Affiliate Disclosure & Editorial Independence

Affiliate relationships

Worth the Credit is a participant in two affiliate programs:

• The Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
• The Audible affiliate program, run by Audible (an Amazon company), through which sites can earn referral fees for new Audible trials, new Premium Plus memberships, and per-book purchases made through tracked links.

When you click an Audible or Amazon link on this site and complete a qualifying action — starting a free trial, signing up for a membership, purchasing a book — Worth the Credit may earn a small commission. This is at no additional cost to you. The price you pay through an affiliate link is identical to the price you would pay going directly to Amazon or Audible.

How affiliate links are marked

Every outbound affiliate link on the site carries the rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" attributes that Google and the FTC recommend for clearly marking commercial links. The call-to-action boxes that contain affiliate links are visually distinct from the editorial review text and explicitly labeled.

In addition, the disclosure text you're reading a longer version of right now is rendered:

• In the footer of every page on the site
• Inside every affiliate call-to-action box on every review page
• Linked from any product or audiobook recommendation that points to an external retailer

You should never have to wonder whether you're clicking an editorial recommendation or a commercial link.

How this funds the site

Worth the Credit is a one-person editorial operation. Hosting, domain registration, and the time spent listening to, reviewing, and writing about hundreds of audiobooks aren't free. The affiliate revenue — primarily Audible trial bounties and membership bounties — is what keeps the site running and what allows it to stay independent.

There is no paid placement. No sponsored reviews. No "featured author" arrangements where someone pays to be covered. No paid newsletter sponsorships at launch (and any future sponsorships, if introduced, would be clearly labeled as such in the newsletter and on the relevant page).

The editorial firewall

This is the rule the site is built on, and it is non-negotiable: the affiliate relationship never changes a rating, a verdict, or what gets reviewed.

Specifically:

• Negative reviews keep their affiliate links. A book that earns a Not Worth the Credit verdict still gets the Audible link in its CTA box, exactly the way a Worth the Credit book does. The site does not soften pans by withholding the link, and it does not punish books by withholding it either. Readers who want to disagree with the verdict and try the book anyway are entitled to do so through the same path as readers who agree.
• Audible trial bounties pay regardless of what book triggers them. This means there is no per-book incentive to push specific titles. A reader who starts a free trial after reading a one-star pan earns the site the same bounty as a reader who starts one after reading a five-star recommendation.
• No author or publisher has paid for coverage, will pay for coverage, or has been promised coverage in exchange for anything. Review copies are sometimes provided by publishers or authors; this never changes the verdict, and reviews based on review copies are subject to the same editorial standard as reviews of audiobooks purchased with the founder's own credits.

If the site ever changes any of these rules — for example, if it begins accepting paid sponsorships, or if a relationship with a publisher would warrant additional disclosure beyond what's described here — the change will be documented on this page and dated, and the affected content will be clearly labeled.

What this disclosure covers

This page covers the affiliate relationships described above. It does not cover:

• Editorial methodology — how reviews are sourced, what ratings mean, and how verdicts are decided is documented separately on the Methodology page.
• Privacy and analytics — Worth the Credit uses standard server-side analytics to understand which pages are read and which links are clicked, and does not sell personal data. If a more detailed privacy policy becomes warranted (for example, after the email newsletter goes live), it will be added.

Contact and corrections

If you spot an undisclosed affiliate relationship, a missing disclosure, or anything else on the site that looks like it crosses an editorial line, write to the founder directly: see the address listed in the footer. Corrections are taken seriously and acted on quickly.

Last updated: June 2026.