Amazon Officially Announces 'Kindle Unlimited' E-book and Audiobook Subscription Service

[nutmac]

They're not. I just did a search and didn't turn up any of the books I was looking for. Not a single one.

For example, do a search for Stephen King; everything in his catalog is available for normal purchase, but not in the "Unlimited" library. Doesn't work for me.

Then again, Netflix doesn't have very good streaming library either. Anyway, if yo have reasons to complain, Kindle Unlimited clearly isn't geared toward you. It isn't for me either, as I read about 10 books (exclude reference and education) per year.

 

[TsMkLg068426]

No thanks, this should be available for Amazon Prime customers at no extra cost not going to add more to my expense as much as I love reading books which is important but saving money is as important also.

----------

Then again, Netflix doesn't have very good streaming library either. Anyway, if yo have reasons to complain, Kindle Unlimited clearly isn't geared toward you. It isn't for me either, as I read about 10 books (exclude reference and education) per year.

Problem with Netflix is with their laziness not bothering to renew licensing or bother with licensing as much as before they worry more on Original series now. Amazon Prime movies and TV Shows are more exclusive, well TV Shows are the movies lack just like Netflix.


The problem with this Kindle Unlimited for Books is not going to have popular books by big time authors, to spend $9.99 to be added to your service of basic books is not worth the money when I can still just go to the library.

 

[nutmac]

No thanks, this should be available for Amazon Prime customers at no extra cost not going to add more to my expense as much as I love reading books which is important but saving money is as important also.

It would be nice if Amazon can roll the service into Prime. But at some point, Amazon need to recoup the cost, or at least break even.

 

[MRU]

With Netflix asking only 8 dollars per month for unlimited movies and TV shows, 10 dollars per month for books seems pretty high in my opinion.

It's supply & demand.

This will be a niche service in comparison and only applicable to those people that would read 1 or 2 books per month as is .....

Therefore less potential subscribers means it would need to be higher price than Netflix.

 

[LordVic]

It's supply & demand.

This will be a niche service in comparison and only applicable to those people that would read 1 or 2 books per month as is .....

Therefore less potential subscribers means it would need to be higher price than Netflix.

this.

as an avid reader (need to read more... been wslacking), I find the cost comparison to be strange.

But then i raelize that so few people read compared to movies and TV today. the sheer economies of scale are grossly different. The business models are grossly different, and the time and effort that are often in them are so vastly different.

A blockbuster movie might rake in hundreds of millions in revenue from viewership alone, nevermind the corporate and advertisement support.

A blockbuster book? might sell a few million. but most books, even the popular ones might only sell thousands. There's very little in the way of sponsorship or corporate involvement.

most authors do it for the love of it, not to make it rich. very few authors reach the level fo a GRRM, Tolkien or King.

Want a comparison?

(I'm not encouraging piracy here, just an "expiriment")

Stephen king wrote a book called "Under the Dome" to be made into a TV series.

go to your favourite torrent site and search for "Under the Dome". TV episodes EVERYWHERE. book? Good luck finding it.

 

[diirge]

Thanks for the clarification. Makes sense.

Just got off the phone with Audible. Kindle Unlimited does include Audiobooks...however...It's only the 7k+ titles from the 600k Kindle titles that HAPPEN to have Whispersync.

 

[yaxomoxay]

But government. I always get "No, thats not possible. This is exactly the policy. This is what you get, this is what it costs. We will not negotiate and I will not spend more than 30 seconds helping you"

Granted that rudeness should never be tolerated, especially by government officials, the above situation is what people get when they wish for "accountability" and "transparency". The latter above else.
Reason? transparency means that you have to keep track of everything, every step, every person, every single thing that it is done. Result? More bureacuracy and more tedious processes.
With transparency you also get more "blaming" and more "unfairness" cries. So if your official is nice and grants you an exception, he can be blamed and other people might cry that since X got an exception, than everyone else should.
Trust me, more often than not we want to help. And we see stuff you can't even imagine.

Bottom Line: Don't trust a politician that proposes more transparency and bureacuracy reduction or better services.

On topic: Now, it's strange that his library prefers to receive $0 rather than $50.

 

[benz240]

As others have said, the selection beyond the handful of marquee titles is very weak.

 

[LordVic]

On topic: Now, it's strange that his library prefers to receive $0 rather than $50.

I had LITERALLY (in the correct use of the word) said the same thing to them

she just shrugged.

maybe I should go to a different branch and see if the staff there are more accepting. it's one giant linked back end system, so if one branch clears it, all branches have it cleared.

 

[yaxomoxay]

I had LITERALLY (in the correct use of the word) said the same thing to them

she just shrugged.

maybe I should go to a different branch and see if the staff there are more accepting. it's one giant linked back end system, so if one branch clears it, all branches have it cleared.

Ask them to talk to the Business Admin, and complain a lot. Business Admin will have power to give a "one time courtesy waive". They will give up. Saw it with my own eyes, and with balances way over yours.
If you can put a "City Attorney Office" somewhere in your discussion it would be better.

 

[ani4ani]

Less valuable as in production cost, not entertainment value. I've never heard of a book that cost over a million dollars to write.

then you should read more!

 

[yaxomoxay]

for the record, although I work at a library, I think this new service is fantastic. $9.99/mo for unlimited books, decent selection it's not bad.
As long as people read more, and keep the book business up, then it's good.
I don't think this will overlap with public libraries, the services are completely different.

 

[milo]

Tried it. The books they had were very *very* limited. I didn't find a simple book that was current. And of the few that were available in the genre I wanted, most were either uninteresting or were books I'd read years before.

Not sure if you're describing your library's ebooks or KU. Obviously every library is different, I'm lucky enough that mine has a selection that blows away the initial selection in KU.

Curious as to why you don't want to support Amazon

They have some business practices that many consider unethical. For example google the situation with Amazon and hatchet. I love the service they provide but I'm not a fan of the way they have been running their company.

Then again, Netflix doesn't have very good streaming library either.

Not nearly this bad, particularly considering the huge amount of TV content on Netflix.

Ask them to talk to the Business Admin, and complain a lot.

Frankly I'm skeptical that a library would insist on a 100 dollar fine over a single book being late. Most libraries cap fines at the cost of buying a replacement book. And most libraries don't charge interest on fines. The story doesn't add up anyway, for a five dollar fine to go over 100 would be an interest rate of over 100% a year, which would never happen.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Frankly I'm skeptical that a library would insist on a 100 dollar fine over a single book being late. Most libraries cap fines at the cost of buying a replacement book. And most libraries don't charge interest on fines. The story doesn't add up anyway, for a five dollar fine to go over 100 would be an interest rate of over 100% a year, which would never happen.

At our library the late fee is 0.25/day for books, which would mean he returned the book 400 days late.
After 90 days we stop charging the overdue fines and we charge a replacement+processing fee. If the book is returned, then the overdue fines would still apply. So, if he actually returned the book 400 days late, then yes he would have to pay $100 in overdue fines. However, talking a bit should result in reduced fines, waives etc. We do not charge interests
It might surprise you how many people do not read return policies.

 

[rdlink]

When Netflix has 600,000 titles in it's library you might have a point.

I don't know why all the sniping at each other over the personal choices. Some people prefer to watch movies (or in the case of Netflix, predominately TV shows). Some people prefer to read books. So value for the two services is a subjective thing, based on your personal preference.

I, personally am not interested because I:

A. Rarely have time to read a book.
B. Find most fiction to be contrived, unbelievable awkwardly written drivel.

But then again, I rarely use my Netflix subscription, yet I still pony up the $8 a month.

 

[ctdonath]

Why not use the library...for FREE? Why give money to Amazon?

Because driving to the library will cost me about $10/mo in gas, requires a dedicated hour or so actually going there & back each time, has way less than 600,000 books, won't have the book I want if someone else got to it first, requires more travel time for returns, requires more travel time for pickup if I have to order one of the 540,000 books it doesn't have, and I have to interact with other people.

$10/mo lets me choose & acquire from 600,000 books right now, no travel time. I can probably find some $10/mo to give up in exchange for a massive library at my fingertips.

 

[milo]

driving to the library

It's kind of amazing how many times it has been mentioned that many libraries have ebooks now, yet there are still posts ignoring that fact.

And again, is quantity really more important than quality? Sure Amazon has a high number of titles, but if Amazon has very few and the library has very many of the ones you actually want to read, does having more automatically make it better? Seriously, go search the available KU titles and then tell me it has a better selection than the average library.

At our library the late fee is 0.25/day for books, which would mean he returned the book 400 days late.
After 90 days we stop charging the overdue fines and we charge a replacement+processing fee. If the book is returned, then the overdue fines would still apply. So, if he actually returned the book 400 days late, then yes he would have to pay $100 in overdue fines.

You said your library stops daily fines after 90 days, so wouldn't the max fine be $22.50 or the replacement cost of the book?

But anyway in his case he said he returned one book three days overdue which resulted in a five dollar fine, then fifteen years later the interest put it over a hundred bucks. It just doesn't add up.

 

[fa8362]

Because driving to the library will cost me about $10/mo in gas, requires a dedicated hour or so actually going there & back each time, has way less than 600,000 books, won't have the book I want if someone else got to it first, requires more travel time for returns, requires more travel time for pickup if I have to order one of the 540,000 books it doesn't have, and I have to interact with other people.

$10/mo lets me choose & acquire from 600,000 books right now, no travel time. I can probably find some $10/mo to give up in exchange for a massive library at my fingertips.

It costs me nothing to go to the library. It's right next to the post office and the supermarket, so I'm frequently there anyway.

 

[Kovacs]

I have bought 600+ ebooks since 2003. Some 300 of these are from Amazon. I spent some time searching the Kindle Unlimited selection and it's like the book section of a flee market. Lots of old and uninteresting stuff, with a few gems to be found if you look hard enough.

I spend around $500 per year on Kindle books. It's worth it just to own the books (I decrypt the drm before I archive the books). Virtually none of the books I have bought in the past 6 months are available under Kindle Unlimited, and frankly I didn't find much of interest.

Amazon will have to do better, IMHO.

 

[yaxomoxay]

You said your library stops daily fines after 90 days, so wouldn't the max fine be $22.50 or the replacement cost of the book?

Unfortunately not. The item is either In Library, Checked Out or Lost.
After 90 days overdue we claim it lost. In this case, replacement fees apply.
If the book is returned, then the item is then NOT Lost (replacement fees are waived) but its status ist Checked Out and overdue (whatever # of days from the Check Out date), so overdue fees will apply.
Sometimes it is cheaper to claim the book as lost rather than return it.

----------
Plus, we have to take into account professional library thieves. They come here, try to find the most expensive items, check out the max available amount of items, then try to sell them on ebay.

And I won't go discussing abandoned children left at libraries.

 

[SHNXX]

was confused at first but now it makes sense.

i guess i will just keep my audible membership.

 

[DavidBlack]

How avid readers are when they hear about 'Kindle Unlimited'

So I get unlimited Kindle books and audio books for just 10 dollars a month?

 

[thelookingglass]

for the record, although I work at a library, I think this new service is fantastic. $9.99/mo for unlimited books, decent selection it's not bad.
As long as people read more, and keep the book business up, then it's good.
I don't think this will overlap with public libraries, the services are completely different.

For $10 a month, this needs a better selection. Still too many books I want that aren't available with this program. With a better selection, this makes sense for people who buy more than $120 worth of books a year.

 

[Vegasman]

I don't see the relevance of your comment. I'm not hostile to ebooks. I'm hostile to paying $120 per year for nothing.

Ok. Don't pay it. Go to the library. Now, why is it a problem if I decide to throw my money that way again? Why is that even up for discussion?

 

[kerrikins]

Curious as to why you don't want to support Amazon; I get great service from them, and with Amazon Prime I get most of my orders with 2-day shipping. Great deals to be had.

I love my Kindle too; I'm an avid reader and never thought I'd enjoy an e-reader like I do; I have a library full of books, but the Kindle's my go-to device for reading these days.

I don't want to support Amazon because I think that they're trying to control the entire book market. They're kinda like the Walmart of the book industry, and they make it very difficult for anyone except other enormous retailers to exist, and not only that but they're putting pressure on the publishers, which can impact the royalties that authors get.