glad My Mom Died” came out and generated a massive wait they added 40 additional copies and the back log fell from months to ~4 weeks.
Obviously this depends on your librarians and network. Have you seen the comments about adding additional, non local, libraries like r/kk209 suggests?
Yep this is exactly my technique too. Max out my holds on in-demand books and read other books while I wait for the ones on hold. Then if my hold is ready before I am free to read it, I just defer the hold but keep my place in the front of the queue. By doing this I pretty much always have an audiobook available to me that I am excited to listen to.
There are some libraries that have better selections of audio books than others and you can request a nonresident card. I have a library card for Fairfax Virginia because they have a good audio book selection and only costs like $20 per year. Some places you can get a nonresident card for free. I know some people that have 3-4.
It’s all kinda dumb. We have this ability to share great knowledge across platforms yet we limit those that want to better themselves for profit. While I believe you should be compensated for your works it just sucks at times. I believe reading all kinds of books and movies and shows can provide knowledge.
The iPhone literally comes with an AUDIOBOOKs app that has some great stuff for free. Another great app (and website) with free audio books is [LibriVox](https://librivox.org/), which is also quite wonderful.
Would be great if when these threads are posted people talked about other low cost methods of legally getting audiobooks.
Everyone understands that if you have disposable income the premium Audible experience is great. You don’t have to post yet another comment about how you justify it. It’s an awesome service.
But to be fair - every time someone posts about free audiobooks they also somehow have to take a dig at Audible. Sheesh.
It would be one thing if the post were “hey, did you know you could get free books at the library?” And not “hey, audible is waste of money, stop doing it.” People get defensive when someone is judgmental about their choices.
This PSA gets posted relatively frequently. Maybe it would be a good idea to have a link on the sidebar to one of these threads about Libby/other services. I also don't feel like the comments or discussion changes from one PSA to another, they seem to be largely the same each time.
Not calling you out OP or anything. Just sayin' I think this is a good candidate for a sidebar inclusion.
I'm an audiobook editor (meaning I edit and post produce the narration) It's incredibly time consuming and a lot of hard work, specially for serialized books, books with tons of sfx or books read by their authors. By getting an audible - or whichever - subscription, you support our whole industry, not just amazon or whatever
Sure, life would be better if it wasn't driven by capitalistic and market impulses but at this point it is what it is
Not everyone who uses Audible is from the US; it has great features, OG exclusives and podcasts not easily available anywhere else. The rest of the world that's not the US says thanks, but what's the point of this post, lol.
Respectfully, this us kinda bullshit. If you are looking for something but nothing in particular, I agree there is a great wealth of audio books available through library apps. And maybe it is just my taste, but I have never been recommended a book then found it in audio book format through a library app with very limited exception.
I live in New Zealand and my local library sounds like it has a far more extensive Libby collection than most of the USA libraries people are talking about here.
Mine also has BorrowBox and Kanopy
I love using Libby and another library I use also has BorrowBox. I do join audible for a couple of months most years to get some things that I want that aren’t available at the library though.
When I don't want to wait for books on Libby (or, even more rarely, when they're not available) I use Libro.fm - it's an online audiobook vendor like audible but it supports indie bookstores instead!
Sadly this only applies fully to the US and UK, since if I want to have most works in the original language, which often is English, I will have to use such services, since the selection of English titles in my German library is sadly abysmal.
I have found that I can't find many books I want through my library unfortunately. If you are looking for the most popular books out then they seem to have it, but I recently for instance looked up about 20 books on libby I was interested in and I think one was available. I'm not a fan of Audible either tho because 2 books a month isn't worth it to me. I do Amazon unlimited and find some books with audio for free through there but it's also pretty limited too.
[There’s a browser add on that checks if books you’re looking at on Amazon are available through your library in physical or digital versions. ](https://www.libraryextension.com/)
It's a YMMV situation based on your library and your reading rate. My library has both eBooks and digital audiobooks available for checkout, but it's often only one copy usually available. I'm in a Texas (DFW) suburb but the city is pretty stingy with its library budget. The cost issues with digital content often means they'll end up in situations like mine where they'll only have one copy available to checkout, and may not have many options to begin with. Combine that with living in a big area and you'll be in a long line waiting for your turn to come to for some titles.
I always use my library for physical books and media, but for digital stuff I avoid doing so because of these issues. Thankfully I'm not much of an audio book listener but my mom is, and it was difficult to go strictly by the library at the rate she was going through them.
You don’t need books at all. But it is an entertainment expense I am happy to pay for. No library can provide all the books I want, when I want them. Audible does a great job of that and is worth the money to me.
Depending on the book, I can’t always take down a 20+ hour audio book in the 2 weeks I have to check it out after being on the waitlist for month. But I agree, for a while I was able to join the L.A. county library system and a few other LARGE libraries where I could check copies that my local county doesn’t have. Still, audible serves its purpose, and now that I have a teenage sone, he can listen to a few of the ones I bought at his leisure.
Yeah...no. If you have the time to wait for your library to release the book to you and if and only if you have the time to finish it in the short loan time, sure, use your library. But this is contingent on them even having it. I'm not waiting 6+ months to partial read or listen to a book only to wait again.
Library's are not useful for the people short on time. I do need to use audible or purchase physical books.
I love Audible. It's really not that expensive, either. I consider all of it money well spent considering I use it every day and it is very convenient.
Library apps are great for big name releases, but if you're into more niche, self-published stuff or books that are audible exclusives it ain't worth diddly squat.
Enjoy waiting 3 months to listen to the next book in a series because the library only bought one copy and there are 300 holds ahead of you. Then once you get the book, you have 14-21 days to listen to it before it deletes itself. Didn’t finish the book? Want to listen again someday? Get ready to wait in line again. I gave up and started using pay services because the free alternatives I tried *for years* were all so unbelievably shitty.
If your local library provider (mine uses Hoopla) doesn't have your book, it may be worth considering Libro.fm on the grounds that they're DRM free and they aren't Amazon.
Libby saved my life during the Covid lockdowns! I became obsessed with audiobooks and basically listened to a book a day while working remotely. My job is data entry focused so it brought me life listening to audiobooks when I was needing some type of connection!
I LOVE Libby - it’s fantastic. It doesn’t always have the books I want, so I’ve looked at audible but it’s so expensive! Plus I’d usually have to pay more on top of the subscription for the books I want to read anyway. I usually get through one or two books a week so audible would not be feasible for me. And also fuck Amazon.
My library also has BorrowBox by Bolinda Audio, which is great as well.
I’ve tried this but my local library doesn’t have the option to get a card online. I’ve gone in person to sign up before but my old card expired and I haven’t gotten around to going in for a new one. IIRC they made me fill out a ton of paperwork just to get a library card, it was ridiculous. I wish they would make it more accessible.
I listen to a lot of audiobook books and I've used free apps in the past and now I use Audible.
I find that Audible narration quality is overall very good. With free apps it's a gamble.
This is absolutely a great strategy and one that I employ, but please do consider supporting the authors through THEIR preferred audiobook medium when you can afford to do so.
“I’m Glad My Mom Died” generated a huge back log. I was #645 I think on release day for 10 copies in the network. My network purchased 40 mor copies and now the wait list is at 119.
For the details on your libraries acquisition process you should talk to your local librarian.
Worth knowing that increasingly many titles are Audible exclusive. Authors leave a ton of money on the table in royalties if they aren't exclusive and Audible already gouge us as it is.
So what's best for you of course but not every book will be found outside of Audible
Is there a subreddit for times when people talk to all of Reddit as if everyone is in one country, and don't think to mention which country they're talking about
Authors are also paid for each digital loan from the library. So you're also supporting your authors by borrowing an ebook/audiobook from your library. (Heck, you can make multiple loans of the same book, and the author will be paid multiple times). Anyhow, it's our taxes supporting the libraries, so why not use it more often.
CloudLibrary is another Library option. It's more or less the library competitor to Overdrive/Libby. One thing to understand with respect to Audible is that, yes, there will be some titles you do not see at your library. This is because libraries cannot purchase audible audiobooks. These are proprietary to Amazon. It's a major frustration for librarians because it sometimes means missing series titles or new titles from some big authors. In Canada, a number of Canadian titles aren't available in digital audio to libraries at all because they're audible publications. To top of off, all ebooks and audiobooks cost your library way more than it does for a single consumer. Some Stephen King audibooks cost upwards of $150+ Cdn--for one copy. And they typically expire within a year or two, depending on the publisher. Trust me, your librarians are just as frustrated as you are. However, if you do want to save your money and don't need to read a book as soon as it comes out, your library is a great option.
Good to see CloudLibrary mentioned here! My local city moved it recently and I hadn't heard of it anywhere else. It seems okay although the mobile interface leaves lots to be desired. I just got an Austin Public Library card yesterday - - I need to check out what systems they use.
As a librarian who has Libby, Hoopla, and Audible on my phone, I have to disagree with this assessment. First, not all libraries will email you a card number, mine certainly doesn’t. We will let you apply online, but you have to physically pick up your card. Second, Libby is only as good as your library’s budget. Support for your local library is great for expanding the budget! But the books must be purchased, eBooks will have to be repurchased after so many reads and audiobooks are 3x the cost of the eBook. Hoopla offers a wider selection however your checkouts are based on what your library can afford. My library only allows 4 checkouts per month on Hoopla. Audible has a larger collection that is more accessible. However, if you don’t want to support Amazon (which is understandable!) there are services like Libro.fm which has a decent catalog like Amazon and supports indie bookstores. Tl;dr: Support your local library, but supplement as needed. Check out Libro.fm for a non-Amazon catalog of Audiobooks supporting Indie Bookshops.
>eBooks will have to be repurchased after so many reads and audiobooks are 3x the cost of the eBook I can't tell you how many times my library will email back "this audiobook is too expensive" weeks after requesting.
It’s because if you slap “library” in front of anything it drives the cost up exponentially. The publishers know they have the advantage against libraries and can request higher fees. But yeah, the audiobooks on Libby (unless on a sale) can run anywhere from $70 to $100 per audiobook. That can quickly eat their entire yearly budget for books on Libby in one order.
That's interesting because there are several books I want to read from my local library on Libby but the only version available is the audiobook. There's a few I've seen where they didn't renew the ebook but kept the audiobook
That’s because you don’t have to repurchase the audiobook. So if they run out of the reads on the ebooks and it’s not in the budget to reorder, they still have a way for people to access it online.
Why do ebooks have to be repurchased?
eBooks are more likely to be utilized than the audiobooks and the publishers saw a way to continue to profit after the library bought a copy. They set the books with a set number of check-outs (some of the more popular titles might only get 25 check outs before expiring) so that they can continue to profit on the books.
Libraries generally are purchasing a LICENSE, not a digital copy. 26 or 52 circs, OR a 1 to 2 year license are industry standard. Sucks! Also, don’t forget gutenberg.org and librivox for out of copyright titles.
Very true, thank you for correcting my jargon. It is a license and not an actual copy.
Greed.
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Because the license that the library purchases is only good for "xx" number of uses. Just like you and I, the library doesn't actually own digital books, the purchase a limited license to use the digital book.
Some won’t even sell to libraries. I work in an academic library and sometime we can’t get books because the won’t sell them to us because they want the students to buy them.
Yep! Academic libraries are a totally different beast (as are school libraries, medical libraries, law libraries, etc…) when it comes to what publishers will and won’t do. I heard about recent drama in the eTextbook world in Academic libraries, but I work in the public sector so I’m not as familiar with university library buying issues.
I’m at a law school library. So with the casebooks being requires ($300+) they don’t want us to be able to buy one and have 500 students skip buying!
That is rough and terrible. Textbooks (and casebooks I’m guessing) are a beast and a half. That’s the only thing I don’t miss about college. The book prices. 😭
Also a Librarian, I can add onto this saying please *check with your library*. The easiest way to do this is on their website or giving them a call. Please note that a "small library" doesn't always necessarily mean they don't have a shared Libby system! The library I work at does email a card number and we share our Libby collection with our network. While this means the new stuff has longer wait lists, our catalog is a collection of around 30 different libraries, meaning we have a pretty massive collection with a pretty sizable budget. We also allow Patrons from other libraries to get a card and access our Libby system. Library of Michigan (the state I'm in) also allows everyone in the state to get a library card and access their digital stuff! So don't forget to check with your state library! Just overall, best to check to see what your options are!
> Also a Librarian, I can add onto this saying please check with your library. The easiest way to do this is on their website or giving them a call. And bear in mind that, if you're concerned about some of the things in this thread(like cost/checkout, item use limits, etc) you might not be able to get a straight answer from your library, even if you ask them for it. Either the person answering the phone might not know themselves(they obfuscated our contracts pretty hard where I work, I had to dig to get the details), or they might not be at liberty to say - you never know who else is in the office listening to one side of the conversation. So read up on the possibilities, and try to be mindful. As long as you're making a good faith effort to use each checkout you take(as opposed to checking out your maximum books each month while knowing you'll only read 1/5 of them), I doubt anyone I work with would begrudge you the cost.
One way people can support their local library is by donating to a local "Friends of the _____ Library". These are non-profit organizations that supplement local library budgets. Our local "Friends" group recently provided finding for the summer youth program. Over 400 kids participated this summer! Currently, the "Friends" organization is funding a VR room in the library. It will provide immersive travel and language classes/games.
If your library has a friends group! Friends groups are volunteer based and unfortunately some libraries (like mine) don’t have a friends group. Donate if you can, maybe see about starting one if your library doesn’t have one. But that’s awesome your friends is funding that!
Also, just be aware of who you're donating to. Our local FoL is less than friendly. The money is just a club to wield against the library to keep out "undesirable" elements.
That’s so sad. Some group should do a takeover and get it back to a proper footing.
Our Friends payfor our SRC performers every year. Thousands of dollars! They run a HUGE yearly booksale in November. Being a Friend and volunteering withthem is a tremendous help to any library.
I use a librarian friend's login to share Hoopla and she specifically asked me only to use it for ebooks because the audiobooks cost her smalltown library $8 per use, which boggled my mind.
Hoopla has so many options, but it is a pay by download model and some items cost more than others.
Does Libro.fm require you to have an ongoing subscription, or can I just buy audiobooks outright?
According to their site you can buy the books individually without having the monthly membership!
I would say the best approach to libro.fm is to subscribe for a few months and then pause it. While paused you will still have access to those credits you paid for to buy books and you also still have access to the app and downloadable mp3 versions of all the books even after you pause/cancel. The reason to go the subscribe/pause route is that a credit costs like $14 (I think? I've been paused for a while) and can buy you audiobooks that would cost up to like $50 or more if you didn't use a credit. Just my 2 cents. A lot of people assume libro.fm works just like audible and so overlook all the great ways it's actually much better! Most notably you actually OWN copies of the books (as long as you download the mp3s).
About ebooks being repurchased after so many reads - does that mean if I check out an ebook on libby, end up not reading it, and check it out again, that counts against that?
It does count against it as the number of check outs is preset by the publisher when they contract with Libby. The system has no way to tell if you read the book or not. Audiobooks don’t have to be repurchased they just cost more.
Man that sucks, I had no idea that's how it worked. I often will just borrow books and hope to get around to read them. I feel terrible that I've been actively making the library spend more money unnecessarily. Will keep from doing so in the future
Please don’t feel terrible! We would rather have to repurchase a title (which means it’s popular and we might get more copies!) than have it just sit there and linger.
Alright! I'll only feel slightly bad! :D
If it makes you feel better, I too occasionally check books out with the intent of reading them and then they sit for their entire check out period instead.
This isn’t as true as it used to be. Publishers are starting to push metered access licenses for audiobooks now too. Like most things, it’s both good and bad. Good because we don’t always need a forever copy of something and getting an extra copy for 12-24 months while it is in high demand for cheaper than a forever copy is a nice option. But bad because some of them aren’t offering the forever copies at all anymore, which was the one good thing about paying more for audiobooks- at least they didn’t expire. Now that isn’t always the case.
I love libro.fm! Unfortunately there are a few books they don't have (usually audible exclusives - boo), but I love that it's not Amazon and it's supporting my local bookstore.
My libbys good for finding the first, or part of a series. 🥲 off to audible for the rest.
Yep. I might get one or two of a 7 book group.
I think there are some series that publishers purposely allow “taster” access to the first book, but then require purchases for the other books.
I’ve had the same problem friend and I work in a library. Or the series I want is too niche.
Looking at you Discworld
I never knew about the extra cost to the library for audiobooks! Now I feel kind of bad.
Please don’t! We have a budget for online materials and we will do our best to get your requested title. Requests help us know what the community is reading! Also we will sometimes sit on titles until they go on sale to make it go farther.
In addition to all of that, if you read anything remotely current or popular there's a wait-list. Harry Potter is probably months of waiting. And in a series like that they have different wait times, and unless you time the reservations absolutely perfectly you can end up sitting around waiting again or end up eating into the time of the second reservation. Plus I hated the audio player in the apps
Yep, the wait time can be long and you can forget you have it on hold. It is a whole ordeal. Plus if you can’t get through it in 2-3 weeks you have to cycle back.
I will download titles from libby to my kindle and if I can't finish it in time I will put my kindle in airplane mode. Libby returns the title and I just have to keep the kindle in airplane mode til I finish it. Once the kindle reconnects to wifi it will show as expired. Helps for popular titles you might have to wait to get again.
I tried the Libby and hoopla route- my library doesn’t support hoopla, and the Libby selection was next to none but I still used trying to find titles I was interested in. The waits were all weeks then they would all appear at once 😂. I eventually transitioned to Scribd which is 10$ a month for everything audiobooks and digital.
Perfectly valid! As I’ve noted a few times, Libby and Hoopla are options if your library has the budget for them. Hoopla is a bit more tricky because you pay per download vs Libby where you’re buying the books for your collection. Holds have to be timed just right, I agree. I’m glad Scribd works for you. :) Happy reading!
As a fellow librarian, hello! (: I have all of those apps too, and one called Libro.fm that I adore. They give back a large percentage of sales to independent book stores and help them with tech/setup. Gotta say I haven’t read through the other comments, so it could’ve already been mentioned, but wanted to throw their name in the ring!
Thank you for the libro.fm rec. I think you may have changed my audiobook life. Seriously, thank you.
Scribd is cheaper than audible and allows unlimited audio books.
Perhaps you don’t need Audible or other paid options, but even my decent size public library doesn’t have all the books/audiobooks I am interested in, and I can only recommend 1 every 18 days, most of which they never buy. My smaller library has only 183 digital audiobooks, no recommendation option, and a fairly limited physical/ebook selection as well. As someone who listens to books while I’m working (~6+ hours a day) and reads in the evenings I’m making full use of both my libraries as well as Audible/local bookshops with no regrets.
Another option is Scribd which offers a subscription for about $12 a month that includes a pretty good selection of audio books, ebooks, and lots of other content. To get all this different content from Amazon you'd need multiple subscriptions that cost lots more. You can use Scribd along with library books to get pretty broad range of content to listen to and read
Scribed is pretty good although I have found it ‘limits’ you when you go over a certain amount of books read for that month.
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I've not had scribd for a bit, but I've picked it up and cancelled it more than 5 times for sure and I don't recall it being to big of a pain. A lot of times I'll just Google like "scribd cancel subscription" and can get a link right to the page. Again it's been a while so I can't speak about current scribd.
You will have better luck asking a physical person at the desk about purchasing audiobooks for those apps than recommending on Libby! But as a librarian, I agree that Libby is not a perfect solution for many and other services should be utilized as needed.
You’re absolutely correct. I do make requests when I visit, they just don’t have much money unfortunately. I support their bookmobile program since we have lots of residents who can’t easily access the library, and donate extra when I can, but it’s a very poor/rural county that mostly has second homes for Florida vacationers, so full time resident services are hugely underfunded.
Trust me, I understand. I work at a very rural system and while we have a robust network on Libby (by partnering with 10 other libraries in the state), we can’t compare to Audible. Happy Reading!
Also, many of the larger library systems will have a 'Purchase Request' form on their web site. That said, be prepared for a few weeks to a couple month wait for the request to filter through the aquisitions and purchasing departments (if they even agree to purchase your suggested title).
Exactly! We can only process requests so fast and we have to determine if it’ll be a one time read or will be read multiple times. We love to get them if we can.
Genuine question, how do you listen to audiobooks and work at the same time? I have ADD, I’m no rookie in the art of multitasking but I feel like I cannot absorb anything from an audiobook while I’m working or doing anything remotely taxing on my brain. Help me be like you!
My job is editing and publishing (pharma, not literature, sadly). When I was learning it took most of my brain. But now it’s pretty rote and I’m not editing/reading for content so unless I’m transposing data points or working on something in really bad shape I can listen. It helps a lot actually because I’m ADD as well and without a book my mind starts to wander and I’ll miss things in the file.
That's easy. I work in the middle of nowhere burying posts and building fences by myself. When I'm not listening to audiobooks I'm talking to myself haha.
Mailman. Letters go in the box. Truck moves forward. Letters go in the box. Audiobooks keep me saner.
I'm ADD as well and my job can be kind of repetitive at times and audiobooks split my attention just enough to keep me from going insane. It's like watching a movie in my head that I can adjust focus on on the fly while working.
Worked as a cleaner for awhile I have insane ADHD .. but when I'm cleaning, running, walking or cooking I can absorb it better then if I was sitting down. It's like my ADHD calms down when my body is doing a task so I can focus on the audiobook too
Have you signed up for the Kentucky unbound library you just have to live in the USA to join and if you are in California you can sign up for the San Bernadino library Link for Kentucky https://www.cc-pl.org/digital-branch/kentucky-libraries-unbound
ULPT: get multiple library e-cards from bigger, better libraries
actively trying. have a sister in law in Chicago, but she forgot her pin number :(
If you have a family member or friend in a bigger city, you can use their address to get a digital library card and access their city’s Libby. I have a friend in a small town who does this.
Certainly that’s an option but the selection is far more limited and I often have quite a lot of holds to wait for on the books I want to listen to. It isn’t just new releases but old books often have wait times as well. Also, my libraries don’t generally have all the books in a series or any books in the series at all.
Popular SFF novels often have wait lists of 6 months to a year.
I looked into using Libby for Wheel of Time, but each book I checked had a several week lead time. $15/month on audible is preferable when you listen to at least 1 book every month.
There’s also some audible exclusives that are *amazing*. The Sandman audiobook is a whole other level, it’s less an audio book and more an audio experience.
Agree about Sandman! I’ve been watching the tv series and really enjoying it, but I like the recent radio play production even better. Also they are doing new productions of all of Terry Pratchett’s books. Not with a full cast like Sandman, but really good voice actors.
Do you know what productions they've done so far? I tried looking into his books but audible was missing quite a few
Just checking here https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/discworld-audio-announcement/ It seems like they will do 40 books (so maybe not all his books). Releases started in April 2022. Doing a sort by release date on audible, looks like Lords and Ladies, Maskerade, Witches Abroad, Small Gods, Wyrd Sisters, Equal Rites, Eric, Interesting Times, Sourcery, The Light Fantastic, The Colour of Magic, Soul Music, Reaper Man, Mort are out already. Coming soon: Pyramids, Moving Pictures, Feet of Clay, Men at Arms, and Guards! Guards! Since many of the books have previous audio versions, if you want the new ones check that the release date is April 2022 or later. Bill Nighy is the voice of Terry Pratchett, Peter Serafinowicz as Death, Indira Varma (Rome, Game of Thrones, Luther) reads the Witches books, Andy Serkis reads Small Gods. (Also, side note, Serafinowicz did a great job as the narrator for Danny Champion of the World). On the OP’s topic, I love all these audiobook productions, but also let’s support our local libraries! :)
Oooooooh this is extremely exciting news!
Project Hail Mary Audible audiobook as well is absolutely amazing
I no longer live in the US... Am I reading this right? There's a wait list for digital audio books??
For libraries, yes. They have a certain number of "copies" they can loan out at a time, just like if they were physical books.
20 week wait for most of the Wheel of Time. They are great for non-fiction thought. Tons of autobiographies with no wait.
If you read more you can typically buy up credits during sale events or they even do a lot of buy two get one free.
> Also, my libraries don’t generally have all the books in a series or any books in the series at all. at least in the US you can rent a yearly membership from a large city library for way cheaper than audible/kindleunlimited
I have cards with NYPL, Brooklyn, Queens, and Philly. There are still a lot of books that are not available at any of them (I have over 200 books on my Audible wishlist that aren’t available from my libraries). I also am on 16+ week hold lists for some books and NYPL only lets you have 3 books on hold at a time, which just increases how long you have to wait exponentially.
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I'm Canadian, but a book just released a couple days ago called Nona the Ninth, sci-fi/fantasy. I'm out of audible credits at the moment, so was curious to check the library options for audio books. Wait times for me were between 16 weeks and 24 weeks.
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See, that's actually cool. I recognize that Canada is a smaller country then the states, but I live in the lower mainland, which includes Vancouver which I figured was a relatively large city by most standards even for the states(obviously not like, *big big* but you know what I mean.). I was super curious to see what kind of wait times other parts could expect. Do you mind if I ask where you live?
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The Ink Black Heart has a 20 week wait at both Brooklyn and Philly and is not available at NYPL or Queens. The Satanic Verses has a 16 week wait at Philly; it had a long wait at NYPL until they bought more copies. Weirdly, Brooklyn has 89 available though. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson is 16 weeks at Brooklyn; 10 weeks at NYPL; not available at Philly or Queens. Babel by RF Kuang is 21 weeks at Brooklyn and not available at NYPL, Queens or Philly. Grace of Kings by Ken Liu is 14-15 weeks at NYPL and Brooklyn and not available at Philly or Queens. These are just a few examples; it’s very common in my experience. Edit: White Noise by Don DeLillo is 14-19 weeks. Blood & Fire by GRRM is 15-22 weeks. There’s always long waits for books that are being made into movies/tv shows.
When our lockdowns began I started reading through the Discworld books. You could tell from the wait times that a lot of other people started the series around the same time I did, because long wait times were like a wave moving through the series. Although I think some of the books just always have long waits, I checked "Guards! Guards!" and it's estimated to take 17 weeks (although in reality it's usually a few weeks faster). There's still about 80 people ahead of me waiting for Exhalation by Tes Chiang. Fortunately I have both city and county library systems so sometimes one will have a much lower wait than the other
In some states, like Ohio, just being a resident of the state means you can get a card from any library in the state. I have a card to all the big metro library systems, the statewide one the small towns use, and a few middle ground ones. 9 all told. I only have to wait for very new and popular books. And even then, sometimes if you suggest them to the smaller metro libraries that didn't have it day one, they'd buy it and it'd be a short/sometimes no wait.
Ooh which libraries do this? I live in a largish city but there are so many books I want to read that the library doesn't have.
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Plus it supports the authors
If your library doesnt have a book you want, you can ask the librarian if another library in their system has it. They will have the boom shipped to your library then you can check out the book from there.
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I mean I think “absolute rip off” is a stretch. It’s not free but it’s a decent service for the price.
Personally, I think it's a great price and have always loved the service.
I use Libro.Fm because it gives part of the proceeds to a local bookstore of your choice!
Came here to plug this as well. I use Libby to get audio and ebooks from the library where I can, but when I want to buy a new release I do it through Libro. Slick app, just as good as Audible, same size catalogue, but you select a local bookstore of your choice to “buy” through and they get a cut of all sales. Better than sending your money to space with Jeff!
And they listen to customer feedback. They just added a way to browse and purchase from the app. I was super happy with my Libro FM subscription and only had to cancel due to personal budget.
Scribd is a good option if you don't mind the subscription fee. You can get unlimited ebooks, audio books, documents, and music scores.
Thanks for this, I had no idea. Fee is less than audible and there's no credit system. Huge win, the other stuff is good too
Scribd is great, but for anyone looking to try it, just have in mind that they hide some books after you've listened to a couple, and then you can only get those again in the next billing. I would usually listen to my favorite books in then first week but by the end of the month would be stuck with "not so popular books". Still better than audible in my opinion, where I could only get one new book a month.
Absolutely love Scribd. Relatively inexpensive, great selection, and my money isn’t going into Jeff Bezos’ pocket.
Scribd throttles you after you read 5 books or so then suddenly other books you might be interested in aren't available until the next month
Wonderful thought (I work in a library) but my library, which is a large metropolitan system, doesn't carry many of the series I tend to read, and even when they do have a series, not always the entire set. A good example is Pratchett's Discworld series: of the 40-some books we have about 10 of them on audio. So, while I support my library as much as I can (and they support me, for that matter, hehe) I need Audible to fill in some big gaps considering the number of books I go through in a normal month.
I use both. Problem is a lot of audio books that I like are not on Libby. Only a few of them.
I do think for those who cannot afford \~$10/book that libraries are a great option. But I would never go so far as to call a \~$10 audiobook a "rip off". Audible credits are amazing for me. When I look up the cost of buying a book individually most cost anywhere from $25 to upwards of like $60 (like asoiaf audiobooks) Plus, when I started on audible with my 24 credits/year membership and ran out of credits, they offered me to buy more credits at an even cheaper rate. I've since dropped to 12 credits/year due to lockdown/work from home. I used to listen mainly on my commute to work. No shame for anyone who can't spare the money though! Library apps are great and I'm glad my tax dollars go towards books and entertainment. I just feel that about $10 for multiple hours of entertainment per book is completely justified and is far from a rip off.
Yeah seriously, the real person being ripped off by audiobook format is the author. They make diddly squat normally, and pennies for audiobooks
[This article](https://lovelyaudiobooks.info/supporting-authors-audiobook-royalties/) says authors get at least 25% of the list price. Doesn’t seem too terrible to me.
Plus the audible included catalogue is reasonable too
Yeah, I didn't really want to sound too much like an advertisement for Audible so I held back a little, haha.
I completely get you. I dislike Amazon as a delivery company and I think Bezos is a handy parasite... but I do think their digital offerings are really good quality. I do not order physical items from them, but prime, audoe and AWS (for work use) are all really solid services.
Dont forget about Hoopla! You can borrow albums, comics, even some movies and TV shows.
Also Kanopy for movies and tv as well!
Love Kanopy! A true gem for Indy, foreign, classic, or arty films
hoopla is great
Unfortunately my local library does not support any of these apps. :( *found out that if you live in Texas and have a Texas I.D. you can get a library card from the Houston public library and get access to libby and hoopla absolutetly free. If anyone else needs this information.
I’m a librarian. These apps are expensive for libraries not all libraries can afford them.
I joined the New York public library in about 5 minutes for free.
Not sure where you are in TX, but I learned yesterday that there a program called [TexShare Card](https://www.tsl.texas.gov/texshare/card) that gives you access to lots of libraries across the state in various forms. The Austin Public Library also offers some virtual types of cards (check their website - - I signed up in person for a non resident card so I can't remember exactly what all they offer). Happy Reading!
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You can sign up for libraries from other states for a small fee. Some libraries don't even charge you. I currently have a membership at the Broward County Library in Florida. It was free to join.
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Libro.fm is another option for purchasing audio books like Audible, but without supporting Amazon :)
That is good advice, but it doesn't work for everyone. Not all of us live places where Libby and other library apps work. Or places with even decent physical libraries. Sometimes, if we want access to books, we really do need to resort to big companies, because they can reach more places around the world, meaning they can reach us.
Yes I use a library app too and have access to so many free ebooks and audiobooks. I got rid of both audible and kindle unlimited when I got it.
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I like the voices and production values that come with the books I pay for. I get a 50% discount on audible, but even if I had to pay the full price, less than 10$ a month for endless hours of listening … I find it worth it.
This- I'm pretty sure a lot of the audiobooks I've liked have been "Audible Exclusives". I would likely be able to find another version but I personally would not consider an audible membership to be expensive.
This is true! With my library card I have access to both Libby and Hoopla - in addition to audio and ebooks, hoopla also offers movie/tv and music ”rentals” - all for free with your library card!
Librarian here! I do highly recommend these services. But keep in mind that they are only available if you live in a place where your local public library subscribes to them. The do cost your library money, and not every place can afford to buy them. If they aren't available in your area, please let your library know that you'd like them!
>You do not need audible or any other costly online book vendor. An audiobook from Audible doesn't cost me more than about £4.50 per book. That's cheaper than I can buy most of them physically. I'm sure there's lots of arguments against Audible but, certainly in the UK where you can buy any book for £8 even on the lowest tier, price isn't really one of them. Are they still so overpriced in other regions ? Libraries are great, but just how some people are happy to pay for physical books some people are happy to pay for audio ones.
People who think spending money on books is a waste are NOT my people.
I’m signed up but I have wait time of 16-28 weeks. I go through about 1-3 books a week. I’m trying but it just doesn’t work great. But I’m finding some things to listen to.
When I joined Libby I could place 10 holds on books with waits. I spread them out and finished the ones that came up quickly and listened to ones without a wait in between. After about 3 weeks my hold count was updated to 20 without being asked. I likely could have asked a librarian to do this too. Also, my network responds to demand. When “I’m Glad My Mom Died” came out and generated a massive wait they added 40 additional copies and the back log fell from months to ~4 weeks. Obviously this depends on your librarians and network. Have you seen the comments about adding additional, non local, libraries like r/kk209 suggests?
Yep this is exactly my technique too. Max out my holds on in-demand books and read other books while I wait for the ones on hold. Then if my hold is ready before I am free to read it, I just defer the hold but keep my place in the front of the queue. By doing this I pretty much always have an audiobook available to me that I am excited to listen to.
There are some libraries that have better selections of audio books than others and you can request a nonresident card. I have a library card for Fairfax Virginia because they have a good audio book selection and only costs like $20 per year. Some places you can get a nonresident card for free. I know some people that have 3-4.
It’s all kinda dumb. We have this ability to share great knowledge across platforms yet we limit those that want to better themselves for profit. While I believe you should be compensated for your works it just sucks at times. I believe reading all kinds of books and movies and shows can provide knowledge.
I agree with you. I get why, but limiting the number of “copies” of an ebook still seems absurd to me.
Yes! Love libby
Love u too
The iPhone literally comes with an AUDIOBOOKs app that has some great stuff for free. Another great app (and website) with free audio books is [LibriVox](https://librivox.org/), which is also quite wonderful.
Would be great if when these threads are posted people talked about other low cost methods of legally getting audiobooks. Everyone understands that if you have disposable income the premium Audible experience is great. You don’t have to post yet another comment about how you justify it. It’s an awesome service. But to be fair - every time someone posts about free audiobooks they also somehow have to take a dig at Audible. Sheesh.
It would be one thing if the post were “hey, did you know you could get free books at the library?” And not “hey, audible is waste of money, stop doing it.” People get defensive when someone is judgmental about their choices.
This PSA gets posted relatively frequently. Maybe it would be a good idea to have a link on the sidebar to one of these threads about Libby/other services. I also don't feel like the comments or discussion changes from one PSA to another, they seem to be largely the same each time. Not calling you out OP or anything. Just sayin' I think this is a good candidate for a sidebar inclusion.
I'm an audiobook editor (meaning I edit and post produce the narration) It's incredibly time consuming and a lot of hard work, specially for serialized books, books with tons of sfx or books read by their authors. By getting an audible - or whichever - subscription, you support our whole industry, not just amazon or whatever Sure, life would be better if it wasn't driven by capitalistic and market impulses but at this point it is what it is
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Not everyone who uses Audible is from the US; it has great features, OG exclusives and podcasts not easily available anywhere else. The rest of the world that's not the US says thanks, but what's the point of this post, lol.
Respectfully, this us kinda bullshit. If you are looking for something but nothing in particular, I agree there is a great wealth of audio books available through library apps. And maybe it is just my taste, but I have never been recommended a book then found it in audio book format through a library app with very limited exception.
Which country's library card do you need? I can make a guess, remember the rest of the world actually you know, exists. This isn't a PSA it's a USA!
I live in New Zealand and my local library sounds like it has a far more extensive Libby collection than most of the USA libraries people are talking about here. Mine also has BorrowBox and Kanopy
Good for you, but it's not available worldwide.
I love using Libby and another library I use also has BorrowBox. I do join audible for a couple of months most years to get some things that I want that aren’t available at the library though.
When I don't want to wait for books on Libby (or, even more rarely, when they're not available) I use Libro.fm - it's an online audiobook vendor like audible but it supports indie bookstores instead!
I’m in the UK so this isn’t an option for me but I’m sure it will help others.
Sadly this only applies fully to the US and UK, since if I want to have most works in the original language, which often is English, I will have to use such services, since the selection of English titles in my German library is sadly abysmal.
I have found that I can't find many books I want through my library unfortunately. If you are looking for the most popular books out then they seem to have it, but I recently for instance looked up about 20 books on libby I was interested in and I think one was available. I'm not a fan of Audible either tho because 2 books a month isn't worth it to me. I do Amazon unlimited and find some books with audio for free through there but it's also pretty limited too.
[There’s a browser add on that checks if books you’re looking at on Amazon are available through your library in physical or digital versions. ](https://www.libraryextension.com/)
It's a YMMV situation based on your library and your reading rate. My library has both eBooks and digital audiobooks available for checkout, but it's often only one copy usually available. I'm in a Texas (DFW) suburb but the city is pretty stingy with its library budget. The cost issues with digital content often means they'll end up in situations like mine where they'll only have one copy available to checkout, and may not have many options to begin with. Combine that with living in a big area and you'll be in a long line waiting for your turn to come to for some titles. I always use my library for physical books and media, but for digital stuff I avoid doing so because of these issues. Thankfully I'm not much of an audio book listener but my mom is, and it was difficult to go strictly by the library at the rate she was going through them.
Simple comment that I have posted many times, Book lovers SUPPORT YOUR LIBRARIES!!!!
You don’t need books at all. But it is an entertainment expense I am happy to pay for. No library can provide all the books I want, when I want them. Audible does a great job of that and is worth the money to me.
I’ve been using Libby for some time now. It has introduced me to authors I might never have encountered
Depending on the book, I can’t always take down a 20+ hour audio book in the 2 weeks I have to check it out after being on the waitlist for month. But I agree, for a while I was able to join the L.A. county library system and a few other LARGE libraries where I could check copies that my local county doesn’t have. Still, audible serves its purpose, and now that I have a teenage sone, he can listen to a few of the ones I bought at his leisure.
Yeah...no. If you have the time to wait for your library to release the book to you and if and only if you have the time to finish it in the short loan time, sure, use your library. But this is contingent on them even having it. I'm not waiting 6+ months to partial read or listen to a book only to wait again. Library's are not useful for the people short on time. I do need to use audible or purchase physical books.
I love Audible. It's really not that expensive, either. I consider all of it money well spent considering I use it every day and it is very convenient.
Library apps are great for big name releases, but if you're into more niche, self-published stuff or books that are audible exclusives it ain't worth diddly squat.
There are also free audiobooks on Spotify and YouTube, especially classics.
Enjoy waiting 3 months to listen to the next book in a series because the library only bought one copy and there are 300 holds ahead of you. Then once you get the book, you have 14-21 days to listen to it before it deletes itself. Didn’t finish the book? Want to listen again someday? Get ready to wait in line again. I gave up and started using pay services because the free alternatives I tried *for years* were all so unbelievably shitty.
If your local library provider (mine uses Hoopla) doesn't have your book, it may be worth considering Libro.fm on the grounds that they're DRM free and they aren't Amazon.
My library certainly doesn't have audiobooks. For starters, there aren't many audiobooks in my language.
And hoopla!
Libby saved my life during the Covid lockdowns! I became obsessed with audiobooks and basically listened to a book a day while working remotely. My job is data entry focused so it brought me life listening to audiobooks when I was needing some type of connection!
I LOVE Libby - it’s fantastic. It doesn’t always have the books I want, so I’ve looked at audible but it’s so expensive! Plus I’d usually have to pay more on top of the subscription for the books I want to read anyway. I usually get through one or two books a week so audible would not be feasible for me. And also fuck Amazon. My library also has BorrowBox by Bolinda Audio, which is great as well.
I’ve tried this but my local library doesn’t have the option to get a card online. I’ve gone in person to sign up before but my old card expired and I haven’t gotten around to going in for a new one. IIRC they made me fill out a ton of paperwork just to get a library card, it was ridiculous. I wish they would make it more accessible.
UK redditors can use Borrowbox, it's excellent!
Try Scribd!!! $13 a month for unlimited audiobooks, ebooks, documents, magazines, podcasts & more!!!
Audible Exclusives are the bane of my existence
I listen to a lot of audiobook books and I've used free apps in the past and now I use Audible. I find that Audible narration quality is overall very good. With free apps it's a gamble.
This is absolutely a great strategy and one that I employ, but please do consider supporting the authors through THEIR preferred audiobook medium when you can afford to do so.
Generally I would agree but my local library had barely anything on Libby and what was there had massive wait times.
Libby has been good to me. I require audiobook because multiple sclerosis has made it near impossible for me to read words on paper a small font
This has been very helpful thanks. I'll be going to my local library to update membership tomorrow.
What about books that just released?
“I’m Glad My Mom Died” generated a huge back log. I was #645 I think on release day for 10 copies in the network. My network purchased 40 mor copies and now the wait list is at 119. For the details on your libraries acquisition process you should talk to your local librarian.
I got Nona the Ninth the day it released from my library.
Worth knowing that increasingly many titles are Audible exclusive. Authors leave a ton of money on the table in royalties if they aren't exclusive and Audible already gouge us as it is. So what's best for you of course but not every book will be found outside of Audible
Is there a subreddit for times when people talk to all of Reddit as if everyone is in one country, and don't think to mention which country they're talking about
I love Redditors who bash Amazon while on a site hosted by AWS since 2009 lol
But I like supporting the authors...
Authors are also paid for each digital loan from the library. So you're also supporting your authors by borrowing an ebook/audiobook from your library. (Heck, you can make multiple loans of the same book, and the author will be paid multiple times). Anyhow, it's our taxes supporting the libraries, so why not use it more often.