Kindle Unlimited ebook subscription was launched by Amazon in July 2014. Since that time, the catalog of Kindle Unlimited eligible books, audiobooks and magazines has grown from 640 thousand to over 1.4 million. Kindle Unlimited is considered the ebook version of Netflix. Kindle Unlimited is $9.99 a month and you can borrow up to 10 books at a time using any device. Kindle Unlimited can be used with any device with Kindle app installed or on Amazons flagship hardware a Kindle Fire or Kindle Paperwhite.
Kindle Unlimited has several big name series available from Harry Potter, The Atlantis Gene and The Hunger Games. Kindle Unlimited has added a selection of popular magazines to its offerings as well magazines like People, GQ and Bloomsberg Businessweek just to name a few of the popular ones. Kindle Unlimited offers a select group of audiobooks in addition to the Kindle Unlimited subscription for those of us who like to read a book in the car or in the gym.
The audiobook are a bit limited there not Audible audiobooks. Audible is a separate subscription these audio books are the Kindle Whispersync For Voice very similar to Audible books but are only available through the Kindle app and they’re very selective with very few best sellers available.
The magazines are somewhat limited to just a large amount of very well know magazines. I could not find many of the magazines I liked for free but I did find a few that were good National Geographic and few business magazines that caught my attention. One thing about the magazine selection, I started reading some magazines that I would have never spent three or four dollars in a store to buy. If you like a few magazines every month Kindle Unlimited saves you a few dollars by not having to buy paper magazines in the store. The cost savings might be worth the subscription every month if you are a big magazine reader.
The books themselves has a large selection. I did notice that a lot of the books are self-published Kindle authors which I don’t have a problem with I found plenty to read. If you looking for best sellers you may have to buy one or wait till it gets added to Kindle Unlimited. The best sellers seem to be rotated in and out of the Kindle Unlimited offerings. There are many big name series on the Kindle Unlimited service if you like to read series it might be worth the cost saving to subscribe.
If you cancel your Kindle Unlimited subscription the books will be deleted off your device. You do not own the books you’re borrowing them just like a library. Kindle Unlimited does not offer comic books unlike competitors like Scribd. If you’re a comic book fan Kindle Unlimited may not be the service for you with their focus being on regular books and magazines.
The real down sides for some people maybe the bulk of the books in the offering are self-published authors like myself. I personally don’t see an issue with that because I like to read other self-published authors material. When I am in the mood there are plenty of good series and some well-established authors to read as well. But you have to decide are you going to read enough to warrant spending the $9.99 a month. For me it’s worth it and I get my money out of the service you personally have to make the decisions depending on your reading habits and what you like to read on a daily basis.