Kindle Unlimited

R

Raf

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Nov 6, 2020
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So, I signed up for a free 30 day trial of this service. Would cost $9.99 / month afterwards.

Appears to be a digital library of some 3 million titles available to read at no cost other than the monthly subscription. Since I'm already spending a good deal more than $10 more per month, I thought I'd give it a try.

I'm perusing Amazon right now, but there are just tons of unknown authors (at least to me). It is rather daunting.

Is anyone else using this service? Any recommendations? For scifi, fantasy or historical fiction?
 
Michael Anderle's Kurtherian Gambit will provide you a unique and rewarding SF view of the paranormal. There's only 19 books in the series so it won't eat up all your time; just most of it. First book is Death Becomes Her.
Jack July's Amy Lynn which I have reviewed elsewhere. Worth the time. 5 more books in the series which are good reads but not in Amy Lynn's class.
Laurence Dahners for either good sf or good fantasy. SF = El Donsai series; his best fantasy is the The Hyllis Family series..

Oh, yeah, if coarse language annoys you, skip Anderle.

I've been reading KU books for at least 15 years. Worth the monthly fee.
 
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I think I have found the new home of every incarnation of bodice rippin' romances. 200 page romances that span the gamut of science fiction, fantasy, WW1 & 2, pre- industrial age historical fiction and every other genre imaginable. Complete with heavy breathin' covers.

Feel like I'm panning for gold or separating wheat from chaff. Lotta chaff. But I think I'm finding some some promising stuff.
 
Here's an interesting development I found out today. I currently get Asimov's Magazine & Analog on monthly digital subscription at Amazon.

Posters on Twitter today who run magazines are being told today that in 2023 Magazine Subscriptions on Amazon will end - unless the readers subscribe to Kindle Unlimited.

This has put some of the magazine editors into a spin - and rightly so, IMO - no more guaranteed monthly incomes! - with many who are just holding on saying that this will be the final straw.

Is this a reason to take up Kindle Unlimited - or not?
 
Personally I would say any platform that forces me to sign up or else can suck it.
Does everyone know about Library Genesis? You might get the books you're looking for, or similar, for the low low price of nothing.
Library Genesis
 
The ebooks in the Irish Libraries are free to borrow. No Library sub. You do need to live in Ireland. The Irish Libraries have to buy whatever number of simultaneous loans and then pay royalty. Open Library (and possibly Library Genesis) pays nothing at all.

KU cheats content providers. Also content providers that use KDP Select are on KU, but they are not allowed to sell or loan elsewhere.
Big publishers that don't use KDP can be on KU without exclusivity.

All subscription services benefit the seller more than ordinary consumers or content providers. Only high consumption users save real money (many titles are not on KU) and very popular authors benefit, who don't need it.
Average income for a full time Author has fallen to half, now £8,000 approx. KU is partly to blame.

The Internet advertising, particularly Google and Facebook, is the most damage to magazines, newspapers, TV and Radio.

Some would say direct subs are the way for magazines and newspapers, but Apple & Google parasitically take a high percentage for Apps.
 
Sorry to slightly hijack your post @Raf.

Trollheart said:
Personally I would say any platform that forces me to sign up or else can suck it.
Does everyone know about Library Genesis? You might get the books you're looking for, or similar, for the low low price of nothing.
Library Genesis
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Although I generally don't support piracy as a concept, I am one of those weird people that enjoys owning/collecting physical copies of things but consume my media almost entirely on digital devices

I will purchase a book as a paperback from a local bookstore, or sometimes order nice hard covers of books that I really enjoy. But I will also then go and download the eBook version from one of these nefarious websites and most likely read it on my Kobo.

Without getting too political, I'm of the belief that if you purchase a physical copy of a book, you should get a digital copy of it for free. This is a big deal for me in the tabletop roleplaying space. I think it's a travesty that I need to spend upwards of $60 on a Dungeons and Dragons book and they won't even provide me a PDF copy of it. If I want a digital version, I have to go pay the same price for it on another platform that may or may not exist in a few years time.

It's great to see independent authors like Michael J. Sullivan include this in his Kickstarters. If I back one of his campaigns for a physical book, he includes the eBook as part of it.
 
I'm interested in the content of books these days. I'm past the point of needing a hard copy. They just sit in my bookshelves and gather dust. Have 3 full bookshelves now...not a lot by some standards here. But maybe re-read a couple of every 10 years or so. Usually not though. Can't even remember how many books I've sold over the years.

Ebooks changed everything. And I've been purchasing them for the last 3 years. Kindle Unlimited is a new app for me. Been using it for about a month. I love it. Admittedly, you are going to wade through a lot of chaff looking for gems. But it's probably saving me well over $100 / month and I get to try out new authors by the hands full for a pittance.
 
Raf said:
Ebooks changed everything.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. I love that I can carry around a small device with hundreds of books on it. It makes traveling for long periods of time so much easier.
 
When you get older with arthritis in your hands, ebooks are almost a necessity. My option these days for reading books on paper for some of the larger books is a book stand with page holders.
 
Windshadow said:
When you get older with arthritis in your hands, ebooks are almost a necessity. My option these days for reading books on paper for some of the larger books is a book stand with page holders.
Click to expand...

I can definitely believe this. I'm 31 and have pretty good eye sight, but the best thing for me about my Kobo is that I can increase the font size. My wife reads physical books exclusively and sometimes I see how small the font size is in some books. I would be a much slower reader if I couldn't have a larger font size in my books.
 
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