Kindle Unlimited from Amazon Offers 600,000 eBooks for $10/month

[Blackwell Stith]

Kindle Unlimited from Amazon Offers 600,000 eBooks for $10/month

Amazon has yet to detail how its new ebook service will benefit publishers and authors.

Those sporting one of Amazon's Kindle devices or their mobile Kindle app can benefit from Unlimited- a new digital book subscription service. For $10 a month, members will be given access to 600,000 ebooks and 2,000 audiobooks. The launch of this service demonstrates Amazon's eagerness to take control of the online book market and spells trouble for similar services like Oyster [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oysterbooks.oyster.android] that also charge $10 a month.

With the service currently only available in the United States, subscribers will see a "Read for Free" logo next to included titles when they are logged in and browsing the Amazon catalog online from a Kindle device or using the Kindle reading app on a PC. The book selection contains recent top sellers such as Water For Elephants, Life of Pi, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, as well as multiple editions of classics like George Orwell's Animal Farm- all of which count towards the 600,000 total.

Despite being heralded as "unlimited", there are some significant limitations. Customers have a max number of only 10 books that they can check out at one time instead of keeping an unlimited number on their device. The books themselves are DRM restricted and can only be accessed on an account with a valid subscription.

Amazon has recently been criticized for delaying delivery of books by French publisher Hachette, intentionally neglecting to maintain the proper inventory of the books until Hachette agrees to give it more flexibility on ebook pricing.

Amazon is offering a 30-day free trial of the service, and new subscribers will get free access to the 150,000-title Audible audiobook library for three months.

Do you read books on a Kindle or tablet? Let us know in the comments!

Source: PC World [http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455920/amazons-kindle-unlimited-offers-600000-ebooks-for-10-a-month.html]

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[Exterminas]

Amazon has yet to detail how its new ebook service will benefit publishers and authors.

So, the fight is between the world's biggest store for books and a dying industry branch and some rather powerless individuals?

My money is on the coporate behemoth. So my guess is that it won't benefit them at all.

I mean, how is this talk going to go?

Amazon: We are prepared to offer you a fixed sum to include your books in unlimited.

Other party: No way, I want to be payed in relation the amount of books that are checked out!

Amazon: If you refuse, we will stop selling your product.

Other party: Where do I have to kiss you?

 

[Something Amyss]

Amazon has yet to detail how its new ebook service will benefit publishers and authors.

So, the fight is between the world's biggest store for books and a dying industry branch and some rather powerless individuals?

My money is on the coporate behemoth. So my guess is that it won't benefit them at all.

I mean, how is this talk going to go?

Amazon: We are prepared to offer you a fixed sum to include your books in unlimited.

Other party: No way, I want to be payed in relation the amount of books that are checked out!

Amazon: If you refuse, we will stop selling your product.

Other party: Where do I have to kiss you?

Of course, Amazon already has a rep for paying better on digital publishing than the industry, so I'm not particularly sure they're the bad guys in this instance.

And I'm not talking with Hachette, but the current service you've paralleled to it.

 

[Lou Diamond]

"and new subscribers will get free access to the 150,000-title Audible audiobook library for three months."

can i get a source for this? i couldnt give a flip about the Kindle library, but i'm definitely interested in the Audiobook portion. Everything I've seen says something like '8,000 audiobooks', which is pretty poor....

 

[Exterminas]

Amazon has yet to detail how its new ebook service will benefit publishers and authors.

So, the fight is between the world's biggest store for books and a dying industry branch and some rather powerless individuals?

My money is on the coporate behemoth. So my guess is that it won't benefit them at all.

I mean, how is this talk going to go?

Amazon: We are prepared to offer you a fixed sum to include your books in unlimited.

Other party: No way, I want to be payed in relation the amount of books that are checked out!

Amazon: If you refuse, we will stop selling your product.

Other party: Where do I have to kiss you?

Of course, Amazon already has a rep for paying better on digital publishing than the industry, so I'm not particularly sure they're the bad guys in this instance.

And I'm not talking with Hachette, but the current service you've paralleled to it.

I see the possibility that Amazon will endear itself to authors for some time. About as long as there are still publishers around. Let's face it: Their days are numbered. The publishing profession came into life in the days where there was a logistics problem with bringing books and information about books from the author to the reader. These days are gone.

Once the publishers are dead or marginalized to indy books, Amazon will have a strong, monopoly-like position towards it authors and then they will capitalize on that.

 

[Something Amyss]

Once the publishers are dead or marginalized to indy books, Amazon will have a strong, monopoly-like position towards it authors and then they will capitalize on that.

Assuming that happens. We've been in the end days for publishers of music, books, and movies for decades now. The threat is always there, much like we're always living in the end times and kids these days are always worse than when we were kids.

I absolutely agree that Amazon should never be allowed to dominate, but that wasn't the point and it didn't make your scenario any less ridiculous.

Wait a tick... isn't this basically what Amazon Prime gives you? You get access to a rather large freebie library of books and it's about $80 per year.... plus you get the amozon on demand video

No, you get one book a month out of that library as part of the 80 bucks. For ten a month, you get up to ten books at a time and as far as I can see, no limit on how many you can have as long as you don't top that cap.

"and new subscribers will get free access to the 150,000-title Audible audiobook library for three months."

can i get a source for this? i couldnt give a flip about the Kindle library, but i'm definitely interested in the Audiobook portion. Everything I've seen says something like '8,000 audiobooks', which is pretty poor....

https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=sv_kstore_2?ie=UTF8&docId=1002872331

Kindle Unlimited subscribers will also receive a complimentary three-month Audible membership with access to more than 150,000 titles.

I think that's what they mean.

 

[Falterfire]

I'm still hoping they can somehow convince DC Comics on board with this. If they do I will be more than happy to pay for this. I'm not optimistic about the chances of it happening, but I really hope it does.

 

[Entitled]

I see the possibility that Amazon will endear itself to authors for some time. About as long as there are still publishers around. Let's face it: Their days are numbered. The publishing profession came into life in the days where there was a logistics problem with bringing books and information about books from the author to the reader. These days are gone.

Once the publishers are dead or marginalized to indy books, Amazon will have a strong, monopoly-like position towards it authors and then they will capitalize on that.

The exact same thing that is rendering publishers increasingly irrelevant, is doing the same for Amazon. Even if they formally stay dominant on the market, they can only do it by being sufficiently unobtrusive and conforming to the reality that anyone could publish any book at any time if they really bothered.

So even if they stay a monopoly, they will be an irrelevant monopoly.

 

[Entitled]

The content industries are all racing towards the $0 price point. That's what happens when you are charging money for non-rivalous copies of goods, and so do your rivals.

Some might complain about piracy bringing down their sales, and they are not entirely wrong, but alternate revenue sources are rising just as quickly as digital copies are cheapening. A decade from now they will just take it for granted that they get a nominal revenue from selling access (through bundled subscriptions like this, or $0.99 sales, or whatever), and that it's not a significant aspect of their business.

The same thing is happening in gaming, even if somewhat more slowly, as Always Online DRM and hardware based console DRM can hold back piracy relatively well. There, they are racing against the fact that every other medium is getting extremely accessible.

 

[Lou Diamond]

"and new subscribers will get free access to the 150,000-title Audible audiobook library for three months."

can i get a source for this? i couldnt give a flip about the Kindle library, but i'm definitely interested in the Audiobook portion. Everything I've seen says something like '8,000 audiobooks', which is pretty poor....

https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=sv_kstore_2?ie=UTF8&docId=1002872331

Kindle Unlimited subscribers will also receive a complimentary three-month Audible membership with access to more than 150,000 titles.

I think that's what they mean.[/quote]

ahh, well... that's probably not that good of a deal actually right? i dont know what 'access' means, but i doubt it means 'you can download any Audible book you want for three months' because i could download their whole library if i was given 3 months....