How do you buy your books?

Serious question, how do you buy books?

As of the past couple years I've gone almost exclusively to audiobooks. My writing time as an author eats up any time I might have used for paperbacks and ebooks. This year I've currently released 4 books with another, a Gothic horror, to be released in November and hopefully the final book in the Zombie Girl trilogy. All that doesn't equal much time to read, so I listen to audios while I'm driving and at night, instead of TV.

Taking all that into consideration and the fact that audible has increased audio upgrade (whispersync) prices I've gone to downloading free books and upgrading to audio.

First, I don't agree with the sudden increase in audio upgrades. They were $1.99 and $2.99 now they are $7.49. This effects me as a reader and an author. As a reader I download the free kindle. If the audio upgrade is still priced at $1.99 I upgrade. If it's at $7.49 I wait. It's discouraging. In the past, I'd pay for a kindle now I go with only free. As an author I hate it even more.

So I should love it, more money per book but that's not the case and I've voiced my opinion to audible. I'd much prefer at the very least that a customer could download the audio upgrade for the first book in the series for $1.99 or $2.99. My request wasn't ignored but I was told we have no control and will pass this along. For future audiobooks I'm considering other options and probably won't use ACX again. It's not just their unreasonable pricing terms but the lack of revenue when my audiobooks sell. Believe it or not I get roughly 20% from the entire sale.

Readers don't necessarily know that but what you pay for doesn't all go to the author and narrator. Everyone else gets paid first then the author and narrator so they bank very little. I've had statements selling hundreds of dollars in audio and received so little of it that I couldn't even buy a tank of gasoline.

I'm looking at my options as an author. As a reader I refuse to subscribe and pay monthly fees anywhere. It goes against my grain for someone to take money from my account. I prefer having full control over my bank accounts. That has a lot to do with my sordid past. I pay, no credit. That's me.

What I do now is grab free kindle books that have the audio upgrade. Audible can price what they want when they want. I get the freebie and upgrade when I'm ready to read it. I'm subscribed to several ebook newsletters. I truly hate this because I want my money to pay the author and narrator not all the middle men (there's quite a few). 

What to do? As an author I'm done with ACX and looking at my options. As a reader I wish more books were available on MP3. This all needs to change. If you're an audio reader don't hesitate to contact Audible/ACX if that's who you use and voice your opinion. It will take thousands if not millions for them to make any changes. In the mean time authors are hurt, their minute sales after all the middlemen drop even more  and you're paying more money.

So how do you buy your books?

My Amazon page

My Tampa Audiobook Deals

The night before I left for my road trip to Tampa I bought a few audiobooks knowing I needed some entertainment for the drive. The following are what I found and the prices. All are whispersync deals.

I was craving gothic horror and ghosts and these all fit the bill, although, I don't recommend listening while driving through the boonies such as I did unless you really enjoy fear. 

Wicker's Bog by Mike Duran


Blurb:
Every autumn, when the weather turned and the wind came off the marsh, the dark waters of Wickers Bog gave up its ghosts and reawakened the old yarns. 

Julene Ella Haddan is about to be drawn into one of them.

It was a grey, joyless day, when young Julene heard the song of the siren and followed its melody into the enchanted swamp... a journey which led her into a tale of murder and deceit. It's only the fated who hear the siren. Yet Julene's fate now seems bound to the fabled Lady of Lisenby, the spectral gatekeeper of the Bog, queen of the haunted deep. However, is it justice the Lady seeks or is Julene the siren's next victim? 


Myth and mystery collide in this tale of Southern Gothic horror.

Kindle was .99 and I upgraded to audio for another 1.99

Angela by Adam M. Booth



Blurb:
"I left her when she was eight. Just a child. Too young to be alone. I killed myself because I could never atone for the things He made me do. There is something wrong with my family, you see. A fear runs through us, through our blood. A fear that circles above us, shredding the sky and clawing at our hearts, and now, from a deathless realm, I am forced to watch as my lonely daughter is tortured by the life I gave her to endure. No father should see the things I've seen, but then no father should do the things I did. 

Forgive me Angela."


ANGELA, a bleak and unflinching tale in which we meet a lonely, middle aged woman who must live with the legacy of her family's dark secret, the madness that grows in the absence of love, and a closet full of delicate skeletons.


ANGELA is available as part the collection TERMINAL by the same author.

I bought the Kindle for .99 and upgraded to audio for 1.99

Turn of the Screw by Henry James



Blurb:
Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Emmy winner Emma Thompson lends her immense talent and experienced voice to Henry James' Gothic ghost tale, The Turn of the Screw.

When a governess is hired to care for two children at a British country estate, she begins to sense an otherworldly presence around the grounds. Are they really ghosts she's seeing? Or is something far more sinister at work?


Having performed in films based on some of the greatest works in literature - including Sense and Sensibility, Howards End, Much Ado About Nothing, and Henry V - Thompson is no stranger to the classics, and she lends a graceful eloquence to this moody, macabre story. Joined by listener favorite Richard Armitage, who performs the prologue, Thompson reinvigorates this psychological thriller of life, death, evil, and the unknown.

The Kindle was free and I upgraded to audio for 1.99.

I can't guarantee these prices as they can change over time. Reviews for all these books coming soon!