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Amazon Testing 'Kindle Unlimited' E-book Subscription Service
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Given everything we know about the business practices of Jeff Bezos and Amazon, I don't know how anyone who are completely unselfish, ethical, and caring can continue to do business with them.
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Of course it's really bad, it's Amazon. Amazon cares for one thing and one thing only, their bottom line.
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Of course it's really bad, it's Amazon. Amazon cares for one thing and one thing only, their bottom line.
They don't need unlimited copies, it just means you have to be patient and wait for the book to be returned. Just like anything else checked out from a library. Libraries provide books for free, the tradeoff is having to wait sometimes.
It's possible that they don't have permission of the publishers. They could be doing it like libraries and buying copies (licenses) of the books and then lending those out to readers. If they don't have them available, they buy more copies. I've heard that's how the free book loans with Prime work, they're basically buying the ebooks and lending them out.
My wife and I have Oyster and it's well worth the $9.99 a month (you can have it on 5 devises). I don't read as much, but my wife does. Her issue with the local library ebooks is she will have 2-3 books on hold, and then they all come at once. Now she has to put 1 or 2 books back on hold and have this issue happen again. The other issue is we went on vacation and a ebook was ready to be downloaded. We didn't want to waste data on a book, and we did get home in time. She only has 3 days to down load the books. Also with our library, you can only have one book out at a time. My wife downloaded 3 books on Oyster at one time so she had stuff to read while on vacation, and this way she didn't need to be on data after she finished a book. Just because something is free, doesn't mean it's the best.
Seems like everyone is going to a subscription model now. Hulu / Netflix for TV Shows, Netflix / Amazon Instant for Movies, Spotify / Beats for Music.
The last hold out is Books for digital subscription access. Of course it's like a library but moving it into the online area is different.
I wish Apple would catch up. I would subscribe for TV / Movies / Music / Books from Apple in a heartbeat as I'm in their ecosystem with all their devices.
The last hold out is Books for digital subscription access. Of course it's like a library but moving it into the online area is different.
I wish Apple would catch up. I would subscribe for TV / Movies / Music / Books from Apple in a heartbeat as I'm in their ecosystem with all their devices.
Yup, this. If it isn't obvious to everyone by now that Amazon's goal is to drive publishers and bookstores out of business, they haven't paid attention... There is a reason I try to avoid purchasing books from them. They want to own the industry, plain and simple.
I have tried Oyster and scribd but they offer very few books that interested me.
I'd be interested if Kindle raises the bar by offering best sellers and recently published books. Something the previous mentioned services lack.
I'd be interested if Kindle raises the bar by offering best sellers and recently published books. Something the previous mentioned services lack.
Do not forget Facial Reconstruction and Fingerprint Modification Overlays to fool the scanners. That should get him back in the system.
Initially I'm all over this. I regularly read 4+ books / month on my kindle so this would probably save me some money.
But then I wonder about the terms, specifically whether I would get to keep my highlights and notes if I end my subscription, the book is taken off the subscription list, or the program simply ends. My hunch is no.
But then I wonder about the terms, specifically whether I would get to keep my highlights and notes if I end my subscription, the book is taken off the subscription list, or the program simply ends. My hunch is no.
Why not just make it available for all Prime Members instead of making customers pay extra $9.99 a month? Do authors think that many people pay to read?
I'm very interested. I read 3-4 books per week. Ultimately it would depend on what's in the library.
If they have anywhere near the collection ofaudiobooks from audible.com or iTunes, it would be awesome for me.
yes that's what I need I listen to a lot of audiobooks and spent a lot of time getting cd's and ripping them and converting them to audiobooks. my wife is blind and gets access to audiobooks and thats a better source but the app is not great.
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the problem with that in our library is they may only have one book or two and a long line waiting.
What makes you think authors had anything to do with this? Amazon is the one behind it, not authors...
Aside from that, well, yes, authors like to make money for their creations.
I'm complaining about the quantity/mo, not the price. If they have an unlimited subscription model, they don't advertise it plainly on their website. The only option appears to be ONE BOOK per month for $15. That just seems ridiculous. Why aren't they advertising multiple paid tiers for varying amounts of content consumption?
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Ok, so I just spent some more time on the audible.com site and finally found a Membership Plans link squirreled away at the bottom of the page where you expect to find a bunch of meaningless crap that pertains to nobody interesting.
So fine, I checked it out. There is a two book per month deal that saves you 23%, but still no unlimited option. And so if I want to listen to 3 books in one month I have to spend at least $150 for 12 book credits. Yikes! That's a mighty steep paywall...
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Ugh, yeah, ripping book CD's is such a drag. I feel your pain, man. I had been getting audiobooks from the library and then ripping them to listen via my phone in the car. Dude, some books are like 20 discs!
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I don't think I could get through that. I've tried some other free audiobooks read by volunteers and such (LibreVox recordings) and I'm all set. I'll be sticking to proper professional recordings.
I had prime for a short time and the amount of books you can "rent" was not that great. I think out of 22 books I looked to rent it came up with zero on my list. I would pay 10 dollars a month but only if it included all the kindle books with no restrictions on certain titles. I would pay 10 dollars a month for that permanently. If its just the books that they offer rentals on then I wont bother since that excludes most computer related books and many others.
Book stores still exist? Barnes and Noble is still around? Man, I really want to go pay $39.95 for a book when Amazon has it for $24.xx. Yeah, let's keep those book stores alive!