Amazon has introduced Whispersync for Voice, a new feature allowing you to switch back and forth between reading a Kindle ebook and listening to the Audible audiobook.
Available for thousands of titles, if you own both the Kindle version and the Audible version of a book, you can seamlessly move from one to the other without ever losing your place.
And while this is a wonderful new feature, Amazon makes it even more attractive with special pricing. You can sometimes pick up the Kindle version and Audible version of a book for less than the list price of the Audible version alone … and sometimes for little more than the standard Kindle book price. (Audible versions are typically quite expensive.)
First, to see if this might be of interest to you, you can try it for free. There are (as of the date we're posting this) 27 free books from which to choose.
Let's pick the Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of Four. The Kindle version is free, and you need purchase it first using the 1-click button. On the acknowledgment page, you'll see the option to add the Audible book for free (see image at right). Click on the "Buy at Audible.com" button and log in. (You can use your Amazon account username and password there since Amazon owns Audible.) Complete your purchase. You'll now need the free Audible app to listen, but this is a one-time download — available for iPhone (or iPod Touch), Android devices, and any Kindle eInk reader, tablet, or reading device. (The app was pre-installed on our Kindle Fire.) And here's something exciting: with the new Kindle Fires, you can read and listen simultaneously with real-time highlighting.
Now that you've tried it, here are some examples of remarkable savings, which — to be fair — are mostly applicable to those readers, who are already interested in buying the Audible edition of the book in the first place.
Important Note: The prices mentioned here were valid as of the date and time of the post, but may change at any time, and may be different on the date and time you read this. You should consider what follows to be illustrative examples only.
Poisoned Pen Press has recently been discounting a number of its first in series books to just 99 cents, sometimes free. Several of these titles have Audible editions. One such book is the first in the "Phyne Fisher" series by Kerry Greenwood, Cocaine Blues. Currently the Kindle format is available for free … but you can add the Audible edition for just $4.99. The standard price for the Audible edition alone is $20.95.
Here's another example. Chris Grabenstein is currently offering the Kindle format of his Anthony Award-winning mystery Tilt-a-Whirl for 99 cents. You can add on the Audible edition for just $1.99. The standard price for the Audible edition alone is $15.95. So for less than three dollars, you can have both versions of the book!
Not every Kindle book has an Audible edition, and even when there is one, it may not be available at a significantly reduced price. But if you are interested in an Audible book, it can certainly pay to check first if the Kindle edition has a "Whispersync for Voice" option attached to it … and if so, if there is a discount associated with the option.
For example, Karin Slaughter's new thriller Criminal has a Kindle format price of $13.99 with a discounted Audible add-on price of $4.99, or about $19 in total. The standard price of the Audible edition alone is $19.95. You'd be better off purchasing the Kindle book first then add on the Audible edition than buying the Audible version alone.
This program is new enough that Amazon hasn't made searching for these deals all that easy … yet. Here's where we suggest you start: The Whispersync for Voice Kindle Store. We've pre-selected three keywords to search for — mystery, suspense, thriller. All of the Kindle books listed have Audible editions available with them.
A couple of final notes:
If you already own the Kindle book, and if there is a discounted Audible edition available for it, you'll see a message indicating such on the book's product page. You do not need to buy it again to take advantage of the Audible offer.
As we come across what we think are especially good Kindle/Audible deals on books we feature, we'll be sure to mention them in our posts.
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