"What is Audible?" that person asked.
And then I realized: Even someone who has read all the publicity, has seen the great video of the Making of Audible Vacuum County, and who wishes me all the greatest success in the world might not know what it is that I'm talking about. So I decided to try to explain it here.
What is Audible?
Here is a Wikipedia article about Audible:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audible_(store)
While Audible started out independently, it is now a subsidiary of Amazon.
Here is a salient excerpt from the Wikipedia article:
Audible's content includes more than 200,000 audio programs from leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers and business information providers.[30] Content includes books of all genres, as well as radio shows (classic and current), speeches, interviews, stand-up comedy, and audio versions of periodicals such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.In addition to the regular price charged for audiobooks, Audible offers subscriptions with the following benefits:
- Credits: For a monthly subscription fee, a customer receives one or two audio credits. Most titles can be purchased with one of these credits. Some titles (usually larger books or collections of more than one book) may cost two credits, while others (usually very short works) cost only a third of a credit. (Users may also purchase a year's subscription at a time, for a discount, receiving all credits at once, but only in some countries.) Platinum subscribers also receive a complimentary subscription to the digital audio version of The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.
- Subscriber Discount: A subscriber may choose to purchase additional books without credits for a 30% discount.
Additionally, some content—particularly political speeches, government hearings, content such as the 9/11 Report Speech, excerpts, and short stories from books—are available for free.
How to Get a Free Copy of Audible Vacuum County
There are two ways to get a free copy of Vacuum County, read by Kelly Clear on Audible.
https://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Vacuum-County-Audiobook/B078HSY28Z
1) For Audible Virgins: Join Audible and choose Vacuum County as your first, free book. Everyone is eligible.
2) For Audible Veterans: Ask Aya or Kelly to give you a free code. (There's a limited number of those, so show us that you write reviews.)
https://www.amazon.com/Vacuum-County/dp/B078HCL1MP
How to Prove You Review Books
If you are an Audible Veteran, please show us that you have reviewed some of the books you have listened to. There are two places where people typically review Audible Books.
1) On Audible
On Audible, when you review a book, they ask you questions, and you answer them. Here is an example of a book I reviewed on Audible.
http://www.audible.com/listener/A3PI5K5WPPW2PN?ref=a_pd_Classi_c15_rvlsni_2&asin=B00CZD294A
I don't know whether they don't trust people who listen to audiobooks to be able to write free style reviews, but on Audible, even if you are not the world's most prolific writer, they will prompt you with questions to cover the basic facts about the audiobook, including a separate critique of the content and of the reader.
2) On Amazon
On Amazon, you can write whatever you want, covering whatever aspects of the book that struck you. Here is an example of an Audible book that I reviewed on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.ca/Iliad-Unabridged-Audible-Homer/dp/1494770741#customerReviews
If you publish a lot of reviews on Amazon, send us a link to your reviewer profile. Here is mine:
Aya Katz, Amazon Reviewer
You might need to be signed in at Amazon to see that page. Amazon is very secretive, and not all my reviews show up on my reviewer page, nor can you get to my reviewer page from each of my reviews. The reason for this is not entirely clear.
Summary
Audible.com is a site owned by Amazon that specializes in Audiobooks. You can get a free copy of Audible Vacuum County there. If you have never joined Audible before, then you don't need to ask me and Kelly for anything. You can just choose Vacuum County as your first book and get it free. If you are already a member at Audible, show us that you write reviews, and we will send you a code you can use to get the book for free.
Any questions? Feel free to ask them in the comments.
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Biographical Vignettes
Here are some interesting Facts about Kelly Clear, who is the narrator of Vacuum County.
Here are some interesting facts about me:
I think even at eight you were on your way to becoming a linguist.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Julia. I may well have been.
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