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Would you sign up for Amazon e-book subscriptions?

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message 1: by Nick (new)

Nick (whyzen) | 1295 comments http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2...

A poll on Ars Technica says this about a potential new Amazon service
The rumor about Amazon's potential new service, which doesn't seem to have a name but could come packaged with the $79 Amazon Prime shipping service, comes from sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal. According to those sources, subscribers would be able to pay an annual fee in order to access the library, which would include "older titles" and might impose a limit on the number of "free" books a user could access every month. The sources didn't offer any extra details as to whether Amazon was working on bringing its entire library of newer books to the service in the future, or if it would allow publishers to choose whether they want to participate.

It seems not all publishers are happy about this idea because they are afraid it will devalue the books in the eyes of the consumers. Publishers showed a similar fear when Amazon tried to push a flat pricing of $9.99 on their kindle e-books.


message 2: by Sean (new)

Sean O'Hara (seanohara) | 2365 comments I've never signed up for Prime because I don't want to be locked in to Amazon -- even if an items cheaper elsewhere, I might as well buy it from Amazon to get my money's worth from Prime.

A subscription service would suffer a similar problem unless every publisher in the Kindle store opts in -- a book I want isn't part of the service and I have to pay $8.99 for it? Screw that, I'll go with something that's covered by my subscription.


message 3: by Jason (new)

Jason Bergman (loonyboi) I'm already a prime subscriber, so I'd totally take advantage of it. Whether or not I'd pay extra depends entirely on the books they make available.


message 4: by Tamahome (new)

Tamahome | 7230 comments On the Nook, you can go to the library.


message 5: by Will (new)

Will (longklaw) | 261 comments I'm a Prime member. I think I would get a lot of use out of this.


message 6: by Andrew (new)

Andrew (adrew) | 426 comments Is prime available to those outside the US?

I would rather see publishers get on board with real Library's rather than some commercial subscription linked to a particular ecosystem. Like others my interest would be linked to the details which I guess we'll know of in time.


message 7: by Poly (new)

Poly (xenphilos) Holy magikarp, I'd totally jump on this. I buy about a book a week off Amazon already, mostly due to the pretty good daily kindle deal.


message 8: by Andrew (new)

Andrew (adrew) | 426 comments Andrew wrote: "Is prime available to those outside the US?"

Decided to look this up out of interest and Prime does indeed appear to be US only.


message 9: by Nicolai (new)

Nicolai (nemoi) | 47 comments There is amazon prime in Germany, though it has a few less benefits, I think. For instance, there are no movie rentals on amazon.de. With 29€ it also costs less, though, so the value proposition is about equal I would say.


Jenny (Reading Envy) (readingenvy) | 2898 comments Would it be like Audible where one rate would give me access to a certain number of eBooks, and I'd get to decide how and when to use them, and the subscription would be less expensive than buying the eBooks flat out, making subscribing more enticing? Then yes. The Audible model has worked brilliantly for me and I never buy an audiobook "list price."

If it would be like Overdrive where the selections are too limited and I'm never finding anything I want, then no. Of course, I don't pay for Overdrive....


message 11: by Matthew (new)

Matthew (masupert) | 0 comments Nope. I just don't read that fast. That said I am already a prime user.


message 12: by Simone (new)

Simone (hindins) | 5 comments No, I'm a pretty slow reader and can get free Overdrive ebooks from the public library.


message 13: by Jlawrence, S&L Moderator (new)

Jlawrence | 964 comments Mod
Hmm, it would really depend on what was available in the "library", but I'm already a prime member and would consider it.


message 14: by Noel (new)

Noel Baker | 366 comments Andrew wrote: "Andrew wrote: "Is prime available to those outside the US?"

Decided to look this up out of interest and Prime does indeed appear to be US only."


Nope, we have Prime in the UK and I'm a member.


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