I would also like a pony.

meri 2012.09.12

Wow. Many moons ago, I asked for the ability to have my audiobooks (generally provided by Audible.com) to magically sync up with my ‘printed’ (generally Kindle) books. While some people agreed that it’d be kind of neat, most didn’t see the use case, because you lose the story-teller side of the narration. However, I find that there are some books where the narrator, while pleasant and certainly easy to listen to, doesn’t actually bring that much extra to the tale, and I’ve been hoping for a  way to continue with the story even after (say) going to bed – without inflicting the audiobook on my partner.

It looks like I’m getting my wish: Amazon Whispersync for Voice Syncs Audible Books With Kindle Books. There are a few hoops to jump through in order to get this to work. First, you have to link your Amazon and audible accounts, effectively allowing your audible account to be subsumed by your Amazon account. Second, you must buy the Kindle book first, and then use the Amazon link to buy the discounted audible content. Third… Um, I’m sure there’s a third, but I seem to have misplaced it.

I just successfully bought Gulliver’s Travels for free, then using the link on the same page, I was able to purchase the audible version for free. (Not all audible versions will be free. Far from it. However, there are a number of classics that are free both on the Kindle and as an audiobook from audible, so they’re being used as guinea pigs. You can find a sampling of such titles here.)

While the vast majority of the linked-to-Kindle-format audible books will not be free, they will be offered at a discount to those who own the linked Kindle content. As a long-time audible.com subscriber, my primary question at this point is whether I can purchase the audible content using my monthly credits, or if I must pay ‘cash’ for linked content. This is, of course, a purely administrative decision, and has nothing to do with how cool the tech itself is. Right now my biggest gripe is having to own the Kindle content first, as I usually end up wanting it to work the other way. But hopefully this is something that will change over time, and with enough people griping about it. In the meantime, I will enjoy this added little bit of living in the future.