Tips for Navigating the 2023 Audible Cyber Sale (with Some Books I Plan to Purchase)
Audible's 2023 Sitewide sale for 2023 is overwhelming, to say the least. With Black Friday behind us and Cyber Monday upon us, the amount of money we seem to be dropping on bookish sales can be creating, for some of us, buyer's remorse; and for others who can't fit more books in the budget, the FOMO is real, especially if you’re on a budget and you’ve already blown it; but you have FOMO hard and NEED that extra book because you won’t be able to get them for THAT price again and they’ll sell out.
I'm a habitual coupon coder and will pass on a purchase for ANY bookish thing if I think it's too expensive (such as the Illumicrate Strange the Dreamer set that I desperately wanted when it went on sale but refused to buy because those books are not worth the $120 US with shipping IC wanted to charge for them—oh, hey, look! they went on sale!). I also have an insanely huge Audible library and 10 credits to boot because I will not buy anything for 1 credit when I know eventually I can get it for 1/2 a credit or cheaper.
So, without further ado, here are some tips that may help:
1. Stick to the titles you really want to read or have read but really loved. Don’t buy a title simply because it’s on sale and you might want to read it.
That's right, bookish folk. You must train yourself like the hardened bookworms you are and resist that FOMO. I promise, the audio title you want during this sale will be on sale again eventually. You'll have to wait, though. You can do it.
2. Try to keep your purchases to the audiobooks on sale that are exclusively on Audible.
I don't know about you, but I've been eyeballing Starter Villain by John Scalzi and narrated by the incomparable Wil Wheaton, but I am a cheapskate and know I can get more for my money if I get stuff cheaper. It's currently on sale now for less than what a credit costs.
3. Check your local library’s digital collection to see if the title you want to read is available in the collection. If not, and you reaaaallllyy want it, consider buying the title.
In the US, many of our local libraries use a digital platform for checking out books called Libby. If you don't have this already, check your local library and see if they offer a digital collection. If they do, be sure to see if you can download this and utilize it. I've listened to so many books for free this year just using this resource. (Note: I'm not sure how libraries work in other countries. If a wonderful bookish person would be willing to explain how this works where you live, please do. I'd love to include this in my post as well.)
A good example for this tip: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Because of the new movie, it's a popular audiobook at my library right now, and the waitlist for it is pretty long (several months!). Fortunately, it's on sale right now on Audible for $2.56 cents.
4. Keep your purchases limited to a maximum amount. If the book is nearly the cost of a credit (the sale price right now is $13.03 and a credit is $14.95), consider holding off on getting it and wait patiently for the title to drop to a lower price (it will almost always go lower, especially if the title is a newer release).
Here is where Starter Villain makes another good example. Audible offers this title for $7.49 if you own the ebook version.
5. Check if the eBook for the title is available on KU. If it is, and you have a subscription to KU, borrow the title from and then purchase the audiobook from Audible for a reduced price. I've seen as low as $1.99 and as high as $8.99, though $7.49 seems to be the most common price for these deals.
I realized not everyone is interested in having a Kindle Unlimited subscription (by the way, Kindle Unlimited has a deal going right now for current Prime members—99 cents for three months), but you can get many audiobooks for a great price if you borrow the book on KU first. For example, I borrowed Elise Kova's A Duet with the Siren Duke on KU, and the borrowed/checkout page offered me the Audible edition for $7.49.
6. Check other audiobook retailers (i.e. Chirp, Libro.fm, etc.) and see if they have the title on sale for cheaper. It’s possible.
For example, right now, Lana Pecherczyk’s The Longing of Lone Wolves is on sale right now (until 12/21/23) for $.99 on Chirp, but on Audible’s sale, it’s $7.49.
7. Last but not least: use the Wishlist feature. If you can't swing any purchases this time, add them to your Audible wishlist. Any time Audible has as sale in the future and books in your wishlist are on sale, the books will show up right under the sale information on Audible's sale page.
Now that I've shared some tips for you, here are some books I've had my eye on that recently went on sale and I will be purchasing using the tips above:
Mother of Learning: Arc 2 and Mother of Learning: Arc 3 by Domagoj Kurmaic
Each of these are on sale for $7.31, which is less than 1/2 a credit. I've been slowing accumulating this series since July of this year. I also own the first two physical copies from Wraithmarked Creative. Now the last two are on sale, and my collection is complete!
2. The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes
This one's a bit weird and out-of-the-blue, but it's for research. Maybe for a book I'm writing, maybe not. Also, it's recent release and on sale for $3.58. That's hard to pass up.
3. Unfettered: Tales by Masters of Fantasy by Various Authors
This title is on sale for $3.65, and I want it solely for the Wheel of Time short story "River of Souls." I'm willing to give under $4 for it.
4. The First Ancestor (Ranger of the Titan Wilds #2) by J.D.L Rosell
Rosell's books are autobuys for me on both Audible and Kickstarter, so I'm definitely getting this one while the getting's good. It's currently under $5 and a no-brainer purchase for me.
5. Entreat Me by Grace Draven
Last but certainly not least, Grace Draven's Entreat Me is finally on sale. I have all of her books on my wishlist and buy them automatically when they go on sale. This time around, Entreat Me is under $5.
I recently discovered a love for audiobooks in 2022. Since then, I've been able to read well over the record number of books per year I have in the past (2021's record for me was only 80 or so. 2022 went up astronomically to 150. This year, I've read nearly 180 so far—all because of audiobooks.) If you're an audiobook lover as well, I hope these tips helped! If you have some more tips I haven't mentioned, please feel free to leave them in comments for other bookish audiophiles to learn.
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