Audible certainly makes it easier for its subscribers to listen to audiobooks. We are gradually moving our general collection of Jim Weiss Audiobooks to Audible. You can still purchase these audiobooks as CDs and MP3s from our online store. Other vendors sell the CDs.
If you purchase MP3s from our store, download them to an audiobook app. More on that here. The Story of the World audiobooks are not moving to Audible at this time.
Why not put The Story of the World audiobooks on Audible?
We have a few reasons.
Audible/Amazon's terms and conditions remove too much control from the publisher re: content and pricing. Putting our books on Audible would contractually limit our ability to offer our summer-sale deep discounts. The summer sales benefit all of our customers, both those with, and those without Audible subscriptions.
Additionally, in 2020, Audible began actively promoting “exchanging” titles, essentially making Audible a lending library rather than a bookstore. Audible keeps the membership fees regardless, but authors lose the sale, and the revenue. That's not in the interests of publishers or authors, who feed their families and employ their staff with what they earn by writing and publishing books.
We keep our ears open, and look forward to the day when Audible's contract terms and conditions benefit us and all our customers. If we do move forward with Audible, we will probably also make our audiobooks available from other vendors (iBooks, Google Books, etc.) which allow for direct purchase without a membership.