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Amazon Testing 'Kindle Unlimited' E-book Subscription Service

Michael Goff said:
We use Overdrive too, but it's a shame that the books I want to read seem to be so popular as to always be checked out. How do you run out of copies of digital books, by the way
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Because we buy "usage" licenses, not physical items. An e-book may be checked out by X patrons at a time, and may be checked out Y times in total during a year/contract term.
Trust me, ebooks can be expensive to libraries, so please use them! And audiobooks are insane.
I would love a $9/mo service like the one in the article, and if it includes magazines such as Asimov's, analog, Ellery queen, Weird tales or AHMM it's a done deal for me.
 
Michael Goff said:
I don't know how to get a book from my library with my pants off while laying in bed (theoretically). Could you explain how?
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Everyone beat me to it! But yeah for the Multnomah library where I live I just log on and can pick any of the books they offer and for most it'll give me a kindle ebook format an you can get up to a 4 week rental for it. Easy as can be. I actually end up usually checking out too many and never getting through them all. But even if the check out period ends the Kindle remembers where you were if you recheck it out. Very handy. I don't pay for any books anymore.
 
Public Library

Support your local Public Library. See real people. If I want to purchase an ebook, its iBooks. Looks and works fantastic on iOS devices. :)
 
testcard said:
Prime gets me one book a month. Not sure I want to pay more on top of the Prime subscription.
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I agree. I take full advantage of the free 1 book per month, but the selection is fairly limited. I also use Overdrive to borrow books from my local library, but the number of copies is limited and wait times often long.

I guess it comes down to do I want to pay $120 on top of my $99 Prime subscription to get almost unlimited E books. I will have to see what the final price is.
 
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bpcookson said:
I want this for audiobooks.

Charging $15/mo for ONE BOOK at audible.com is a joke. Give me unlimited audiobooks and I'll give you my money.

edit: Wait, this includes audiobooks? I read too fast. This is awesome!
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You realize the cost of an audible book on most sites/physical locations is double $15? Your theory of "give me all I want for $15" sounds like some very early teens I know who just expect everything to be free or damn near it or...why bother?
This also puts an unhealthy power in the hands of the giant A, makes market entry in that area an almost impossible venture and raises risk factor geometrically if you seek investors for a new venture. The Big A is already experimenting dealing directly with authors and bypassing publishers and their contracts are far less lucrative than those who had contracts with publishers. Granted getting picked up by a publisher can be difficult, but putting all the choices in one hand is an extremely risky enterprise. A stealth way to buy your way into being a monopoly.
 
Michael Goff said:
Mine has an eBook thing going on, but not through Amazon and for some reason I get unlucky and the digital copy my library has seems to be checked out a lot. I have never been able to actually read the Song of Fire and Ice series for this reason.
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Your library doesn't allow you to put ebooks on hold? I often have to wait for books but they have a good enough selection that I don't really mind that. We read all of the Song of Ice and Fire series that way, some waiting in between books but not too bad. Bummer your library doesn't include support for the Kindle format though.

How do you run out of copies of digital books, by the way?
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Ebooks are only allowed to be used by one user at a time. If a library wants more people to have access they can buy more "copies". Same as a regular library, if a book is popular the author can sell more to libraries and make more money instead of just having the library pay once and pass that along to multiple users at once.

So convenient, syncs over multiple devices, and no more late fees since there's nothing to return when it expires.
 
Cougarcat said:
I am not at all surprised that GoT is checked out all the time. It's one of the most popular shows on TV. Does your library allow you to put holds on eBooks?

I am sure the librarian can offer a more detailed explanation, but it comes down to licensing. Book publishers obviously don't want to have a situation where libraries pay once for one copy, and they never see any income again. I think for some publishers books figuratively "wear out" after a period of years and libraries have to re-buy them.
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A) No, not that I can get to work.
B) You would think they'd have more of an idea on this sort of thing, but you'd be wrong. Seriously, anything to have to do with the system is known by 1-3 people who work here max... and they barely work here these days.
 
I'm on the fence right now an signing up for Amazon Prime. If they added this into the fold, I think it would get me to enroll...
 
ChrisA said:
Start at your library's web site. They likely use a third party service to provide free ebook loans. It works a lot like Amazon but you have already paid for it via local taxes.
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A lot of people have said this, but they don't exactly have unlimited copies of the books I want to read, nor do they have all of the books online for me to read in the first place.
 
That would be a tough market to find an audience for.

A casual reader isn't going to pay $9.99/mo. because they don't read enough books for it to be valuable. They may just buy a few books per year, and they are probably fine with what they already pay.

Hardcore readers have already realized they can get ebooks from their local library for free. (The downside is that sometimes there is a loooong wait and obscure titles may not be avail.) It's unlikely that they'd shift to paying $120 per year for what they get now for free.

Hopefully this was just a beta service that they will roll into Prime's existing plan. If it were part of Prime, I would be all over it.
 
As tempting as this offer sounds to me at first glance, I think I'll keep buying the book licenses at Amazon.
I always check the Bargain Book Finds thread on Kboards:

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/board,42.0.html

And the Kindle Daily Deals on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_356936422_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000677541&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=left-1&pf_rd_r=13MQQ7F4P3FQCMS6GQ6Y&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1842897142&pf_rd_i=3059207011

There are some good books for not much money out there.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Give me an ad supported free tier, please.

I'd gladly watch 30 seconds of ads for every 20 minutes of reading if it meant I got to read anything I want for free.
 
this would be great for my sister ... me on the other hand ... it took over a year to finish the last harry potter book :D:eek:
 
Michael Goff said:
A) No, not that I can get to work.
B) You would think they'd have more of an idea on this sort of thing, but you'd be wrong. Seriously, anything to have to do with the system is known by 1-3 people who work here max... and they barely work here these days.
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You should check with your library, mine does have holds for eBooks and it works incredibly well. I get an e-mail when it's available and a 3 day window to borrow it.
 
bpcookson said:
I want this for audiobooks.

Charging $15/mo for ONE BOOK at audible.com is a joke. Give me unlimited audiobooks and I'll give you my money.

edit: Wait, this includes audiobooks? I read too fast. This is awesome!
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Actually, once you think about what goes into creating an audiobook, and account for the (miniscule) niche the market occupies, the prices aren't unreasonable at all.

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danckwerts said:
But what is the deal for the publisher? It's sure to be really bad.
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Well, at 1 book per month for a reader, it's probably pretty much the same from the publisher's perspective. People who read less than that won't bother with this, so we've just put a benefit-ceiling on the publisher's perspective, and it only goes down hill from there.

Heavy readers, can throw down a book every day or two. (Some can do more.)
If we assume just 5 books per month, then the publisher's take just crashed by about 80% unless the market correspondingly quintuples in size.

Frankly, I'm shocked that *any* publisher got on board with this idea, since even heavy readers don't tend to read the same book over and over. (Or at least not many of them.)
 
matty.p said:
aka a public library...
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A public library that contains a much more vast and robust selection than your local library probably does, is accessible from anywhere you have an internet connection at anytime, and don't have to concern yourself with number of books they have checked out.
 
I wonder how good the library will be, I assume it wouldn't be for the entire Kindle library? There are several Photoshop CC training books I'd like to try out.
 
kagharaht said:
Support your local Public Library. See real people. If I want to purchase an ebook, its iBooks. Looks and works fantastic on iOS devices. :)
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my public library (York Region of Ontarioj Public Libraries) won't let me borrow books anymore

Apparently, when I was in highschool (15 years ago), I had a book out for 3 days overdue.

In 10 years after, that $5 in late fees is now $120. Until i pay that, I cannot borrow books from them.

they refuse to wave it.
 
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