Amazon's Kindle Unlimited

Discussion in Product Reviews started by dustysmommy2013 • Jul 21, 2014.

  1. dustysmommy2013

    dustysmommy2013Active Member

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    Amazon has recently unveiled a new subscription for Kindle users. For $9.99/month, you get access to over 600,000 titles and audio books. They are not the first company to do this. I have actually been subscribed to Scribd for about two months and find it enjoyable. Its $1.00 cheaper but with less titles. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to try out Kindle Unlimited but I think I probably will. I can see a lot of other book subscription companies not being able to hold on now that Amazon is on the prowl.

    Has anyone tried this new service from Amazon yet? Thoughts? Worth the cost?
     
  2. Bright7

    Bright7Active Member

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    I heard about this new subscription service and I am undecided about it. I love to read but I am not a very fast reader. I typically only read one book a month or two if I am lucky. With all the deals on e-books that Amazon has daily, I think it would be less expensive for me to buy one or two e-books at a time. However, if you are a person who just devours books, then this is an excellent deal because you just cannot beat Amazon's title selection.
     
  3. Livvy

    LivvyActive Member

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    I heard about this actually!

    Considering it's only ten dollars a month for as many books as you can handle, it's a pretty good deal, as long as you're actually able to fully make use of it. If you're only reading one book a month, it's not really going to be that worth it, although come to think of it, it would depend upon how much books cost where you live. Ten dollars a month would be a pretty good deal for me to be honest
     
  4. Taki

    TakiMember

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    The problem with all of these content services is few if any of the big publishers are willing to list their content in them yet. I think Scribd has a couple of the big 6 but none of the others do. With that said, Amazon has some amazing self-published authors who have published content that is just as good if not better than anything the big 6 have in their stables.
     
  5. Colebra

    ColebraActive Member

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    I'll probably try this one out!

    I can't imagine reading big, long books on a screen... I'll still be using paper for those.
    But for small books, or stuff that is available only in a digital form... I'm down for it!
    But even more for the Audiobooks! Now that's really sweet!

    10 $ is an awesome value!
     
  6. dustysmommy2013

    dustysmommy2013Active Member

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    Scribd does have two major publishers. Between the two publishers, I have definitely not had a problem with running out of material to read. You do bring up a good point though. I definitely think I will at least sign up for the monthly trial of Kindle Unlimited just to see if they really offer much more than Scribd. $1.00 more per month is not that much BUT if I can get essentially the same service for less, why wouldn't I?
     
  7. oldwriter

    oldwriterMember

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    If I remember correctly, Oyster and Scribd have agreements with Simon & Schuster as well as HarperCollins. Unfortunately Kindle Unlimited does not have these agreements yet.

    I see an advantage for Kindle Unlimited: You can access it from any Kindle app, while the Prime service only works on Amazon devices. This is a big plus if you are not a die-hard fan of the Amazon brand.
     
  8. Livvy

    LivvyActive Member

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    I would have thought that Amazon would have the entire kindle library open to its users, no?
     
  9. dustysmommy2013

    dustysmommy2013Active Member

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    That's what I assumed too, Livvy. Especially since they are advertising that they have over 600,000 titles available. I think we need to hear from someone who's actually using the service so we can get a better idea of how it works. Shall I be the guinea pig?
     
  10. askanison

    askanisonMember

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    I would rather just stick with my Amazon prime. I can find e-books and audio books elsewhere for free. Amazon prime is well worth it if you travel a lot or have a job where you have a lot of downtime.
     
  11. wulfman

    wulfmanActive Member

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    for me at least $10/ month is pretty steep . and if you really want to make use of this you have to be a really fast and avid reader. what is the competition for amazon's kindle by the way ? i mean rival e-readers.
    Is Kindle the best out there? I am thinking of buying one. When you get this access to 600k titles can you download those you want? I'm guessing no otherwise they wouldn't be charging $10/month.
     
  12. dustysmommy2013

    dustysmommy2013Active Member

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    I actually don't even have a Kindle. My e-reader is a Nook and I downloaded the Kindle app onto it. I can access books through Amazon that way but also still access books at the Barnes & Noble store. It makes it very easy to compare prices that way although the Kindle prices are usually always cheaper. On the flip side, you could still download the Nook app onto a Kindle so you can still compare prices.
     
  13. askanison

    askanisonMember

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    The nook is no longer a real rival for Kindle. Amazon bull rushed the market and took over with it's, in my opinion, much cheaper and quality service and much better device. There are tons of free books, deals, .99 cent books, apps, Amazon Prime with streaming movies and tv shows all you need is a wi-fi connection that isn't slooooow. Plus at $10 dollars a month you will be paying $120.00 dollars a year when you could get Amazon Prime for half that and have way more options for content.
     
  14. dustysmommy2013

    dustysmommy2013Active Member

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    I signed up for Kindle Unlimited yesterday and I am not impressed. I got access to a lot of books by self-published authors so I downloaded some quick reads about making money online. However, the books I currently have in my library on Scribd are not available on Kindle Unlimited so I definitely do not think I will be sticking with the Amazon service.

    I personally love my Nook and since I can download the Kindle and Amazon app on to it, I can get all the same services. When I get a new tablet, I will probably go with Kindle but I see no reason to switch right now.

    The problem with Amazon Prime is that they expect the cost up front. There is no way I can come up with an extra $100 for a service that I am not entirely sure I will use every month. Sure, there are some months that I order from Amazon every week and then there are some months when I don't order anything. If Prime would offer me the option to pay a flat rate every month, I would most likely sign up knowing that I can cancel if I feel there will be a month when I know I won't order anything. Its a lot easier to justify an $8.99 per month subscription to Scribd (or $10/month to Kindle Unlimited) that I can cancel anytime than it is to justify $100 all at once to Amazon.
     
  15. Monkey

    MonkeyNew Member

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    I've been looking at KU since it launched on Amazon UK so I thought I'd give this a bump and see if anybody has anything to add to it. I'll definitely be taking up the free trial - probably around Christmas when I have some sofa time! - but I'm not seeing huge amounts of books I want to read. At the moment I've set up a wishlist to keep track of anything which is included in the program which looks good, but there's not that much.

    Has anybody been trying it out, and what do you guys make of it?
     
  16. Bee14

    Bee14New Member

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    I might just have to find a few new shows to watch on Amazon prime on my Kindle. This is actually how I began watching a few new shows to begin with such as Doctor Who.I don't have a lot of free time in a day so I'd like to find something that is really worth watching...something interesting and different.I love it overall though.
     
  17. Happyflowerlady

    HappyflowerladyWell-Known Member

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    We have Amazon Prime, and that also includes the free lending library. If you are reading a lot of books, then the Kindle Unlimited moght be a great idea; but for me it costs too much to be worth it. We already pay $100 a year for Prime, and this would more than double our Amazon cost. I used to read a lot of books; but now I do not read nearly as many; so the $10 would be wasted in my case. Since Amazon has a lot of free and really cheap books, I can usually get books that i am interested in reading much cheaper thanspending the $10 every month.
    For someone that is buying a lot of books to read every month, then maybe the price would be worth it.