Tag: whispersync

Kindle Whispersync

I’m probably really late to the party on this but over the weekend I downloaded a new book on the Kindle (Soul Music by Terry Pratchett) and decided to download the audiobook as well. I’d seen the promotion a few times in the past but for some reason never given it much thought. Now I can’t believe what I’ve been missing.

I have two young children so don’t get a lot of time during the day to sit down and read, but on a Sunday there are chores that need doing. Normally I listen to music or podcasts but yesterday I listened to my book and now I am 25% through it.

This feels game changing. I can easily see myself doing this a lot more, especially where the cost to add the audiobook is as low as £2.99 as it was for this one.

At the same time though I am torn. Amazon isn’t the kind of company I want to throw a lot of support behind, which is one of the reasons that I keep selling my books wide, even though I could probably make more by going exclusive. But this service is something that I don’t think anyone else is offering. Even on Kobo, where they sell digital books and audiobooks, I am not aware that they sync up.

If other retailers are going to compete with Amazon then this is the kind of thing they need to look at, but not just this. It’s crazy that Amazon, who almost have a monopoly on the eBook market, are the ones to innovate in this way. It’s the kind of service that I would switch to access.