Ever thought of looking for complete selections in your audiobook purchases? Complete audiobooks can offer more listening experience per minute at a lower cost. But what is the difference?
Full audiobooks basically include any entire recorded book. Usually it is recorded as the author (and generally the publisher) intended it to be published in its original printed form, they receive little to no editing. In other words, if the printed version of the book contains 500 pages, every word, sentence, and paragraph on those pages will be transferred to an audio format.
On the other hand, an abbreviated audiobook works just the opposite. Condensed to its original form, this version is approved by the author or publisher prior to production. Condensation can compress that 500-page book into 200 recording pages. Often called the “reader’s summary” version in audiobook form, you are sure to find it much shorter than the original. As an example of this, you might think of a film adaptation of a book as a shortened version of the original work.
Many times the reasons for summarizing are to save space. Where an unabridged audiobook would take perhaps twelve CDs, the shortened version could take only four. So the publisher can charge slightly less for the shortened version and make more profit without losing much of the story.
As an example of cost and size, I looked up one of my favorite Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen titles, The One Minute Millionaire. The shortened version consists of three CDs lasting 3 hours and 20 minutes and costs around $ 24. The full version offers 10 CDs that run for 12 hours 21 minutes and retails for around $ 58. Although I have not included In the shortened version, I am wondering how much information was omitted and what possible important parts.
Looking at the example I gave, for a little more than double the price, you get almost four times the listening experience and knowledge! The example prices I gave are retail. By using an audiobook club like SimplyAudiobooks or Audible that offers titles to buy or rent, the savings could be much greater.
To get the most out of your audiobook selections, see if a full version is available. To get the most savings possible, join an audiobook club and get full titles whenever you can.
