Kindle unlimited-If you're thinking of getting it

[Tristakay]

I have kindle unlimited and I'm not disappointed at all. I've had plenty to read

[Hodo13]

I have Kindle unlimited, the first couple of months I felt it was worth the money, as I love to read and depending on the books, I can read over 10 a month. During the summer I find I didn't not use it at all. Now that I have more time on my hands, I have been reading more, I have found Authors that I would never have heard of through them and have enjoyed reading their books.

[myraball]

I have kindle unlimited and love it. I'm an avid reader and unlimited saves me a lot. I've found many mystery serious that I really liked on unlimited. There's no way I could afford to buy the 20 or so books I read each month. I think the quality of books is very good at least in the type mysteries that I normally read

[Bruin Dez]

Thanks for the thorough review. I thought about getting it, but wasn't sure if it was worth the cost. I might do the free trial if I want to read a specific Ebook that I can only get with kindle unlimited. I would rather use my money to stock up my personal library. Now that I think about it, I go to the library weekly to read books that I don't want to add to my personal collection, but I wouldn't pay for a library card membership.

[SandraTWP-BRW]

I've had it for over a year and use it heavily. I think the value depends on the type of books - I use it mainly for non fiction I just want to briefly reference, including books for my kids. They each have their own kindle, and being able to send s title yo them is very convenient. I like that I can preview a book and swap it out for another. If I really find its worth it, then I'll purchase a copy.

Also... My understanding is that participating authors do get done sort of royalty. Not the same as for a purchase, but something.

[spifer]

I'm glad that there is a thread for this topic! I considered checking out kindle unlimited as well, but I don't think it would be worth it for me. I've already got more free books on my kindle than I will probably ever read, not to mention tons of books on shelves that still need to be read as well!

[SpeedyReaderLane1]

Why would i want Amazon snooping at my reading progress? Isn't it bad enough I get email suggestions from the Big "A"?

[DB44]

I have KU and absolutely love it. It doesn't take much to get value for money. Authors do make money from KU and many choose to enter it despite the fact that it seems inevitable that it costs them sales. Even some publishers are putting their books on KU, though you are not going to find books by Stephen King on there any time soon. It seems to be the only viable unlimited subscription model that we have so far seen. This is because Amazon each month allocates a pool of money which is allocated amongst participating books on the basis of pages actually read. This system is constantly scammed, and Amazon is constantly playing catch-up to prevent them, though it seems that the effect of these scams on authors individual shares has so far been relatively minor. Authors are of course in the hands of Amazon which seems to have a wide discretion in determining the size of the pool of funds to be divided each month. Amazon thus controls its costs of the program. On the other hand, authors can opt out and in reasonably quickly and without cost.

Finally, if you are in the habit of converting your books so you can read them on some other device than your Kindle or on a Kindle app, you should not do so with KU books, as Amazon will be unable to track the pages read and the author will not be paid.

[StephThyng]

Ah! I have been debating if this is something that I wanted to do for a little while now. Thank you so much for this review, it is definitely helpful!

[DB44]

On reading again through this thread I’ve noticed that there seems to be some significant misunderstandings about Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited (KU) which I would like to clear up. Some but not all of thre points I wish to raise were covered in my previous posts, so please forgive the repetition. I have had KU for some time now and love it. In Amazon’s big sale a couple of months ago I was able to extend my subscription by a couple of years at a good discount. I love KU and for me it is great value for meney.

KU is Amazon’s subscription program. So far as I’m aware it is currently the only subscription program offering unlimited “borrows”. For your $10 a month you get unlimited access to all of the books in the program. Amazon currently boasts over 1 million books and thousands of audiobooks. You can “borrow” up to ten books at any time. The books in the program at any particular time are not determined by Amazon but by Authors, who choose whether or not ro include each of their books. It is very easy to move books into and out of the program. Each month Amazon allocates a pool of money which is divided amongst the books in KU on the basis of pages read. As KU books are read on Kindle devices or applications Amazon is able to track pages read. Needless to say scammers have targeted the program for abuse, and some have made significant money. Authors themselves quite understandably seek to maximise their own revenue. There was much hand-wringing when Amazon changed the program to divide the fund based on pages actually read, as the system before that had favoured very short books. Amazon is constantly tweaking the system to eliminate scams and problems and improve the program. Amazon has been able to continue the “unlimited” nature of the program because Amazon controls the size of the monthly pool and thus limits its costs. Other subscription programs have either failed or limited the number of books included. Authors of course place themselves entirely in the hands of Amazon. Amazon, however, must as a practical measure must ensure that the program is sufficiently lucrative for authors so as to keep sufficient books in the program, as books can and are moved into and out of the program quickly and without penalty. Authors do not of course usually make as much from a book being read as they would from a sale, but of course have the potential to reach many more readers. We can assume that the books that are in KU are there because the authors are happy with the program and the money that they make from it. Many authors do choose to place their books in KU and do well from it.

The books to be found in KU are mostly Indies. The large traditional publishers do not like subscription services and do not generally participate in KU. Thus they demand remuneration equal to or almost equal to what they would get on a sale to make their books available to subscription services. This explains why such services other than KU have either failed or had to limit the number of books included as mentioned above. KU does include some non-Indie books. Amazon apparently reached special arrangements to include some books, for instance the Harry Potter series, so as to make the service more attractive. Also, some traditional publishers, though not usually the Big 5, have started putting their authors books, or at least some of them, on KU. The smart authors and publishers will of course be monitoring their returns closely and will be ready to move their books in and out of KU if desirable.

So what is on KU for readers? Firstly, more books than you can ever read. Yes, some of them are sub-standard. This is inevitable when there is no “gatekeeper”. But it is a mistake to take the view that books were formerly rejected by publishers only because such books lacked quality. I’m not going to go into all of the reasons here why books were rejected, Suffice it to say that a large number of such rejections had little to do with quality. And some books accepted and published were quite frankly horrible. Most books on Kindle Unlimited seem to be self-published books which have not been curated or selected by any third party. The worst are not even serious books but simple scams, though overall these are a drop in the bucket. Some are by authors who believe in their own talent without having any. Some are quite well written books where the author has not invested in one or all of an editor, proof-reader, cover designer etc and have very annoying errors, sometimes sufficient to make the book essentially unreadable for many. You have authors at all stages of development and varying degrees of quality. And of course you have many excellent books produced very professionally. Many of those editors, proof readers, cover designers and other professionals let go by large publishers now make a living selling their services to Indie authors, and many take advantage of these services. Yes, there are bad books on Kindle Unlimited. However, I read prolifically on KU and otherwise, and have rarely come across a really bad book. Sometimes I will come across a great story where I wish the author had been a little more polished, but am still happy to have read the story and grateful that some New York gatekeeper is no longer in a position to deny me the experience of doing so. A discussion of how to pick books and avoid bad ones in this new publishing world is a topic in itself. But we still have recommendations. We still have reviews, which still need to be treated with caution and with an awareness of different tastes and preferences. We still settle on our favourite authors and series. And of course we have a new and very valuable tool, reasonable length samples. These tools are usually sufficient to avoid really bad books. And even the odd one you do come across can be abandoned and replaced at no costs. Even without KU, Indie Books are generally much cheaper, and personally, provided a little care is exercised in selection, I find no real difference in quality to the mostly Big 5 published books I used to read.

I can’t really comment on non-fiction books on KU. I mainly read fiction. If you are a genre fiction fan the great thing about KU and self-publishing is the explosion in the number of books in your favourite genre. And the new authors, many of whom will never sign a traditional publishing deal.

If you only read Big 6 traditionally published books and are not interested in expanding your horizons, KU has nothing for you. There books are generally not included. If you intend to pick books mostly at random without taking any steps to ensure quality, you will still find some very good books. But when you do get a terrible one please don’t post everywhere lamenting how terrible KU and Indies are It is a fact of life that some basic care should be taken in picking books in today’s environment. Otherwise, be prepared to stop reading early and replace a bad book with a good one. And of course, sadly, if you want to read only paper books, there is no KU, but there is always the library.

So far as value for money is concerned, you don’t need to read that many books in a month to get value for your $10. You can have 10 books at once from KU. At the moment I have just returned 2 and currently have 8 on “loan”. Of these 8 the highest priced is $6.99, the lowest priced $2.99. The average price of these 8 books is $4.24. At this rate reading 3 of them in a month for $10 is cheaper than purchasing those 3. The downside is that I do not “own” these books permanently. Though, of course, I usually read many more than 3 KU books in a month. If I do want to re-read I can borrow again on KU or purchase the book. You of course must decide for yourself whether KU is value for money in your circumstances.

Amazon does offer a month’s free trial on KU. And now, if you are a member of Amazon Prime, there is the new Kindle Reading. I believe this is a subset of KU included at no extra charge with your Prime membership. There would seem to be no real downside in giving it a try.

[ebeth]

Thank you for letting us know. I had thought about signing on to try it but I am already doing unlimited music and didn't want to do both as I only purchase maybe 1-2 books a month off of the kindle app anyway. Most of the time it doesn't add up to $10.00

[whimsicallywitchy]

Hi I am new to this site but not to KU. I've had it for 4 years and I still love it. I read A LOT so this has been awesome for me. I've discovered so many amazing authors that I would not have tried if I had to pay for each title. KU allows me to read like crazy even when I don't have extra money. Being a single mom and on a very tight budget, I wouldn't be able to indulge myself without it. If you aren't sure if it would be right for you, I suggest searching your favorite genres and checking to see what's available in KU. You might be surprised by the selection. Just my 2 cents, thanks for reading.

[Dondoug]

So does anyone know if you get the kindle if you download books and get to keep themor must you read them at the moment?

[cyndibookswagbag]

How do you "borrow" books without Kindle Unlimited? I also have Prime. I never see books for Prime, what am i doung wrong? I tried ku but was not for me, yes there are many good books but i find i can just buy them for 10$ a month because most are inexpensive books. Thanks

[rodidas]

I have been trying Kindle Unlimited for about a month now and I'm still on the fence about whether to keep it. On the one hand, I have found some interesting titles almost accidentally during random searching through the available titles. However, most of the time when I have a specific title in mind, I'll find that it is not part of the available titles under the Kindle Unlimited database. So not very "unlimited" to be honest.

-- 18 Dec 2016, 19:58 --

I have been using Kindle Unlimited for a month, but I think I will cancel it. Though I have found some interesting titles in the database accidentally, all of the books I have specifically searched for are not available through Kindle Unlimited. So it's not really "unlimited" to be honest.