Kindle Unlimited Subscription Service

[Huntn]

Does anyone here partake? What do you think?

My wife is an avid reader who racks up anything from $10-70 a month reading books on her Kindle. I read this article: https://ebookfriendly.com/kindle-unlimited-ebook-subscription/ but have some questions.

• Does the service allow you to keep anything you read during the subscription or does access to preciously read books go away when the subscription lapses? I assume so, access only exists while the subscriotion is active.
• My understanding is that you won’t see best sellers, there are restrictions, it’s not an all inclusive service allowing you to read everything.

 

[Gutwrench]

From your link:

2. You won’t find too many bestsellers
As I mentioned above, major publishers are still not interested in Amazon’s ebook subscription platform.

You won’t find books from Hachette, MacMillan, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Penguin.

If you want to save money on the hottest bestsellers by picking up Kindle Unlimited, make sure to check out the titles you want to read. Don’t expect to find books from Harper Lee, Janet Evanovich, Stephen King, Dan Brown, or Nora Roberts.

In fact, when you go through the list of the New York Times bestsellers in the Kindle Store, you’ll find few books that are included in Kindle Unlimited ebook subscription.

Other ebook subscription services are not packed with top bestsellers or hot new releases, either. However, Scribd offers books from HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, or Macmillan.


8. You can keep up to 10 Kindle Unlimited titles at a time
Don’t think of packing your Kindle with hundreds of Kindle Unlimited books, or making extensive collections from them.

You can only keep up to 10 books from Kindle Unlimited in your account at a time.

Other ebook subscription platforms also have such limits. For instance, Scribd has a limit of 20 books.

While this limitation is against the “unlimited” selling proposal of the service, I understand it. When you pack your Kindle with 500 books, you won’t be able to read them at once, anyway.

There is one disadvantage, however. 10-book limit is too low. It’s below the number of books many readers have in different stages of reading.

9. The books will be gone when you cancel your Kindle Unlimited subscription
Getting too many KU books to the Kindle e-reader or application can be a waste of time because if you don’t read them they will be gone when you cancel your subscription.

Some users try to outsmart the Amazon and think they could load lots of Kindle Unlimited books to their e-reader, then cancel the subscription, but keep the books.

It won’t happen. When you cancel the Kindle Unlimited subscription the books will be automatically removed from your Kindle library the moment your device connects with the web and sync content with Amazon servers.

Even if you deregister the device from your Kindle account, the maximum number or books to have at a time is 10, so it doesn’t pay in the end, anyway.

 

[Huntn]

From your link:

Yes, I read that and mentioned it. I was hoping someone with the service might comment. I need to check with my wife what she is reading regularly.

 

[Gutwrench]

Yes, I read that and mentioned it. I was hoping someone with the service might comment. I need to check with my wife what she is reading regularly.

Sorry no experience here. I’m typically a physical book person.

 

[JBGoode]

I would say it depends on your wife's taste. I've considered getting it but found that there just isn't enough content that interests me for it to be worth it. Sure you'll find some gems but the vast majority of content seems to be lower quality, self-published works just do not work for me.....at least this seems to be the case for the genres that I prefer which are sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and historical fiction.

 

[mikzn]

I used it for about a year - And really enjoyed it at first exploring a lot of obscure books and magazines that are out of print etc.

But as time went on I found I was actually reading more books on the regular Kindle and cancelled it and now just buy what I want to read from the regular Kindle store

It’s very easy to subscribe and unsubscribe so it’s really worth giving it a try and figure if the monthly fee is worth it for her

 

[Huntn]

Sorry no experience here. I’m typically a physical book person.

What really irritates the hell out of me with ebooks are the artificially inflated prices, even for older books, that I used to be able to buy through Thrifty Books for a couple of $ each. 🧨 🎉 🎉

 

[compwiz1202]

What really irritates the he’ll out of me with ebooks are the artificially inflated prices, even for older books, that used to be able to buy through Thrifty Books for a couple of $ each. 🧨 🎉 🎉

Yes, this annoys me with any media.

 

[LizKat]

I've gone in and out of Kindle Unlimited a few times. For an ongoing sub at the price per month, I have ended up thinking hey two months of this fee and I could just buy the one book I want instead of sifting through reams of books and picking out a few at a time that may look promising. It can take awhile to find one that appeals to me.

Now I mostly prowl around my four-county library's online offerings when I want to borrow a particular ebook rather than spring for owning it. Even so I often can't find what I want, and have to settle for recommending it and hoping I get an email someday that says that they've acquired it. Or sometimes they have it but I have to sit on a wait list. However, their raft of more available offerings does seem a cut above a lot of the Kindle Unlimited ones, at least to my mind.

But my eternal optimism usually takes me back to Kindle Unlimited for another go-around once every couple years.. for awhile. They have deals where you can extend your membership 6 or 12 months for a steep discount, I've done that once or twice. I did prefer that to the nickel-and-diming feel of the monthly billing.

The advantage over a e-library borrowing is that Kindle Unlimited books you select are yours for as long as you want to have them (while your membership is valid). Public library e-borrowings on the other hand will self-destruct in 14 or 21 days unless they can be renewed... and they may try to guilt you out by showing you on your library shelf if someone's waiting for a book you've borrowed...

 

[Erehy Dobon]

.

 

[faust]

Nah, I pretty much spend $20/mo on a seedbox/VPS and get nearly unlimited movies, tv, books, data storage, and music. I strongly oppose software/content as a service, and tbh? If you try to say I'm bad lady? I'll put a Right to Repair sticker on my 16" MBP just to watch you cringe in horror at the sight of it.