Kindle Unlimited and Subscription based reading!

Meet Kindle Unlimited!


Kindle Unlimited is a subscription-based service available from Amazon. Have you ever been browsing for books on Amazon, seen one that interests you enough to click on it? Well more often than not, when you go to buy said book, you'll see the option 'Read for Free' and the 'kindleunlimited' label slapped atop the cover image. 
Let's look at 'The Handmaid's Tale,' by Margret Atwood, as an example:
kindleunlimited [image error] [image error]
It'll look something like the above link. Now if you're interested in reading the above book, and also interested in reading it for free, then maybe Kindle Unlimited is for you! Like I said earlier Kindle Unlimited is a subscription-based service through Amazon. In exchange for 9.99 a month. You get access to Amazon's Kindle-Unlimited Library, which is arguably the largest library of digital titles in the world.

Or maybe you're interested in something a little less close to home. How about:

[image error] [image error]The Books of Caledan Trilogy: (An Epic Fantasy Collection: The Tainted Crown, The Brooding Crown, The Shattered Crown)[image error]

Like I said, Kindle Unlimited is arguably the largest library of digital books in the world. There is something for everyone!

The way it works is authors and publishers from around the world are given the option to opt into the program at the time that they upload their books to Amazon. By doing this they are essentially giving Amazon the exclusive rights to sell their digital books. In exchange, these books are not only given priority shelf space on the world's largest e-commerce store, but they are entitled to a cut of the Kindle Unlimited Fund (a giant pool of money paid out to the publishers within the program). Their 'cut' is based on how many pages of their books have been read per month.

Now as a reader you're thinking:

So what? What do the author and publisher benefits have to do with me?

Well since being the reader/mind reader that I am, I can tell you that the benefits authors receive by being in the Kindle Unlimited program can have no impact on you as well as incredible impact.

Now from a day to day perspective, it doesn't matter to readers whether or not strangers/publishers decide to go exclusive with Amazon, but the more incentive they have, the more of them that will.

Because Amazon incentivizes authors so well, it's able to attract the biggest names in the industry to sell exclusively with them, and by association...with you. In other words, you are almost guaranteed to get a lot of bang for your buck as a subscriber with the Kindle Unlimited program.

But wait, I'm an Amazon Prime member. Does that mean I automatically have a Kindle Unlimited subscription?

Short answer...no

What your prime membership allows you to do is share books you've purchased with others. The Kindle Unlimited program is a separate service.

Well, I like the idea of Netflix for books, but is Amazon the only name in the game?

I'm glad you asked!

Well, Amazon may be the most well known, they are by no means the only player on the block.

Enter Scribd!
Scribd is a subscription-based reading service nearly identical to Kindle Unlimited. The two main differences being:
1. Readers are able to read e-books on whatever e-reading device they own. Meaning, they don't need to choose between various companies like Nook, Kobo, and Amazon to read what they want to read.
2. The second thing is that they're not Amazon. 
Silly as it may seem, that matters to some people who recognize that Amazon is not so subtly taking over the world. Its a way for those readers to get an awesome service like Kindle Unlimited, without feeding the beast...so to speak. 

Click the link below to see my book! My Book On Scribd!

As an author/publisher myself, I don't 'hate' Amazon. I'm a huge fan actually. However, putting all my eggs in one basket is never smart. Scribd is a way for me to still have my books available in a subscription-based service, without sacrificing security if and when Amazon decides to change its gameplan.  
Scribd also has a library comparable to Amazon's and is completely focused on digital media consumption, whereas Amazon has a hand in every pie imaginable. This isn't so much a negative for Kindle Unlimited as it is a strength for Scribd and other subscription-based services.
Such services include
Kobo Plus and Tolino Select
Kobo is perhaps Amazon's biggest competitor in the e-book marketplace. However, their subscription-based reading program, Kobo Plus is substantially smaller only sporting 212,000 titles at the time of this writing. Compare that to the 1,000,000+ titles of Kindle Unlimited, and Kobo Plus has quite a ways to go. That being said Kobo Plus began with 23,000 and in the span of one year rose to what it is now.
Tolino Select is the same, so much so that it's actually piggybacking off of the infrastructure that Kobo Plus has put into place, forming more of a partnership than a direct rivalry.

That's a wrap!
So what are you're thoughts on Kindle Unlimited and other subscription-based services? Let me know in the comments below. And if you're interested, feel free to click any of the affiliate links throughout the post. If you choose to move forward with a purchase or service, then at no charge to you I will receive a small commission.