How to Use Amazon Audible: A Complete Guide

More people are trying out audiobooks, mainly for multitasking seamlessly. Listen to your favorite authors while working from your desktop, while driving, or community. When it comes to audiobook services, Amazon Audible is quickly turning out to be everyone’s go-to service.

With it, you can listen to your favorite books from any device of your choice and at the same time, you can also search for your favorite books.

In this guide today, we’ll see how to use Audible to make the most out the audiobook service.

How to Sign up and Use Audible

Signing into Audible (be it the desktop version or the app) is an easy-easy affair. You can either use an independent account or use your Amazon account to sign in. If you often shop for books on Amazon, I reckon you use the Amazon ID to sign in.

All you have to do is download the app and sign in using your Amazon ID. The same is true for the Audible website.

First-time users will be delighted to know that the service is free for the first 30 days. The free trial also comes with two audiobooks. Much like Netflix Originals (remember Our Planet?), Audible Originals are produced and curated by the company.

Once the trial is over, you’ll have to shell out around $14.95 per month. Aside from the option of buying books, you also get 1 credit per month for you to any audiobook irrespective of the price.

Amazon doesn’t give out the book credits on the first of every month. Instead, it’s given on the date on which you joined the service. So if you joined on 10th of January, you would receive the credit on 10th of every month.

Browsing Through Audible

The good thing about Audible is that the books are divided into categories making it easy to search. If you’re in a mood to experiment, tap on the Store option on the left menu to see the various sections.

Or, if you are on your PC, head over to Audible site and browse through the Best Seller, New Releases or Trending sections to see the hot books on the market.

Pro Tip: Credits rollover to the next month if you do not use them. You can hold up to 6 credits.

How to Purchase Audible Books

Purchasing books is as easy as a walk in the park on Audible. You can either buy straight from the app, or from Amazon or Audible’s desktop sites. The good thing is that all your purchases will be synced across all your connected devices.

Visit Amazon

Visit Audible

If you are purchasing from Amazon, search for the book that you want and click on the Audiobooks Audible option. Choose the method of payment (card or credit) and then proceed to checkout.

Once done, choose the device where you’d like the book to be delivered.

Once the purchase is complete, the books will show up on your Audible app under Library.

Can You Keep Your Audiobooks Forever?

That is one of the best things about Audible. Purchasing an audible book is similar to buying paperback – it’s yours forever, even when you cancel the subscription.

How to Swap Books

Another exciting feature of Amazon Audible is you can return the books that you don’t like. You have to make sure that you are doing it within one year of the book purchase.

To return a book, open the Audible desktop site and click on your name on the upper-right corner. Click on Account Details and select Purchase History from the left menu.

Next, locate the order, click on Return and select the reason. The good thing is that the refund is almost instantaneous, using which you can buy another book.

How to Cancel Subscription

Canceling the Audible subscription is an easy job. But again, like the one above, you’ll have to proceed through the desktop site.

To cancel the subscription, tap on your name and click on Account details, which will open the membership details page. Now, click on Cancel membership.

Connecting to Amazon Echo Device

Another cool feature of Audible is that you can access your books via the linked Echo devices like the Echo Dot. This makes it incredibly easy to continue listening to your books even when you don’t have your phone with you.

Do note that Echo devices will continue the book that you have been reading last. All you have to say is “Alexa, start Audible,” and it will launch the said book immediately.

Tweak the Audible PlayBack Settings

The Audible interface comes with a lot of playback settings. By default, the player lets you go back (or forth) 30 seconds, which you can change it via the Playback settings.

Open Settings > Playback Settings on your app, and then tap on Jump Back Button and tap on the Plus icon to increase the timer. Press on OK when done. The same is true of the Jump Forward Button.

Download High-Quality Audio

Almost all audio streaming apps download audio in the standard format by default. But should you want, you can opt for high-quality audio streaming.

To change the format, go to Settings > Download Settings, and tap on Download Format.

At the same time, if you want to download only over Wi-Fi, select the Only on Wi-Fi option.

Add Notes to Bookmark

Similar to ebooks and physical books, you can bookmark a particular section of your book. All you have to do is open the main interface.

Tap on the Bookmark icon, select the Add Notes section and enter your note. To check the previous bookmarks, tap on the three-dot menu on the player interface and select View Bookmarks.

Fasten the Speed of Narration

Remember one of those books where you simply need to pace through the whole book? It seems you can do the same on audio books. The only difference is that instead of your eyes, you’d have to train your ears and brain to understand faster.

To do so, tap on the Speed icon of the main player, and drag the slider right.

Listen to Your Favorite Books

The best thing about Audible is the ease with which it lets you pick up your books. And the best thing is that you are often rewarded for your efforts. From badges to your listening skills, you can brag a lot about it to your fellow bookworms.

Will you be continuing after the trial ends? Do let us know your thoughts through the comments below.

Next up: Which is better? Google Play Books or Amazon Kindle? Learn all the difference in the post below.